La Chilly-Chilexperiencia

The view from my window at Time Suites Apartments

It has been a few weeks since I arrived from the City of  Santiago de Chile.  While I was there, it was cold beyond the cold I have experienced in my lifetime, even colder than the Fall of Cali or Winter of Houston. The moment I set foot in my temporary home for a few weeks, I was flown back in time when I was growing up in my little hometown called Iloilo.  I felt at ease as though even the heavens were welcoming me.

From the Sand Dunes overlooking the ocean at Viña del Mar

Chile is a place where the mountains meet the sea.  It is a very long, yet very narrow country that thrives mainly in mining.  It is the only country in Latin America that does not have an outstanding loan from the World Bank. Faring rather well, Santiago is a roaring business district in the week days.  It is where you would see the tallest buildings in the region and people buzzing about the streets walking to work or the supermarkets or wherever their businesses would get them to on that day.

The City of Santiago viewed from Cerro San Cristobal

Our accommodation is located right at the heart of the city where one could just walk three blocks and one will be at a grocery.  Three more blocks and one will be at a mall or walk about 6 blocks and one gets to the office building.  There are churches nearby and schools are just one train rides away. The train system is very efficient, the buses are convenient and there are wide sidewalks for pedestrians.  You’d see a lot of people riding their bikes or simply walking.  Since the city’s transportation system is very efficient, you’d see that people would rather commute than take their cars along with them and battle through traffic and overloaded parking areas, trying to find a slot for themselves. A busy place during weekdays, it gets even busier at night in some areas.  There are bars where one can hang out until the wee hours of the morning with friends and colleagues.  During weekends, however, Santiago practically turns into a ghost town.  Locals would go out of town for the weekend and enjoy family time somewhere far away. It was the same for me, almost.  

The entrance at Cascada de las Animas, San Alfonso, Chile

On weekends, our team would usually have a trip to go to…  Sight seeing, skiing, eco-adventure into the outskirts of Santiago. Among these trips, I frequented an eco-adventure resort called Cascada de las Animas.  The name translates to the Waterfall of the Spirits.  The whole compound is a Nature Sanctuary where flora and fauna native to the area are being preserved, trees are being grown, animals are being taken care of by the veterinarians and caretakers of the forest.

An Alpaca at the Nature Sanctuary

I had a chance to see one of the areas where they kept an Alpaca named Kuzco, a Cougar named Huilo and an Owl named Tuco.  They’re all neighbors.  While hiking through the trail, one could see the hard work that the Astorga Family has dedicated to the resort.  The property has been with them more than a hundred years and true to the promise of their first generation, the younger ones are being educated to let nature grow as how it is supposed to grow without the complexities of industrialization and setting foot on the grounds of the compund would tell visitors that modernization should be done to enhance Mother Nature and not to compete with her.

A view of the mountains at Cascada

The resort is just about an hour from the city.  One could get to appreciate the raw beauty of nature as nature-trippers go about the packages being offered there. The one thing I enjoyed most was rafting through Rio Maipo.  

Forward!!!

Crystal clear cold water, that I had a chance to feel for myself having fallen into it on my first rafting trip with the girls, flow at the foot of the Andes.  There are portions of the river where you can just sit on the raft and enjoy the view of how the mountains make herself pretty for those who want to see.  It dons a white top and a skirt that could change from blue to brown or gray.

El Montaña en Cascada. Los Andes, tambien.

Most of my cherished moments are in this adventure resort.  I even had my birthday celebrated there.  Currently, the resort is fighting against a plan to have hydroelectric power plants put up in their waterfalls.  I, for one, would want to campaign, in my own way, to make the people understand that the waterfalls and the river itself is the main source of potable water for Santiago.  It saddens me that a place as beautiful as this, granted “Nature Sanctuary” status by their government, would also be put in danger by the same.

I am but a passerby, but if I can make a few people at least be aware of the effects, I would know that I did my part to protect my favorite resort.  There are more places in Chile that I had the chance to visit, but they’d be talked about in the next few entries.

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