Cerro La Campana (Cerro: hill)

September 22, 2008

So Saturday a group of us went to La Campana national park, about an hour and a half bus ride from Vina.  We left at eight in the morning so we would have enough time to do the full mountain hike, which is 7 hours if you go straight up and come straight down.

We were super careful because a couple years ago an exchange student from the Seattle area died from a fall.  The elevation at the top is a little over a mile high. There is a commemorative plaque somewhere on the hill indicating that it was one of Darwin’s stops on his journey around the world to collect evidence upon which he based his theory of evolution. 

I’ve never done a mountain hike before, so I didn’t really know what to expect.  Good thing we left early because we got there a little after 10am, just before they stop admitting people because they want people out of there by the time the park closes at 5:30.   

Let me tell you, the climb up was a work out! It was a struggle for me because we really pushed ourselves to get up there quickly.  But once we got to the top at about 2pm, after more than three hours of climbing, the view was totally worth it.  We hung out at the top for a while and took plenty of pictures.  You all should be able to see the rest of the photos through this link. photos I hope you all enjoy them because I worked my butt off for them!  I’m still sore today! 

Going down the hill was almost worse than going up and it took forever.  We didn’t get to the bottom until after 7pm, well after the park closed, oh well.  We then stopped and had dinner and a few beers at one of the towns on the way back to Vina.  We got back to Vina at about 11pm and I pretty much just went to bed because I was shot! 

This coming Friday our group is traveling to Santiago to see the Obama-McCain debate live.  The debate is put on by the political science department at Adolfo Ibanez (our school here in Vina) and there’s a cocktail party beforehand and a discussion afterwards.  Should be interesting. 

You can still see all my other photos via this link.  When I add photos I'll add them to this album: photos II