Day 75 - Maipo Canyon

January 30 - Cajón de Maipo,

We drove from our camp location near Pichilemu to Cajón de Maipo, a canyon east of Santiago.  It took quite awhile.  As we approached the park we were going to hike a volcano, we stopped on the side of the road for a quick energy boost - we ordered empanadas, and the woman asked if we'd wait around for fresh ones.  We agreed, and watched her back them in her adobe oven.  While we waited, her husband gave us apricots.

 We drove further and approached a little village at the end of a dirt road, with the entrance to a hot spring, and a few artesenal goods stands.  After looking around, we asked a woman where we could park and where the park entrance was.  She let us know that we could park anywhere no problem, but our bigger problem was the fact that the hike was closed... It was open Thurs to Sunday only, and closed at 1 PM.  Not only did we have the wrong day, we also had the wrong time.  Bummer! 

 There was NOTHING else down this road, so we turned around.  We carried on to the other spot we had planned on checking out, called Embalse El Yeso.  Despite some crazy single lane gravel roads on the side of the mountain, the view was gorgeous!  I was a nervous nelly, as the roads were so tight.  Luckily there weren't many other cars, but there were a few big trucks for logging(?)

Since we were so far off the main road, we decided to get closer before setting up camp, to lesson our drive the next day.  We found a camp ground in town that was pretty divy, with tons of stray dogs. The dogs were mild enough, and basically just laid around our campsite, like our guard dogs.