So I got out of my still wet tent to grab the bus (it is a 45min walk from where I was camped to the town) and went to the meeting place.
My first surprise was how many people there were, about 30. My second surprise was how many of them were kids! And everyone dressed as if going for a picnic, in a good mood, smiling, a young girl immediately invited me in to go get my snack: a little box of juice, cookies, a banana and an apple. Wow! Never had that handed to be before going for a walk in the woods! I mentally added it to the bread, cheese and fruit I already had and thought that I hoped this would be a long walk, as nothing but that would give me enough of an appetite to wolf everything down.
But no, the walk itself was more of a stroll, and the entire experience a cultural highlight, as I was able to chat with loads of people. This group was very recently created, and this was only their second outing. The reason for its creation has many purposes, among them encouraging physical activity and quality family time, cultivating a love of the outdoors and the beautiful surroundings, as well as teaching respect for nature. I was thoroughly impressed. Heading the walk were a young and energetic phys ed teacher, and experienced mountaineers. We stopped often so that the group would always stay together, encouraging lively exchanges and a feeling of comradship and belonging. No one was left behind. At the stops, there was also a scientist who explained things about the trees, flowers, insects and mountains. There were people as young as 7.
On our way up ( a very leisurely, very broken up 2-hour climb) I chatted with a guy who's been involved in quite a few search and rescue attempts in the area. There have been accidents, as there always are in the mountain, particularly in winter, and he told me about the ones that affected him the most. They affected me, too, hearing about them. A young German guy out walking who fell unluckily and hit his head, probably just enough to knock him out. He fell in a small pool of water and the autopsy showed he drowned. It took them months to find his body, the parents came from Germany. Another man driving who was in a hurry to get somewhere and missed the tunnel opening hours (there is a 4.5 kilometre tunnel at the entrance to the town, and it used to be closed at night) so instead of turning back or waiting in the car he went trying to walk over the mountain in a coming storm. He fell too, injured himself badly, and in the 20 minutes of agony that followed, pulled out a recorder from his pocket where he left messages to his entire family, apologising to them for going away. He was found the next day. That story brought tears to my eyes, and we walked on in silence for a bit. Too often, we forget that nature is still wild, that we have to be careful. It's sometimes easy to forget this in the luxury of our civilised cities.
We arrived at a spot in the shade (by this time, the heat was brutal) and sat down for a picnic. The field was covered in flowers, the tall trees swayed in the wind, a dog who had been eagerly following us was going from person to person to be petted, and we had the view of the small town of Malalcahuello where we'd started off below us and Lonquimay volcano ahead.
After plenty of chatting, a volleyball net was set up, and there I was, playing volleyball for the first time since high school! I did most of the serving for my team (which included two mountaineers and two little girls who squealed and ran away whenever the ball came near them) and was laughing at the end of the day from how sore my hand was. I couldn't remember ever being sore there.
Once the game was over, our last activity was all sitting together in a circle, introducing ourselves and saying what we'd like about the activity. It may sound corny, but this really tightened links between everyone, and I think that the group is well on its way to becoming established. It was a really great way to end a beautiful day, and I was really happy to have been a part of it.
We walked down just about as slowly as up, with the leaders filling two big bags with all the litter that others had left strewn around. This also impressed me. I often collect garbage when I go out too, lots of people do, and it's always encouraging to see that. Just because you're not the one who left it there doesn't mean you can't improve things by doing your part and just taking responsibility for it regardless.
The walk down was punctuating by my sneezing, but thankfully, a young guy studying to become a geologist distracted me by telling me interesting things about the landscape and I was able to ignore my allergies a little.
Two ladies offered to take me back to the campground. In the knock-out heat of the day, I didn't feel like a 45 minute, shadeless walk. But before driving me, they invited me in to have a local specialty, motto con hueso. It is a very refreshing, as well as very filling drink, made of dried peaches that are rehydrated in a mixture of juice and spices until they are plump and juicy, served with a kind of quinoa-like cereal. Practically a meal unto itself!
They brought me back to the campground where I showered right away so that my hair would have the time to dry. It is stifling hot during the day (I wasn't expecting that, the town is already at about 1000m above sea level) but gets cold at night. I was greeted by the sad news that the little hare I brought in was attacked by the house cat and didn't survive. Oh well. Can't get mad at the thing, it is kept around to deal with the rats in the area.
I had a light meal of bread, avocado and tomatoes, read a bit but went to sleep early. Tomorrow, I have to break camp, and am heading back to Argentina.
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