Cajón del Maipo

 We were itching to get out of Santiago's concrete jungle, so we decided to visit Cajón del Maipo for the day. Cajón del Maipo is a small town smushed right up against the Andes, and is a jumping-off point for all kinds of mountainous destinations and activities. We had an opportunity to go with a group a month ago, but we've been waiting for snow so that the Andes will look their best. Now that winter is here, there's nothing holding us back.

 While researching different ways to arrive, we found a company that does very affordable bus tours from Santiago. After checking the reviews, we signed up.

 The small van was filled almost entirely with Brazilian tourists. Unfortunately, since there was one other American, and the only Chilean present spoke perfect English, the tour guide spoke English and Portuguese the entire time. But it was still fun listening to his Portuguese- maybe it's because he spoke with a Chilean accent, but we could understand almost every word he said!

The view from Cajon del Maipo's main plaza

  Our first stop was a small shop were we got coffee and 2 very tasty freshly-made empanadas, one with a "pino" meat/onion filling and another with cheese and shrimp. The owner of a nearby store wandered over and tried to tempt us with a bunch of strange words. We were excited to learn new Chilean vocab, but it turned out she was just saying "gloves" and "hats" in Portuguese because she assumed we were Brazilian- a reasonable assumption given the make up of our tour group.

 The second stop was a "train". It's the last remnant- or maybe a reconstruction- of the train line that used to run through all the towns in the area, bringing goods from Santiago out to the wilderness. The project to restore this train line is appropriately called "Project Phoenix", and this was by far the stop our guide was the most excited about, and proud of. The only Spanish we got to hear was our guide talking to the driver, gushing about the train stop and criticizing other tour companies (including one that does a tour of Santiago's malls and shopping centers, for people who want to shop all day!).

The train station- about 500 feet of track run to a fence and back. 

 After the train, our van began winding its way farther into the mountains. We stopped in an area with bathrooms and had a view of a far-off glacier. We also spotted our first condor. In a way, condors are just big vultures. But when you see them soaring over the Andes, they somehow manage to seem pretty majestic.

Our rest stop

The glacier we could see from our rest stop- thanks to the incredible zoom on Karen's camera

Finally we made it to the Main Attraction: Embalse el Yeso, a picturesque water reservoir high in the mountains. Unfortunately, we were given an absurdly (and unnecessarily) short amount of time to explore. The path curved around a mountain and we weren't able to make it around the corner to see anything other than the "standard" view (pictured here). After the Embalse, we all stood around eating cheese and wine, which was nice, but we would've preferred more time to look around. According to one person, the trail eventually goes all the way through to Argentina.

The "standard" view

 The last stop listed on our itinerary was a chocolate shop. Matt fell asleep on the way back, eager to wake up for chocolate- but we skipped it completely! We asked the guide what happened and he said we didn't have enough time. So we skipped the chocolate and didn't even get more time at the Embalse? Overall, the tour was a good way to get an idea of what is in and around Cajon del Maipo, and to give us a better idea of what getting there entails, since no public transport is available for this route. And it was fun. But we definitely plan on going back on our own schedule and car.