La Campana

La Campana National Park is located about 2 hours northwest of Santiago and is home to one of the last palm forests of the Chilean wine palm. We drove up to the park for a weekend of camping with our friends Federico and Joselin. We stayed in a cute little campsite with winding trails along a dry stream bed and campsites hidden between the trees.

The forests were filled with birds and lizards, and we even saw some cute and hairy wildlife near our campsite.

On Saturday we went for a lovely hike through a beautiful forest with soft leaf-lined paths. Along the way we passed a 15th-century settlement of the Inca Maray people, marked by walls and large grinding stones.

We made it up the 7km trail to Portezuelo Ocoa, a little further down the ridge from Cerro Campana.  Here we had a lovely picnic under the trees whilst enjoying the spectacular views down the valley of the famous palm trees.

Yet again, we had a superb weekend exploring a new part of Chile. ¡Que bacán esta vida!