Cultural Viaje (Curicó, Molina & Siete Tazas)

For part of our ILP program we had to do something called a Cultural Viaje where we separate into groups of five people and go explore something near Santiago. Some groups went to the nearby beach towns of Valparaiso and Viña del Mar, a couple went to Isla Negra to visit Pablo Neruda's house and our group went south to visit Siete Tazas National Park. It's called Siete Tazas (Seven Teacups) because the main attraction is seven waterfalls that fall concurrently into seven little pools. I knew absolutely nothing about the place prior to the trip. My friend Brittany and I sort of glommed on to an already formed group and just hoped for the best. The only boy in our group, Eric, seemed to have some idea of the travels ahead but for the most part we were flying blind, armed only with bus tickets to Curicó: a town about halfway in between Santiago and Siete Tazas.

The trip to Curicó wasn't bad. We were on a charter bus. The weird thing about transportation in Santiago is that buses seem to stop at completely random places along the freeway to pick up passengers. More than once we picked up a passenger or two and looking around could not see a house or any sort of residence for the life of us. They also pick up food vendors who stay on the bus between one or two stops selling dulce de leche or something similar. We arrived in Curicó at about 7:30 Friday evening and walked to our hostel which looked fairly "flaite" (sketchy, unsavory) on the outside but ended up being quite charming. We spent the evening walking around Curicó. We walked up Cerro Christopher Condell, which was a fairly large hill at the top of which you could see the whole city. Then we found some dinner at an incredibly authentic Chilean restaurant. The names of the dishes were unrecognizable and the waiter was shocked to find that I spoke Spanish. We hit the hay around midnight to prepare for the 8am bus the next morning.

Thankfully, we were able to leave our luggage at the hostel and embark with just some food and water for the day. The 8am bus ride was about half an hour and it took us to a town called Molina where we then had to catch another bus to get to Siete Tazas. Molina was even smaller than Curicó. When we went to purchase tickets for Siete Tazas we found that the bus was standing room only for two hours. It was too late to turn back at this point, so we decided to just accept it. We had about two hours to kill so we wandered around Molina. We made friends with a dog (there are stray dogs absolutely everywhere in Chile and they are very even-tempered and well cared for) and then found some pathetic instant coffee (that's all they have in Chile, which is surprising for a country that is on the same continent as Colombia) and made our way to the bus at about 11. They weren't kidding about standing room only. The bus was as packed as it could be with each part of your body touching someone else. It wasn't hot, which was a small mercy, and after we came to terms with the situation it was actually pretty fun. About halfway through a Chilean boy pulled out his guitar and started playing some music and a Chilean woman offered us some cold beers.

We arrived at the park around 1pm and had to pay to get in. This was the moment of truth. Was it, in fact, a four hour hike like we thought? It wasn't. It was actually about a four minute walk to see the waterfalls which were absolutely beautiful. The water was a clear, tropical bluish green and the scenery was lovely. After walking to various viewing points we decided to follow the trail because we were told there was an area in which we could swim. We hiked down to the river, then had to traverse the river for about twenty minutes over very uneven and slippery rocks. I was terrified of spraining my ankle the whole time but eventually we made it to a little lagoon where a bunch of Chileans were already enjoying the water. There was a waterfall and it was incredibly picturesque. We hung out for about an hour and a half and then started walking back up to catch the 5 o'clock bus to Molina, on which we had seats.

On the bus ride back we discussed the day and how we hadn't seen a single gringo the whole time we'd been out. We really were Chilean for a weekend, and it was pretty cool. I would never have seen that part of the country if I hadn't gone on this trip.

After a long day we arrived back in Santiago around 12:30am, but not before we each had a completo! A completo is the Chilean version of a hot dog and this is one Chilenismo I simply cannot get behind. The hot dog comes in a french bread type bun, which is actually tasty, but then the hot dog is literally drowned in avocado, tomato, and the kicker: mayonnaise. By the end I had scraped off everything but the tomatoes and it still wasn't good at all. Trying one was my goal, so I guess it was a success.

All in all, an interesting and informative weekend.