Potrero Chico (limestone heaven)

As we were driving up the road towards the campground where we would stay (posadas), and once we got off the terrifying highway, we could not take our eyes off Potrero Chico. It is such an amazing bit of rock. More impressive even than the Chief in Squamish in terms of size and splendour, which is saying a lot, as anyone that has read over this blog will know already, we are both in love with the Chief. If only it were the same quality of rock, which is not possible, as it is limestone and the Chief is granite. Haha, I am already aware that I may be losing the interest of any non climbing reader, but, so be it. Be warned, it will only get more full of climbing and rock talk as you read on, but I will try to not go overboard.

After the shock of being absolutely blown away by this cliff, which was only ever planned at the semi last minute as a stop over on our way to South America, my other first impression was that climbers here are really tidy. It was the cleanest climbing campground, kitchen and bathroom that I had ever seen. I later realised that there was a hardworking care taker (Maria) responsible for this. She seemed to work 7 days a week cleaning up after everyone. Poor woman.

The campground was also the most luxurious climbing campground I have ever stayed in. You only pay US $5 a night to camp, and have use of a full kitchen, bathroom with hot showers and flushing toilets. And clean. All so clean! Oh, and there was a restaurant and bar there which we treated ourselves to a few nights. You can also buy beer or wine for very small prices. I think about US$2 got us a liter of good beer, for example. Small prices every night add up though, so the whole camping thing did not end up being as light on our pocket as we had hoped, but hopeflly we will make up for this in South America.

We met some great people, as it was a really social environment. One night (Valentines Day) we had a potluck dinner, where everyone contributed a dish, which was good fun. Surprisingly, we were the only ones that made guacamole. Oooooh, which brings me temporarilly to the avocadas. So tasty! and cheap, but mainly soooooo tasty. I have never had such sweet tasting avocados.

In terms of the climbing. It was mainly great to be climbing again, particularly to be climbing in such an awesome place, but it was also a reality check. I had a lot of work to do if I want to climb this 20 plus pitch route that Jono and I have our eyes on in Cochamo Valley... The climbs were mostly all sports routes, with some awsome long multì pitches. A lot of the climbs, especially the easier ones were quite run out (ie, a long way between bolts) which I found a bit scary. I had lost my head for climbing just as much as my physical fitness in those last wintery months in Vancouver, where I somehow managed to put on nearly 10 kilos! Eeeek!

We did not get to do as much climbing as we had hoped because we both got sick while we were there. Just as Jono started getting better, I got sick, so it took e few days out. But, the climbing we did was all quality, except for one multipitch climb that was a bit dusty and slippery as it was a dried up water course...

The highlight was our last day, when we did an 11 pitch route called space boys, which was awesome. I started out with good intentions, leading and linking the first two pitches (5.8 and 5.9 slabs) but scared myself silly on the first pitch. I went off route (very easy to do on limestone slab) and made what whould have been a 5.8 into about a 5.10b. I was about 11 meters off the ground, 5 or 6 meters above the last bolt, a meter or so below my second bolt and crimping on tiny holds with sweaty palms, Elvis legs and a heart beat that blocked out all other noise... ah, the way life rushed back into me after I clipped that second bolt. Anyhow, the whole thing tired me out and Jono led most of the other pitches except for one other neat 10a (or b?) pitch higher up that I led after I had recovered. I have uploaded a few pics of this, but there are more to come, from someone else´s camera later.

Oh, the other neat thing about climbing here is that the locals all come up in the evenings and the weekends, park their cars, drink beer and play (mostly traditional) Mexican music from their cars, so that you are often climbing to a Mexican themed sondtrack. Not a wilderness experience, but pretty exotic and neat just the same.

While we were staying there we made a couple of trips into the local markets for supplies which was fun. I mostly love markets, when they are not claustrophobic and full of knives...

Walking back to the campground one evening after going to the markets in town, we noticed a road side grave and tribute to three young guys who dies late last year in a car accident. All in their late 20´s and early 30´s. I couldn´t help but assume it was drink driving related, as so many people drive up that road to drink under the cliffs, like I mentioned before. The strange thing was that in addition to each of them having flowers under their little gravestone things, they had a beer can (albeit light). I wonder if this was a suggestion that they should have been drinking light beer instead of full strength, or that they should have not been drinking at all... or maybe neither, and it was just a tribute. An intersting one though...

I am going to publish this now, even though there are more photos to put up. I will put the rest up later. I have been sitting infront of this computer for long enough now. And speaking of beer...

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