The Waterfall of the Spirit!

    The place we stayed at San Jose de Maipo was called "Cascada De Las Animas" (In Spanish: The waterfall of the spirit) and I think the Astorga family chose this name because they wanted to honor the magnificent waterfall. 

    Everyone in the school had already hiked up a few days earlier. However, I had been busy working and had not had the leisure to enjoy some time off. So one afternoon, I decided to skip kayaking to see it. A solo hike would have been sweet, but with a lovely hiking companion, it was just fun! 

The locked bridge door that separates Astorga family's houses
and their business facilities.

       I got the key from Lorenzo's brother to unlock the bridge gate. Right there, a woman whom I saw earlier in the restaurant was talking to one of my students at the gate and seemed to be waiting for something. It turned out that she was hoping someone could open the gate so she could hike to the waterfall. Well, I guess I was THAT "someone," and apparently, we both thought having a hiking companion wouldn't be such a bad idea...we will see.

      

The view of Maipo River on the bridge

      Her name was Nina and was working in London in the financial sector. She was on a three week vacation and planed to travel around South America. 

      "You see, I was supposed to land in Santiago next Monday with my friends, but I figured wasting my weekend in my cold and miserable apartment in London was just such a silly idea." She laughed and continued, "So, after I got out of my office on Friday evening, I went back home, packed up my stuff and left for the airport! And isn't this amazing?!" Her eyes lit up and filled with excitement. "Now, I have free time on my own exploring many things!" (I had a feeling we were going to have a great time.)

Little creek flowing toward the Maipo River

     We chatted and chatted and stopped here and there during the hike, admiring the beautiful scenery around us. 35-minute into the hike, I thought to myself, "I remember people told me this hike was only 20 minutes!" I wasn't sure if we got lost but I didn't want to admit it anyway because I told her very confidently at the beginning that I knew where the waterfall was.

Nina & the overlook of Maipo Valley

      Of course, I finally had to admit to her that I got lost because we ended up at the door step of Astorga's house!! (It was quite embarrassing. But aren't we men just never want to admit that we did something wrong until every single piece of evidence is pointing out that we are absolutely wrong and until there was nothing else we could have said to bail us out?? yes...). Oh well, I guess she didn't mind, but very quickly, I found the right trail that would take us to the waterfall. It wasn't long until we could see Cascada de las Animas just a few hundred meters ahead of us! 

Cascada de las Animas

    One thing that was kind of strange about the vegetation in Maipo was that a mixture of cactus, ever-greens and pine trees all GROW together!!! It was very interesting to see so I feel I must bring it up to your attention ;)

A cute shot on a tiny bridge with Cascada de las Animas in the background

    Before we got to Cascada de las Animas, there were actually a few surprises along the way -- a 40-ft and a 15-ft waterfall right downstream of Cascada de las Animas. The 20-ft waterfall had a tight access with a boulder over hang at the lookout. There wasn't much place to stand or to take a good picture but it was quite cool to see water falling right above your head.

A  close-up view of the 40 footer before Cascada de las Animas

Photography in Action

    We continued our hike up and the scenery just got progressively more beautiful! We stopped constantly to take photos, thinking that, "Wow, this is an amazing view." However, the most beautiful view is actually on the top! (We probably stop at least 30 times before getting to Cascada de las Animas.) You can see the beautiful mountains surrounding the Maipo Valley: from the far snow-covered peaks to the close-up rocky cliffs and ridges. what a view!

Hike up to Cascada de las Animas (Photo by Nina. Background: Maipo Valley)

      After taking our time enjoying the view and each other's company, we finally got to unveil the real beauty of the Beast! You could hear the pounding sound got louder and louder as we ascended our way up the trail. 


"There it is!" I shouted out like a little kid finally found the hidden candy underneath the couch.

At last! Cascada de las Animas

     Just right ahead of us, the waterfall speared out from an arid and rocky slit on the mountains and like a silver arrow, threading its surrounding together into this magnificent view. It was so pristine and serene that both of us just stood there, dead silent, trying to recollect ourselves.

      We stared at each other, and I said, "1, 2, 3" then we sprinted down the trail to get closer to the waterfall! From the bottom of the falls, it seemed like there were thousands silky strings falling from the sky. As the water hit the rock at the bottom, it shattered into a million pieces into the air. The mist from that splash allowed an abundant amount of moss and fern-type vegetation in the surroundings to thrive and flourish. As you can see in the picture below, the waterfall-nourished plants created an amazing green wall.

Right at the bottom of Cascada de las Animas

     Unfortunately, as I was video recording Cascada de las Animas, my camera battery died and so I didn't capture the very top of it (Always remember to bring a spare battery!). So after staring at the waterfall for a while, I started to get chilled by the mist and decided to do something that can warm up my body. I followed the little stream from the waterfall, went across it and got onto this huge rock that was all wet from the mist. The scenery of the Maipo Valley was even more awesome viewing from that rock, but I almost fell on my face TWICE because the rock was so slippery! I didn't dare to whip my camera out to take any photos. But then I thought of something else that was fun to do.

I wadded across the little stream to get to the huge rock ahead

The rock was wet and slippery, but the view from there was very cool. (Photo by Nina)

    I spotted there was another smaller waterfall right below Cascada de las Animas and there was no way I was going to skip that! 

"Hey, lets climb down there to check it out." I said to Nina.

"No way! Are you crazy!?" She looked at me, thinking I was joking.

   The wall next to that waterfall was composed of very flimsy rocks. A step on a loose rock would have resulted to 20-ft free fall into this ass-freezing pool right below and possibly, my head would hit some rock while I was falling. Well, I still managed to climb down, probably not in my usually stylish fashion, but I got down just fine.

Finally got down there (Photo by Nina)

     Nina was much smarter than I was because she actually found a trail that would lead her to the same place while avoiding all the danger. But what can I say, I just love that thrill. 

Double falls

We chilled down there for a while and took a few photos. 

I said, "Nina, I dare you to climb up that rock wall I just climbed down."

"Well, it actually didn't seem so bad" she said, sizing up the wall, "I can give it a shot!" She peaked at me and gave me a little confident smile.

"Alright, let's see it."

I sprinted up the trail to her camera to take a few photos for her. She was like a monkey getting back to her home branches and got up the wall in no time! I was thoroughly impressed.

"You are hiding something" I said to her after she got up with a suspicious scrutiny.

She smiled and said, "I just need someone to push me because I'm a little bit more conservative. Since you did it, I'm not gonna just sit there and watch! hehehe."

Nina climbing up with style from the smaller waterfall right down stream of Cascada de las Animas

   Time was getting late and, as we were hiking out, we took the last look at Cascada de las Animas and my mind drifted into another dangerous zone. (What's wrong with me???) "Why not climb all the way up to Cascada de las Animas?? It is just about 100-ft elevation." I looked around the terrain and the hill slope. It ain't seem so bad, I thought.


"Nina, So, ahhh....I am thinking of climbing up there..." pointing to the top of Cascada de las Animas.


"Nooo way, you are really scaring me now. You are not serious, are you?" 


"I am. If you want to go back, you can go but I want to climb up to see what's going on up there." I was very serious and she got it.


She thought for a moment and said, "Ok, I'll just wait down here, ok?"


"Ok, I'll try to be quick." I replied, but I had no idea what I got myself into.


    Hopping over the warning sign saying "CAUTION! Do Not Pass This Point! Loose Rocks." I started climbing. At the beginning, there seemed to be a trail leading my way up, but very soon, trail disappeared! "This must be where most of the people gave up." I thought. I kept marching up and quickly started bush waking. The bush got so dense that at one point, I was entirely tangled by the plants. I got a little bit nervous. About 10 minutes into the climb, all a sudden I couldn't find any route to go up further: I could either jump into this knife-sharp killer grass bush of walk the dense tree branch cluster with many thorns on them. As I was just deciding where to go, I heard something from behind. I turned around and screamed,


"Holy shit! Where did you come from??" 


Nina was right behind me.


"Sorry... I thought for a while after you left. Maybe I should climb up with you because I think I could do it too!" She smiled.


"Well, there doesn't seem to be any 'trail' beyond this point and it's getting late" I was very disappointed that I had to stop right here. I swear, there must be a way to get up there. 

A great shot of Nina when she followed me up my "expedition" climb

     However, it was almost 8 pm. The sky would get dark soon and the temperature would drop fast. Keep climbing didn't seem like a wise idea. 

"Let's just stop here and enjoy this scene for right now, yes?" She suggested. 

Indeed, the view up here changed again. Maipo Valley could only be allocated by a few light smoke strams rising up. The surrounding mountains got much larger but I felt I was just as tall as they were. Sitting on a steep grass bush, I looked far far away and thought, "I will come back to you."

It was a lovely afternoon spent indeed. 

A few days later, I came back and attempted the climb again ... [see the next post]