This past week was Semana Novata, a week which celebrates freshman. Classes are suspended, and each evening boasts an event hosted by the university’s federación estudiantil, or student body.
To take advantage of this week off school, I along with two other girls studying at PUCV on exchange went camping at the National Reserve Siete Tazas. Siete Tazas means literally “Seven Cups” and is so named for the seven waterfalls which spill into one another through natural volcanic basins formed years and years ago. We spent Saturday buying camp food and supplies, and left Sunday morning for our trip.
Gretchen (Alaska)
Emily (Montana)
Things went pretty much on schedule on the way to the reserve. We managed to get student prices for bus fares and micros (city buses), and had little delays in the way of waiting in between transfers.
Our path was as follows:
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Valparaíso to Santiago in Bus (9am)
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Santiago to Curicó in Bus
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Curicó to Molina in micro (2:30pm)
This is where we ran into a problem…
Because it is no longer considered high season, buses do not run more than once daily after a certain point in February. Of course we found this out, no thanks to Lonely Planet’s Guide to Chile.
We had to wait in Molina until 5:00 for a bus to Valdesina, which was still about 20 miles away from our destination. Molina, by the way, is a pretty small community; we were well aware as we sat in the town square with our fair skin and huge backpacks, that we were the main attraction.
Waiting in Molina consisted of exciting things like:
- Making sandwiches on a bench in the park out of avocado, lukewarm cheese and salami
- Going to the internet cafe
- Buying new water bottles and using the restroom at the local grocery store
- Getting bothered by some local teenagers on BMX bikes
- Sweating because I was wearing a polar fleece jacket
- Swatting flies at the bus station and avoiding contact with the flea-infected dog who kept running around our bench
Once we were finally on the bus to Valdesina, curious as to how we would find our way to the reserve from the destination of the bus, a fellow passenger told us about a bus that was leaving Valdesina for Radal (the embarkment point for the reserve) at 9pm that evening.
Valdesina was scarcely more than a wide spot in the road. We easily found the river (by turning right after we descended from the bus and walking 40 feet), and a place to set up camp. The question now was whether to set up camp before nightfall, or wait for the phantom bus which would whisk us away to Radal where we would set up camp and hike to the falls the next day.
We decided to wait.
We ate a hearty dinner of rice and mixed vegetables, and some type of packet soup. Gretchen and Emily both have ample camping gear, so we had two propane stoves to make food with.
After dinner we made a small fire in one of the many stone fire pits while we waited for the bus. At 9 a bus finally came, but it was the same bus that had taken us to Valdesina running the same route again.
The next day we got a local to take us to the park in his truck for 14,000 pesos (around $30). This was a huge rip off, but we had run out of options!
We found a camp spot once we arrived in Radal, and spent the rest of the day in the park.
The falls were beautiful. We saw two distinct sites, and had the fortune (due to the difficulty of arrival and the fact that it isn’t high season) of not having to share them with anyone.
For more pictures from this trip, click here.
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