Santiago, Chile, South America

We got up really early this morning, and headed out to the bus station for 7am. We didn’t have time to get breakfast at the hotel, so we ended up just grabbing a couple of ham and cheese rolls at the bus terminal to have on the bus. It was only about an hour and a half, but it was a really nice ride. We came into Olmue at this point where all you could see was clouds. It was tough to tell what we were looking at because at some points it looked like it was the ocean, but then you could see it was just fog that was being pushed into the side of the mountains from the coast. It was really cool to see.

We got off the bus in Olmue at the main square, and we were met by Erika and Andres, our guide. Erika is the woman who Melissa has been dealing with this whole time to get the trip planned, so they already seemed to know each other pretty well. They both spoke english, which was really nice for me, so I could understand everything that was going on. They mentioned that this was a pretty difficult hike, but I didn’t realize just how difficult it was going to be.

I’ve been hiking a lot on this trip. A little bit in each country I’ve been in since I got to South America. I’ve even been hiking up near 5,000m, so I didn’t think this would be a problem around 1,800m. It turns out, the elevation wasn’t a problem at all, but it was one of the more difficult hikes I’ve done so far. Going up wasn’t so bad, and it was pretty interesting. Andres would stop us and tell us something about the local flora or fauna, whenever we would come across something interesting. We saw a fox, some cool looking lizards, and then unexpectedly, we saw a massive tarantula spider. I didn’t have any idea those were in this area, but I heard something in the leaves that sounded like a mouse, looked down, and saw this massive spider coming at my foot. Luckily they’re not venomous, but I wasn’t taking my chances and got out of his way.

We got to go inside an old copper and quartz mine, which was pretty cool. It reminded me of the caves I was in on Easter Island, but Melissa hadn’t been in one, so that was fun. We hiked up to the top where we saw a plaque for where Charles Darwin had come and hiked for a day. He was fascinated by the fog and cloud cover in the area, and how that allowed certain flora and fauna to grow here that can’t grow anywhere else in the region.

On the way down the mountain is where things got pretty hairy. It was really steep, and the trail consisted of dry dirt and loose rocks. Not a great combination. It was incredibly slippery. It was like walking down on snow, with a little bit of ice under some of it. Melissa was really nervous because she was less used to hiking, so she took a walking stick that Andres had brought with him. Unfortunately, about a quarter of the way down the mountain, Melissa took a slip and her arm managed to find the sharpest rock on the mountain. I mean this thing was like a razor blade. It hit her on the side of her wrist, and split her open pretty good. She had a gash of about two inches (5cm), and you could see right into her arm. Bone, muscle, fatty bits, everything. It was pretty nasty.

Luckily Andres had a medical kit with him, so we washed it out with water, and wrapped it up with some gauze. The problem was that we still had to get down the mountain. She was no longer comfortable with the walking stick, so she decided to go without. She took one more slip and fall, but managed not to hit her arm, or hurt anything else. About two minutes later, I took a tumble and landed right on my ass. I bent my right shoulder in a funny direction, but it doesn’t feel like I’ve injured it at all.

We made it about half way down the mountain to the mine, and Andres called the park ranger to come pick us up. This is as high as the road goes, so he managed to get up there with his big Nissan truck and pick us up. It took about a half hour to get back to the bottom of the mountain, where Erika was waiting for us again. It was at this point that I realized how important it was for us to have Andres with us. He had the med kit, the knowledge to get us down as quickly as possible, and the phone to call the ranger and Erika. He definitely earned his money today.

Erika picked us up and drove us all to the local clinic. It looked like an emergency room to me, and I was impressed at how clean and organized everything was. It was my first time in a South American hospital, and it was much nicer than I had anticipated. It took a couple hours for them to see Melissa, clean out the wound, sew her back up with six stitches, and then get her the prescriptions she needs to make sure nothing gets infected. What a crazy day!

Erika brought us to the bus station and helped us get tickets to go back to Santiago. We had about 45 minutes to waste and we were starving, so we found a local pizza place and picked up a pie to bring on the bus with us. It did not disappoint. Maybe just because we were so hungry, but it was a really good pizza. We got back to Santiago around 9pm and had to find a pharmacy to get some gauze and tape. We found what we needed, and then just came back to the hotel to get some rest. We went to the hotel bar for a couple of pisco sours (when in Rome!) and now we’re ready to hit the hay. It was a big day for both of us, especially for Melissa, and tomorrow is another long day with another early start.