My trip to the mountains

If I have something in common with Carole Lombard is the love for nature. My city is very close to the country and my family and I make trips since I'm a child. We like climbing a wild mountain 15 kilometers|4900 feet high, which means walking for 5 hours through very sloping and rocky paths, but surrounded just by the sound of nature and your own steps.

We --my parents, my youngest brother and I-- started the trip on Friday at 2 pm. It was very hot (it's spring down here) and our bags were terribly heavy (I was carrying one of the tents, plus my sleeping bag, marshmallows, clothes to change on the top of the mountain and water). This was like the first time we were tired on the first hour of walking and we had to make more stops than usual to drink and rest.

The path is very diverse environmentally speaking: one minute you have to pass a lovely stream surrounded by trees and the next you are in the middle of a desert, with cactus and all. I noticed that I hadn't seen a butterfly since ages, they were flitting around us, orange, white and black the most of them. You walk and walk, very concentrated, trying to forget that your heels and shoulders are aching. The sound of different kind of birds and tons of lizards hiding distract you from your own thoughts, so do some flies in a less pleasant way.

After the earthquake earlier this year, the mountain changed in some points. Big rocks fell down the hills, pushing vegetation and smashing in smaller pieces. So you have to be very carefully, because you could fell down the ravine. I usually use sticks that help me not to fall.

It was dark when we finally arrived to our usual camp near the top. When I say this mountain is wild, is because it is, we've never seen more people there and the paths were made by huasos (Chilean peasants) and their horses. We were exhausted; luckily my dad is the most energetic man I know, so he made fire and installed the tents. My brother and I ate something (marshmallows melted on bonfire!) and we went right to our tent to sleep.

Did I say sleep? Well, we tried. The ground wasn't exactly soft and we didn't have proper pillows. So, in addition to all the aches above mentioned, add back ache.

I got up at 11 am on Saturday (always the last, thank you very much) and my mom was kind of sick (then we knew that she was sick before we started the trip and she didn't say anything). We decided to go down that same day in the afternoon, after she slept a little (now over all the sleeping bags).

I accompanied my dad to the top of the mountain, 30 minutes walking. There there's a oak forest. You can found digueñes, a kind of mushrooms that looks like brains and taste awful, but my dad loves to carry down.

I saw an aguilucho flying near us, showing its beautiful white chest, plus lovely flowers.

Then, we reached the top. It's always so peaceful there and you feel a real respect for nature and its majesty.

We went back to the camp, ate some beans...

...and we were ready to go back. If your heels ache on the way up, your toes suffer on the way down. We walked slow and I don't know how, but we made it. Four hours later we were finally sitting on the jeep and dreaming with our comfy beds. I bet Miss Lombard would love this trip.

----------------------------
PS.- I'm sorry for the delay; I replied to all the comments from the seven preceding posts (is there a better way to say that?). I really appreciate every one of them :)