Talca and RN Altos de Lircay

We have moved a bit further south and suddenly the weather is mediterranian like. Hot and sunny. And suddenly we realised that the rest of the trip is now most likely going to be hot and sunny. It feels a bit strange after all the cold weather high in the Andes and down in Patagonia, but we think we can get used to it. :)

We're in Talca, a town a few hours south of Santiago. It's pretty big and we haven't really made an effort to see more places than the bus station, hostal, Internet café, super market, bank and laundry place - pretty much just a stop to rest and get organised.

We came here three days ago and left studpidly early again the next morning to go to Reserva Nacional Altos de Lircay, a national park type place. We spent two days of great hiking there. First day we hiked up to a camp site about three hours from the park entrance and pitched our tent before we did another three hour side trip. It was a very pretty place with forest covering the side of a deep valley and pretty views over the mountains. And at the end of the side hike, we came to a "mirador" with the most gorgeous views into a valley deep below, snow clad volcanoes and massive waterfalls.

We were all alone in the camp site and only saw three people the first day and two the second day. It feels very different to hike around all alone after the places we've been before with quite a lot of people. As we were going to sleep we were woken up and pretty startled by a big "muuuuu" from outside and crashing sounds. Luckily the cow (whatever it was doing in a place that is supposed to be a protected park) wasn't the angry type and after walking around the tent for a while got bored and moved on.

The next day we had a tiring two hours hike straight up the mountain, which ended in the most bizarre looking place. Large volcanic rocks scattered everywhere and almost completely square once gathered in large piles. And at the very top there was a completely flat area that looked like it had been paved with flat stones with grass inbetween, like a large patio. And from there we had even more breath taking views than the day before of the mountains, volcanoes and valley. It was a beautiful place. The hike back down was rather long, steep and slippery (all sand that gave away under our feet) and we were very tired when we finally made it down into the valley again.

The first day was hot and sunny, the second day was overcast and when we got down into the valley large clouds were rolling in surrounding us in mist. It felt very mystical to walk in the forest with the path and surroundings disappearing into nothing around us.

And then, right at the end of the hike we had a really big suprise waiting for us. Anna was walking along quite happily when her brain registered that something was in the path that defenitely shouldn't be there and that she was about to step on it. Funny how agile one can become when need be. :) She made a big jump and just avoided stepping on the large tarantula like spider sat in the middle of the road. It was huge and grey and nasty, and none of us had any idea that they had spiders like that there. We wouldn't have slept as easy had we known... And it didn't end with that, within a few hundred meters there were four huge, hairy and very scary spiders sat right in the middle of the road. After a while we didn't see very much of the surroundings anymore, with all that consentrated scanning of the road...

Now we're planning to go to the next national park nearby, where we'll probably be looking for spiders before sitting down. :)

Dec 29, 2004

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