My best holidays ever

 Hi insufferable souls! 

Bzzz Bzzz Bzzz, today I told you about my best Holidays ever, and remember the events of this adventure will not be difficult, because it was in the summer of this year. This history is starring for: 

With my friends of university (the people presented before) jokingly talked about going on a backpacking trip. And one day we said: Sakin, lend us your house, let's go south of Chile to explore it! And to one moment to another the joke became real (typical of my life). We going on February because we had classes on January in the Summer semester. This semester, it's the most insane and masochistic thing I've do in my whole life ever. With nothing to lose, we set off into the unknown with our backpacks and tents, and a cooler with food. The adventure awaits us!

The first days, after a five hours of trip in bus with my friend Kim, we arrived to Temuco. In the bus station of Temuco we met. My friend Fefi came from Talcahuano and Sakin picked us up and took us to her house. We met her cousins Mañke and Kallfü, her mom, her grandma and saw her lands. We ate Sopaipillas and homemade bread, the food it was delicious.

First spot: Playa Blanca

Playa Blanca

At 5 am to the next day, we woke up, had breakfast and took a bus that left us in Pucón, and from there we took a bus to Caburgüa. We didn't know where to get off exactly, but we discovered that the bus terminal was the closest place to the campsite where we were going to stay. When we arrived to the camping "Vergara".We set up the tents and organize our things. The campsite had a direct exit to Playa Blanca and we and once settled, we went along the shore of Lake Caburgüa to the town to buy melon and wine to make "Melvin" and an extra gas for the gas stove. 

Bandurria, the bird I saw.

Something special happened to me this day, I was on my way to the campsite bathroom to do my things and walking through the trees in the light of midday I chose to take an alternative path to the one I already knew, only because it is the kind of thing I do when I am alone, the path took me to the bathrooms up a small hill between the roots of the trees and a very fine earth that raised dust that horribly stained my sneakers and pants. Suddenly, something majestic made its appearance, a strange bird of a bluish-gray color with a thin beak curved towards its orange chest, its eyes were red. It's hard for me to explain how much his presence impacted me. He appeared before me in the middle of the road and looked at me with his eyes that did not flash the slightest fear. It surprised me, it really surprised me, immobile, it seemed like a magical encounter. Like one of those moments where two beings who should never have crossed paths, due to random circumstances, cross paths and find themselves amazed by the other's strangeness. For me, that small exchange of glances was eternal and in my mind his appearance was disfigured and his gaze immortalized. After that eternity, that look that still hasn't ended, he disappeared on the other side of the road in a moment when my vision was distracted and I didn't see him again.

After that, we had lunch and then we went to the beach and spent the entire afternoon there, we got some temporary tattoos, drank Melvin and played cards, in addition to swimming in the lake. 

On the first night, we went to visit the town and several craft fairs in the area, we walked the entire beach at night and through the forest in the dark. That day we were supposed to see a comet, but apparently we were very far from the visibility zone. Anyway it was a beautiful night walk.I love walking in the dark, stepping on the sand and being able to see clearly only what our flashlights could reach, listening to the gentle current of the lake embrace the coast and imagining figures among the rocks and trunks of old trees that had fallen.

In that deep darkness with the light of the lanterns and the stars reflecting in the stillness of the waters, one is no longer afraid of the unknown. One can no longer conceive darkness as something negative and terrifying, that enveloping magic becomes something divine.

The next day, we were ready to leave the campsite and leave for our second destination. We had planned to go to a fairly remote area that was in the heights near the Huerquehue National Park. We never managed to achieve what was planned since when we arrived at the bus terminal where we had been the day before, the driver told us that there was not much attraction and that it was very far away. While we were on the way up the bus, the driver recommended that we go better to the Ojos del Caburgüa, we listened to him and In a matter of minutes, we completely changed our plans and found a nearby campsite called "La Puntilla".

Second spot: Ojos del Caburgüa (Carburgüa eyes for the english people)

Changing our plans ended up being the best decision, we had, I think, the best location in the entire campsite, we were next to the river, but when I tell you that we were next to the river, we were literally next to the river. We had a view of the Villarrica volcano. That day we went to the Mirador de Peces. It was a nice area next to the river with viewpoints and of course, ponds with fish. 

For a moment, while watching the river flow, I imagined that I was a monkey, one of those howler monkeys that it would be impossible to see in Chile, and I was jumping on a tree and crossing over the river through a branch, I continued towards the trees and then I jumped into the river, the river dragged me and the people at the viewpoint watched as I dived completely confident in my swimming skills, then I climbed a tree holding on to a branch and so on. I was lost in the thick forest never to be seen by a human on earth again. I could never experience nature like that monkey. That made me feel a little sad, I couldn't have the same luck as that monkey if I jumped. And I wouldn't turn into a monkey either when I fell into the water. Fuck Darwin and The Evolution of Species.

Bellavista waterfall

Then, we went to the Bellavista waterfall, where with Sakin we climbed some rocks that took us upstream from the waterfall. The rocks had interesting shapes and then we crossed a part of the river before reaching the waterfall along some rocks, jumping like frogs. Then we went to the eyes of Carbugua, and saw the waterfalls of turquoise blue waters and a small white moth lying dead on a rock. Perched there on a tree root I could see the light resting on the branches of the trees full of moss and the imposing sound of the water flowing due to the effect of gravity, all that was deeply alive and I felt for a moment like there was a secret communication among all things, mental delusions, while I was eating a toddy cookie in a plastic container with my friends.

Back at the campsite we went down to the river to bathe with Sakin and Fefi, we jumped 4 times, I know it doesn't sound like much, but I have forgotten to mention that the temperature of the water, freezing temperatures, (she is exaggerating) makes anyone who jumps harder be declared insane at once. When you jumped down you completely stopped feeling your limbs and your body instinctively headed towards the shore. We jumped 4 times, and then shivering we returned to the campsite to finish off an extremely intrepid day.

Before hitchhiking  

After hitchhiking

The next morning we left our destination was Pucon, we wanted to try our luck hitchhiking, but we noticed that despite looking like the ant meme it was not giving results, we thought we would have to walk to the exit to the highway and then pay the fare in a bus, but luckily for us, we felt sorry enough and a couple stopped and took us. They were going to take us to the highway, but that morning an accident occurred and they had to take a different route, so they left us in Pucon. It was a pretty big coincidence, so we saved a whole trip to Pucon and when we arrived everything happened due to synchronicity, the bus that left us in Pucon, then from Pucon to Villarrica, then from Villarrica to Lican Ray. It was a long journey but it was worth it.

Third Spot: Lican Ray - Kalafkén Lake

Kalafkén Lake

Our last day of the trip we decided to end at Lake Kalafkén located in Lican Ray. There we visited the Lican Ray main square, saw numerous craft stalls and ate delicious cheese Empanadas. Then we went to the lake and settled in an area and took out our electric stove to prepare lunch, noodles with sauce and soy meat (we ate noodles 3 days in a row in more than one meal, I don't regret anything). We had one gas left, we were talking, enjoying and playing Uno when calamities! We ran out of gas, we were very hungry and we no longer had gas, so Kim put on her cape and walked kilometers and kilometers in search of a hardware store. There was no gas for a stove in all of Lican Ray, what a shame! It's the end! the end!

Kim, national hero, bought empanadas and we had that for lunch. Then we sunbathed in the beach (well, I didn't sunbathe, I hate the sun), we bathed in the lake and ate fruit skewers, it was extremely fun. We watched the sunset on the beach and then waited for the bus that would take us to Temuco to conclude this beautiful adventure.

Los ojos del Caburgüa

I think this trip changed my way of facing life a lot. I have always considered myself an adventurous person. When you travel that way, without many certainties and letting your feet take you where you need to go, you discover that you are capable of so many things. After a day of backpacking, my perception of what was really necessary changed irrevocably. I didn't sleep in great comfort, and at night there was no light other than that of the stars, our roof was a waterproof fabric tent and we had each other and that was it, everything I really needed was so clearly seen. 

I questioned my daily comfort a lot. Having so little to hold on to had been very liberating in some ways. I realized that humans are beings that fill us with things that anchor us to places. I suddenly saw the natural consequence of settling down, and this consequence is that of the gradual loss of experiencing the world around us. And it really scares me to dedicate just one week of my life to exploring the world because I'm too worried about preserving the unnecessary. Traveling is the most obvious way to explore the world, of course there are other paths. Travel is not really travel if it does not involve a renewal of the spirit. In that sense, it doesn't matter if you travel constantly if it doesn't represent a true departure from comfort.

I am very grateful for the experience I had and for having shared it with beings as interesting and pleasant as my friends. Nothing would have been the same without them. 

Klau