so after concluding that the travesia de los volcanoes was simply the most physically intensive trek i have done on the bike, I was curious to go and do it on foot as a vacation and see what the difference is not having a bike. After a rough night at the Talca bus terminal, I was on the way up with the first bus to Vilches Alto and reserva Lircay
The Chilean rangers were a little odd and it was obvious that they might normally be more of babysitters than rangers. They would not let you stay overnight unless you show them a camping stove (apparently Chileans love having little fires, which can be a problem in a reserve) and in addition as a hiker went missing last summer, they had me write out a whole page in English stating that i know the hike and that i am prepared. The guy seemed a little upset because when the hiker went missing everyone was blaming them. Nontheless, after that and the 2x park fee for foreginers i was on my way.
being silent on foot also meant that i could see all the little animals that would normally be hard to see on the bike.
and of course, the scenery. Interestingly i rarely felt the need to stop as walking - you can look around a lot. As opposed to riding where you would be more focused on the trail and staying on the bike
from a viewpoint i could see Descabezado Grande and Cerro Azul, which are responsible for all that sand and lava flows in the following valleys
and some waterfall that I decided was not worth the detour
Hiking was surprisingly tough and more-so because i wasn’t used to it and using different types of muscles. It was all passable though and i did not have the worry of “well… what if i cant bring the bike through here” and even when the grades were steep, both up or down - it felt safe to do.
I set up camp at the ranger station, really curious about the reasoning behind the washrooms being closed. Everyone is charged at the entrance to camp here and a quick walk around the bushes nearby reveals a whole mine field. I decided to hike 200meters up and bury it… as it should be done in the first place. Maybe that would be another point to make people write and sign when they enter the park. “5. I promise to bury all my ****.” or maybe they should leave the washrooms open?
it pretty much rained the whole day. The above curious cow was the only photo i took, the uphill was nice in a way that it kept me warm but i was soaking wet by mid-day regardless. I set up for the night at the basecamp refugio, or rather ate my food inside but ended up sleeping outside as I wasn’t too sure about the cleanliness of it.
My initial plan to climb Descabezado wouldn’t work. I was just too sore to do it. I decided instead to use the extra day to make a detour to the hotsprings and thus repeating (although in opposite direction) an entire day of my previous bike ride.
with yesterday’s rain, the sand was a little more solid underneath, meaning a lot less sliding back than normal. Not lugging a heavy, awkward piece of metal… also helped. Hiking is definitely easier than biking but still not to be underestimated.
i really missed the bike on the downhill though
then some clouds descended on the valley and that was the last i saw of the sun
it became very hard to navigate as the trails kept splitting and not being able to see ahead which one is the best was hard. I ended up blindly following the gps for a bit but eventually made it to the hotsprings.
following day, easy hike up on foot with excellent views and good weather
even got to see the moon hiding behind the rocks
i was absolutely crushing it, got to where i wanted to get to by 1pm and decided to camp anyway. I got this whole video questions and answers to tape anyway (otherwise this whole trek is pretty much taking a rest from videos, although i still couldnt resist and took a whole bunch.
it was a nice day and a good swim and some polish touurists which didnt speak much english or spanish probably heard me videotaping the Q&A, like about 30minutes of talking to the camera. I tried to explain when we chatted after that it was for a video but not sure if that went through. They would have a funny story for their chilean trip. “so um, we went to a high mountain lake and there was this crazy guy talking to himself there..”
it was a good day to go down, sunny and trail was good. Even one might say quite rideable but in general the conclusion is that hiking this is much more reasonable than trying to ride it.
it must have been a saturday or a sunday because there were many people going up
there were showers down at the camping which was good, i would need to hitchhike out of here and being showered is good. Some dog followed me down the road for a bit but i had no food to give him as a reward. These dogs get by with food offerings from the tourists and hikers.
then i went to near the Siete Tazas and just didnt feel like going to see it, the view from the bridge was ok.
and yeah, that’s about it. easy 5day hike. Some hikers told me its the Sendero del Condor as shown here: http://www.wikiexplora.com/Sendero_del_C%C3%B3ndor
and thats the route except i went to termas de azufre and laguna animas.