When we got to Cochamo, we stayed at a private campground next to the Cochamo River. Drew and I were leaving the next day for a two-night backpacking stint in La Junta up the Cochamo Valley, which is the Yosemite of Chile. The Grandparents graciously agreed to watch the boys in our absence, as its an 8-mile hike into La Junta, and we wanted to do an even harder hike from there. Looks like the boys and Grandma and Grandpa had alot of fun while we were gone.
The campsite was right by a river, so the boys got to play around.
Nothing like a campfire in the great outdoors.
And s'mores, of course!
On day 2 it rained ALL DAY, but the boys seemed to make the most of it. Luckily it wasn't a cold rain.
Waterfall hike with their new adventure backpacks. Adventure's out there!!!
Drew and I left around 8am on Friday, Dec. 19th. Our goal on Day 1 was to complete the 8.5 mile hike from the trailhead up to the meadow of La Junta, or "The Junction," where the Cochamo River and the La Junta River join together. The hike we were doing was originally a cattle crossing over the Andes into Argentina. La Junta is a spot about a third of the way to the pass that has these towering granite peaks all around, giving it the name the "Yosemite of Chile." It is very well known for climbers to go there, and hikers too.
The hike up to La Junta was super interesting. It did not have a ton of elevation gain. But you could see the paths where countless cattle have been herded down the mountain side, wearing down the clay into these serpentine paths through very dense forests. It felt like you were hiking through the trenches of WW2. It was all well and good when the bottom of the trench was dry, but many times there was tons of muck churned up by the horses that now go up and down from La Junta packing in goods and packing out trash. So to avoid the muck, you'd have to hike up on the sides of the trenches, which at times was easy and at times was not. It was not a hike you could just turn on autopilot and cruise onwards. You were constantly evaluating your footing and deciding if you needed to do a little hop, skip, and jump on rocks to reach the next firm surface, or if you needed to abandon ship altogether and jump out. Fun really.
The granite peaks surrounding the meadow were stunning. Well worth the effort.
The house in this picture looks to be the original homestead here, still in use. But the family that lives in this meadow built a modern house just up the hill from the original one, and it looks amazing, like something you'd find on Nantucket! No idea how they got the building supplies up there, maybe by helicopter?
This wooden structure was specifically for all the campers. One half was a dining room (basically just picnic tables with a roof) and some sinks, and the other half was the "fogón" or a room with a fire in the middle of it and benches all around. We became quite familiar with this room as on Day 2 it rained all day. Our original plan was to hike up to the lake at the base of Mt. Trinidad, but that simply wasn't possible. So, we spent the day relaxing, which was nice in itself with no kids. 2 hours reading, two hours in the fogón warming up and shooting the shit with other campers. 2 hours reading, lunch time. etc. The hike out was even more fun as there was twice the amount of muck. Drew and I ate it a combined total of 3 times. But no one got hurt, it wasn't cold, and we had fun. Definitely want to go back.
The next day, as a treat to ourselves for Christmas, we spent the day at some hot springs called Termas del Sol. I'm so glad we went, because they were the nicest hot springs we've ever been to. There were 10 pools, ranging from 36 degrees C up to 45 degrees C, and all the pools were surrounded by nature in this really lovely way. It was super relaxing, and I'd go back in a heartbeat. And in a few weeks they are opening up a Spa! Girls' trip, anyone ?!?!?
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