La Campana

Every while some wild coincidence comes up in my life that is truly unbelievable. This rare occasion has happened twice to me in Chile. The first was my chance encounter when I met Ken, Ricardo, Thomas, and Jono, who don't even go to the same university as me but some of whom live really close. The second is with German Thomas. He lived for 2 weeks in a hostel in Valpo and then moved into an apartment in Viña. I asked where, he said Recreo. Really? No way! Close to Plaza Recreo? Right next to it. Cool, let's meet at the plaza and then you can show me where you live. I walk outside and there he is, pointing to my building. Yeah, same building. Really? Are you serious? Out of thousands of places he could have moved into in either city, what are the odds... and without prior knowledge of where I live, only that I lived in Viña. That is pretty ridiculous. And it's the apartment 3 floors directly above mine. For real. I had to share that solely because it is completely inconceivable. This is not as creepy as it sounds, I promise. After rereading, it sounds super creepy, but really it is not.

Moving on, I finally made it to a national park, my first national park in all the world, Parque Nacional La Campana. After nearly two hours and 4 micro rides later (yes 4, we changed buses 4 times to get to this place, it's a bit off the main micro routes) we found ourselves at the base of several crazy twisty mountains. I wanted to charge up the closest one and get to the snowy peak, but it was too late in they day. Dani, German Thomas, and I made it to a nice overlook though, and on several other forest paths, including a lofty waterfall. I definitely have to go back for a full day excursion to complete the 7 hour trek to the top though. Overall, a fun outing, from micro exchanges to empanadas napolitanas in Olmué. I have decided that I want to visit every national park in Chile that I am able and do as much hiking as is possible. Side note, apparently there are tarantulas in the park?! Weird.