vente siete charcos (27 waterfalls)

Some friends from the capital came up to Santiago and we all took off for 27 waterfalls. I had heard about it, that it was awsome, but it exceeded my expectations by far. The beginning of the trail was in a quiet field of sugar kane. We walked about half a mile to the first charco where there was a little hut with beer and rum and a locker to put your valuables and dry stuff. Looking back, I shouldn't have taken my digital camera because it did get wet. But it still works perfectly, so no harm done.

The first waterfall was small but had a large pool to swim around in and a spot to jump in from about fifty feet above, lots of fun! Then going upstream, in many places the stream was deep that you had to swim and walls of rock on both sides sometimes ten or fifteen feet high. It was so cool. I caught a little snake and one of the girls that came along was totally freaked out with snakes so I didn't get a picture, oh well. The pictures don't do this place justice. A lot of tourists would only go to the first seven, or just hung out at the first pool and watch people swim and jump.

As we were walking back to the car on the trail, some locals were carrying a large pot of rice and beans. The old lady said my friend looked familiar and so he replied "Yeah, I'm your cousin and I'm really hungry!" and she laughed and gave us heaping plates of leftover rice and beans. Score!

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