On The Condor Trail: Altos de Lircay y Siete Tazas

After Santiago and Valparaiso we needed some nature! So we jumped into a bus towards the south and more precisely the city of Talca. The plan was to go hiking from the national reserve of Altos de Lircay to the national park of Siete Tazas.
Once in Talca we took a day to get sorted and buy the supplies needed for the three days hike.
The next morning at dawn we took, the bus that drove us to the park's entrance. After a quick check of our cooking stove by the park rangers (big fire risks) we were ready to go. The first day's hike was easy and it was really nice to walk under dense forest. We hadn't seen trees since the north of Peru and there it was mediterraneen climate trees!!

After two to three hours walk we got to the first camp site. We decided to leave the bags and hike up the mountain to go see El Enladrillado which is a massive basaltic plateau (very very flat) that is said to be a runway for alien spaceships.

Coming down we set the camp at the camp site and had a great evening and night. We just heard a sort of crazy horse that passing right by the tent in the middle of the night, weird!!!

The next "morning" we left at 12:00 thinking that we had not much walk before reaching the next camp. As we packed everything we saw some clouds racing up the valley. As we got to the big lava valley we were completely under the clouds.

After a quick picnic we got to a ridge where we were supposed to have a breathtaking view over the volcanoes and the big mountains. But there we couldn't see more than 2 meters forward.

Luckily we had a tablet with a GPS and some maps. Without that we were in a very bad position and even with it we managed to get lost and had to scramble up some very instable rocks. Dangerous stuff in the rain. Really we set off way too late! Even if it is for a short walk the rule is to leave early and if it is short you will arrive early. On the top of that I left my waterproof poncho in Talca, we hadn't seen rain in a month and a half :) so I had my Cashmere jumper as only technical raincoat.

Finally we reached the top of the moutain and got a little bit of a view. It was already really late (about 19:00) and the wind was hauling.

We carried on walking a little bit and found a corrie that was protecting us a bit from the wind. But still some strong turbulent wind gusts were entering. Anyway Fred couldn't go more and it seemed the sensible option to pitch the tent there before nighttime. Geo and I ran up to the top of the mountain to get a view before sunset.

The Corrie

Wild horses

The camp site

As we pitched the tent the clouds came back big time along with the wind. Our one skin Bolivian tent with only 4 pegs was going to get its baptism of fire (or water).

Finally we got a massive thunderstorm during the night. We didn't sleep much but the tent held down well. We had some water inside but we managed to pass the full night without having to pack half way through.
In the morning we left in the clouds again, so no more luck for the view. It was hard work! Apparently it only rains once a month during the summer, it was for us.

Morning view

Tired but we keep the spirit up!

Coming down we enterred once again the impressive forest before getting to a huge lava valley. This morphology is unique and very hard to navigate through as it is always going up and down with big rocks and shrubby trees. It is hard o keep track of a path.

Finally after a long a wet walk we got to the siete tazas park. We were absolutely soaked and knackered. We found a nice little room and tried to dry all of our stuff. We had a very nice evening by the river as a reward.