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Published: January 19th 2011
"Craig Cardiff - Everything has its time"
Friday, January 14th and I have now been in Santiago for the better part of a week. I am growing anxious and I need to move about! So I decided to go online to my couch-surfing website and ask about camping in the Santiago region. Sure enough, I got a response within a few minutes. A local Chilean living in Santiago has lots of advice for me. I ask if he wants to join me, but he cant. Something about camping with another dude I am sure! However, he sent me some websites to look up. So I looked at a couple and decide on Cascada De las Animas. My current CS host, Ximena, agrees that it is a great place to go. She helped me figure out how the hell to get there and I depart at noon! I'm a bit excited to be heading out and on my own. Also, I am a bit nervous. But the people of Chile are so nice and I am crazy smart, so I am not worried about getting lost!!
45 minutes riding the subway and then a 1.5 hour colectivo ride and I
finally arrive at my destination. Cascada De Las Animas is in Canjon Del Maipo South East of Santiago, quite near the Argentina boarder in fact. It is a beautiful place deep in a canyon bordered by the Andes Mountains. The terrain is subtropical boarding desert like, quite dry in fact. It has not rained once since I arrived here in late December. The weather has been amazing in fact. Camping was a bit expensive. Mainly because I was alone. Normally you share the price with three or four people. But, I have no friends, so I pay for the entire weekend for one! I hike the 1/4 mile to the campground and apparently I can choose any site I want. All the Chileans itching to escape Santiago for the weekend are yet to arrive, so I have the run of the place and I pick the best site possible. These campsites are amazing. Not like the crappy campsites back home. No way! They all include what could easily be described as an open cabin, with electrical outlets, running water, shelves and nice clay wood burning oven. Also there is a light switch!! Not exactly roughing it! But, I was quite
excited to be out of the city. I was even more excited to finally have the chance to use my tent, my beautiful tent! After setting up camp, I decided to take a look around the grounds. Within the grounds of Cascada De Las Animas you can go Ziplining across the river. White Water Rafting on the Class 3 rapids, horse back riding, paint balling, swimming, and hiking! I was pretty hungry so I decided to grab some food from the restaurant! The restaurant was quite nice with a great view over the river and canyon.
I was pretty exhausted at this point. No reason to be really, but I was. But I needed provisions for the weekend. So I decided to hike to a Super Mercado. I was told there was one not far. I hiked back down the highway and found the market. But it wasn't much. I asked the guy how far the nearest town was. I not only needed food for the weekend but I needed money too. He said I had to go to San Jose Del Maipo. I asked if I could walk there. He must not have understood me and when they
Exhausted
This is what a gringo looks like after a 24km hike in the hot hot sun with very little water to drink!don't understand they often just say "Si"! So, I took that to mean that yes I could walk there. 12 km later, in the blistering heat of a Chilean summer I finally arrived in San Jose Del Maipo. Walk there my ass, that was far! Well I took the time to charge my ipod, bought some beer (5 litres to be exact) and walked around to find a bank. Shit, I should have found the bank first. The ATM refused to give me money. I was without cash! I quickly counted my pesos in my wallet and realized I had enough to buy a couple litres of water and the fare for the colectivo home. I had JUST enough. But for some reason my visa worked to purchase items. Thank god for that, or I would have starved!
Once my ipod was fully charged I hiked my ass back to the campground. After a 24km hike in the sun, I was pretty exhausted. So I made my way back to the campsite. I listened to my Ipod (Spanish for Dummies Ap!) while trying to learn some more spanish, drank a couple litres of beer and went to bed.
The next day would be a great day. I woke at 8am and was the first to the showers. I took much too long of a shower then headed to the restaurant for breakfast. Following breakfast I hiked around for a couple hours until noon. At noon I joined a guided hike to a couple waterfalls in the canjon forest. They were quite beautiful, I wont ever tire of hiking to waterfalls!
The guided hike ended by 4pm. I headed to my campsite and walked around in the forest collecting firewood. I was in competition with about 8 little Chilean kids trying to find wood for their respective campsites. Those little ninos had nothing on me, I collected far more wood, effectively destroying the competition!
January 15th, was a night to remember, on a very personal level.
I was alone with just my Ipod, beer and thoughts. I started up a fire, opened a beer and sat down at the picnic table. Im not sure what brought it on. I had not shed a tear since my mom´s funeral and I can not explain that. Suddenly, alone in a campground in the heartland of Chile I began
My Little Friend
I named this little guy "Flatmate!" to think of my mom unlike I had in quite some time. I have always missed her, every second since she departed. This was different! I was suddenly stricken with the reality, I wanted to hug her so badly, just once, for a minute. But I couldn´t and suddenly my emotions got the better of me.
I sat there with what must have been a blank expression. Except for the stream of tears that gravity was pulling down my cheeks. See the problem is I asked myself why. Why... if the "why" could present itself as a figure surely it would be the devil. Asking yourself why is what drives men mad and into an un-es-cable state of despair. The futile pursuit of the "why" only leaves your heart and soul completely pulverized. And I made this mistake on the night of January 15th. That being said, I could not help but think that perhaps this is the reason I came down here. We all cope with loss in our own way. We all grieve on our own time. Everything has its time and for me the time was now. I needed a release of emotion like that. Back
home I was so busy with work and other people´s problems that I had forgotten to think about my own feelings that came with losing my mom. And up until now, my travels had been full of partying, and socializing. I was finally alone!
I thought about how my mom had lost her dad, my grama had lost her husband. I thought about all the people I knew in my life that lost someone that was so very close to them. I just sat there and let it happen. I was on an emotional roller coaster with out any brakes. Everything has its time and I just sat there and let it happen. As I reached the climax of my catharsis, and my tear ducts had purged their last few drops, a group of Chilean kids rushed by me chasing after a couple tiny little puppies. They ran down under my table, around my tent apparently oblivious to my current state. And I think that this was a little to perfect, seemed planned indeed. I watched those kids run around my things after those puppies then off down the road. As I did so, I realized that I was
Orange Tree
I dont buy my oranges, I pick them off the friggin tree! the only one camping there that was not part of a group. I was completely surrounded by Chilean families having the time of their lives. Nostalgically I was brought back in time to our days camping at Lylac, Blue Lake and Westhawk Lake. With the help of my beautiful surroundings and all these amazing Chilean Families my thoughts of loss were replaced with thoughts of gratitude! Gratitude for the amazing mother I had and all the amazing memories she gave me. I was no longer upset and angry, I was thankful! Everything has its time! This is why I came down here. To be reminded of that! I have spent my time since mom passed on extremely angry, and I have realized that I can not go on living life with this anger. It will only act as a prison. There will always be a part of me that will remain forever angry. The trick is to not let that anger control you, consume you.
I feel that a few more personal discoveries like this and I will be ready to return home but until then ....
Everything has its time.
As I packed up camp the next
morning preparing to head back to Santiago, I felt that perhaps this past weekend was the true start of my travels, my journey. I started to think ahead of what was yet to come. I had one more week living in Santiago trying to learn some spanish before I would set off. People have often asked me why I wanted to travel to South America. Not to be confused with why I wanted to travel... but why South American? I could have gone anywhere. Well, the answer, in a word is the Patagonia. January 22 or 23rd I will start my way there. I hope the Patagonia will live up to all my expectations. A slower pace of life, solitude and a pristine untainted environment. I hope I find the adventure that I have dreamed about! My vacation is nearing its end and my journey is set to begin!
I'm excited to meet the families that I will be living with on their farms! I am excited to meet the people I will be working with at the Tin Roof Hostel. I am anxious to learn from their sustainable humane way of life! I reckon this will be good
for me!
I can't wait!
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Aunty Sherry
non-member comment
TIME AND REALITY
Hi Tim - The reality of losing Linda can only set in with time - your Mom, my baby sister - we allow ourselves to accept truth, only a bit at a time - that's what keeps us sane. Some people take years to do that, the cubicle they've built around themselves is solid steel - but the first step comes with allowing yourself to peep outside it on occasion. That's what you are doing. I'm in tune with your journey, and I agree that everything does have its time. Take care. Love your blogs.