Trekking: Cerro Manquehue

Yesterday was my second trek with the group, this time up to Cerro Manquehue, located in a suburban area in Northeast Santiago. Cerro Manquehue is about 1600 meters high and in Mapuche means "place of the condors".  This particular trek was a little bit slower going than the last one I did due to the larger rocks and looser soil. You know that you have to be careful when the descent ends up taking almost as long as the ascent. I think our guide Daniel scared everyone just enough to use extra caution when he told us that not only could we slip and fall in the loose dirt and twist our ankles, but if we did fall we would probably also cut ourselves on one of the large rocks.
A similar incident occurred with my brother several years ago while skiing, so I took Daniel's word for it, and thankfully we all managed to escape unharmed, except for me getting stung by a yellow-jacket. He decided to crawl up my pant leg and probably stung me in response to his own stupidity when he couldn't find his way back out.
I'll try not to whine and sound like a baby about a silly little bee sting, but it happened to get me right before we headed back down the hill, so nothing like a little swelling and pain right next to my knee that's already working extra hard to stabilize me. Thankfully Daniel also lent me one of his trekking poles that had also been used at one point to hike the Himalayas, and in keeping with the Nepalese tradition, he also led us in a pre-climb prayer to the mountain, asking that we all climb it safely and without incident.

There's our final destination

Pep talks, prayers, etc.

Look at my friends climbing up ahead, these things are always steeper than they look

Claudia, one of my partners in crime

What smog?

Here's to a safe descent

My battle wound starting to swell up

Finally some flatter land

Trekking: Horcon de Piedra

A couple of weeks ago I bumped into my friend B. at the institute and she was kind enough to invite me along on the the next adventure of a local trekking group that she had discovered in Santiago. One of the disadvantages of not having a car here is the fact that you're a bit limited in terms of visiting some of the beautiful areas within about 40 minutes of the city that are pretty inaccessible using public transportation. Fortunately, this group meets at the metro, all of the participants hop into the cars of whoever is willing to drive, and everyone pitches in for gas at the end.
I wasn't sure exactly where we were going, and as you've probably noticed from some of my pictures, there is quite a varied terrain here in Chile, so I was a little relieved when I discovered that we were heading south of the city to climb a cerro at a private natural reserve called Altos de Cantillana and not straight up into the Andes somewhere. This particular area has an impressive view of the Cordillera de la Costa, a coastal range that runs parallel to the Andes.
The last time I attempted a full day trek was last winter and it resulted in quite an adventure. I'd like to say that this latest attempt wasn't as action packed, but I'd be lying if I said that we didn't get lost, have to climb over locked gates, discover a bunch of beehive boxes, or stumble upon a rather threatening looking cow/bull that didn't appear to be tied up.
If you don't believe me, ask the group who returned yesterday to hike a different area of the same reserve and was this time accompanied by a park ranger sort of fellow. Unfortunately, I now have to work on Saturdays again so I'm not sure when my next trek with this group will be. At any rate, here are some photos of the beautiful parts of the adventure, and sadly enough, I was too fearful to stop and capture all of the hazards mentioned above.

still looking pretty horizontal at this point

this is why we needed to bring 2 liters of water

am I back in Arizona?

pretty cool shadows from the clouds

check out the range behind those clouds

now we're up pretty high

I'm guessing this is a really old cactus