Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Siete Tazas...and an Israeli couple...

So for my final week and a half down here in Chile, I took off with Jen to go south to Reserva Nacional Siete Tazas with Jen to camp for a couple of nights before heading to Pichilemu to surf. Before we actually arrived at Siete Tazas, we were sitting around in a plaza in a small town, Curico, waiting for the only bus that runs out to the park, when these two gringo-looking people approached us and we all started chatting. Turns out they´re a couple from Israel taking a WHOLE YEAR travelling around central and south america! wow. So anyway, they were going out to siete tazas as well, so we ended up getting a campground near them, sharing a fire, hiking together the next day, and listening to their endless stories from all around the world, their travels, and what it´s like to live in Israel...needless to say, it was really interesting, but jen a i both realized we felt really boring when we were with them...Melissa, the wife, was also full of rasicst and non-politically correct jokes, so sitting around the campfire witht htem was really fun! however, they also gave us crap for having "soo much stuff" for only 10 days...they each only had a huge backpack and another backpack a little smaller than the ones we had...for an entire year. Man, I really dont know if i could go a full year travelling like that, but props to them...
The next day when we went up to the actual park, we had to hike about 6.5 km along a dirt and rocky road to get to the entrance to the park, where we could actually see the waterfalls. Siete tazas refers to what is at the bottom of the waterfall(s)...There is this one huge waterfall that falls into a little pool area, la taza, that then turns into another waterfall that falls into another taza, and the cycle continues seven times...it was really a sight to see all the continuous waterfalls....there were also a couple other relatively big waterfalls along the way...and all this water is just so bright blue! We were able to climb down to near the bottom of one of the waterfalls, (the water is freeeeeezing) and we only stuck our feet in, but the crazy Israeli, Ilan, went swimming in the water...ahhhhh....The park itself was really pretty too....lots of green green green everywhere...
That night we just had a relaxing night around the campfire with the Israelis, heard more stories and more jokes, felt boring, and then said goodbyes, since they were leaving super early in the morning to their next destination....phew. The next day Jen and i had a nice long run along the wonderful rocky and desolate road, came back and quite literally iced our legs in the freezing river/creek that ran right by our campsite...Then after lunch time when we were just pathetically laying on our cheap sleeping mats out in the middle of our campsite trying to stay warm and avoid the crazy dogs and chickens that just roamed the campsite, the sketchy men from the campsite next to us came over and gave us a plate of their wonderful campsite-food lunch...i really think they thought we had no food, since they probably didnt see us eating anything...but nonetheless, we got a free extra lunch out of it...potatoes, chicken (delish), and a tomatoe salad that Jen got to enjoy on her own...
That afternoon we caught the bus that runs by only 2 times a day and headed back to Curico to get a hostal for the night (that was the MOST disgusting place EVER) before catching yet another bus to get to Pichilemu, where we are now, surfing, eating, running, sleeping and relaxing for our last week in Chile.

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