Way Out There Chile

Pan de Azucar

Punta de Choros
Valle de Elqui
Valle del Encanto
Fray Jorge
La Campana
Valparaíso
Santiago

In the Footsteps of Darwin: La Campana National Park

The noisy rush of humanity is miles away in Valparaíso. In the morning I drove up to Parque Nacional La Campana and hiked up a few kilometers on the Sendero Andinista. The trail starts off in the forest, a quiet and peaceful path that winds gradually up the mountain. Soon after gaining some elevation, I found a rock promonotory with a view across a dry mountainous landscape studded with cacti and sandstone outcroppings. Birdsong surrounded me, the air was fresh and clear, and the sweeping vistas inspired me. This national park is just a short distance from Valparaíso and makes for a nice day trip to get out of the city and into some nearby wilderness.

Another kilometer up the trail and I arrived at a sublime meadow directly under the peak of Cerro La Campana. A large tree provided shade from the hot sun, while a cooling breeze blew across the open slopes of the mountain. A few quail were scurrying around in the bushes, giving off their telltale warning cry.

Charles Darwin climbed this mountain in 1834, during his second expedition around the world to survey biological diversity. He made it all the way to the the top of the 6,168-foot Cerro La Campana, a feat which I was unfortunately not able to match. I just had to content myself with spending the day in this beautiful meadow.

Darwin gives a detailed description of La Campana in The Voyage of the Beagle, noting the dense forests of bamboo along the trail, the trees and cacti, and the geologic forces that formed both the Coastal Cordillera and the Andes Mountains.

We spent the day on the summit, and I never enjoyed one more thoroughly. Chile, bounded by the Andes and the Pacific, was seen as in a map. The pleasure from the scenery, in itself beautiful, was heightened by the many reflections which arose from the mere view of the Campana range with its lesser parallel ones, and of the broad valley of Quillota directly intersecting them. Who can avoid wondering at the force which has upheaved these mountains, and even more so at the countless ages which it must have required to have broken through, removed, and levelled whole masses of them?

Sitting in the meadow, looking up at the peak of La Campana, I considered trying to reach it, but there were only a few more hours in the afternoon. Turning in the other direction, I saw a vast cultivated valley, beyond which the smog of Santiago was hovering in a brown mass. As the sun moved into the western sky, I reluctantly started the hike back down to the park entrance. Another day I will conquer this peak.


Spring Wildflowers in Parque Nacional La Campana

One of the nice things about being in South America in October is that it is early spring. Having already experienced the North American springtime this year, I felt like I was awarded a bonus. As I hiked through La Campana, I was amazed at the beautiful spring wildflowers. They were so new and unknown to me, a whole new world of botany that thrilled me with their colors, shapes, and fragrances.

 

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