Friday 3rd February 2017
After our fascinating expedition to see the Siete Tazas (Seven Cups) a few more kilometres off-road driving brought us to a veritable hive of activity in the remote Chilean National Park, Radial Siete Tazas. Large buses had struggled up to this entrance to the park with hordes of tourists, while others arrived on dusty motorcycles and the most hardy on push-bikes.
As well as a small shop/café, a lovely little restaurant served the ever changing population, and various campsites and cabins offered accommodation. The café did a basic but acceptable coffee, and a cat family to pass the time watching while appreciating our coffees.
But a rickety bridge over a small river gave us the first view of our reason for coming:
some rock pools in the river (Rio Claro again) where others were already swimming ......
The pools looked rather cold for swimming but, before I got there, Clemente had already been in, fully clothed apparently - not necessarily intentionally.
An interesting set of stepping stones got us all across to a tiny beach where the more intrepid members of the party started trying the water. Here's a huaso (horseman or cowboy) giving one of his horses a drink in the river by the stepping stones.
The most intrepid actually changed into their swimwear. I settled for sitting on a rock, mid-stream, with the camera, not at all convinced that they would really all follow Clemente's lead. It gave a good vantage point for a group photo as well as the water action.
Left to right: Sara, Amparo, Tamara, Eddy, Clemente, Mauricio and Barbara. One by one though, the youngsters did get in. Barbara and Mauricio settled for a paddle, but Eddy, Sara and Tamara all braved the mountain waters with Clemente.
It didn't start out as a diving competition, but everyone had their own technique and flair.
Clemente got 10/10 for this spectacular bouncing off the surface of the water jump ............
Tamara won the slow motion dive and the synchronised swimming, except that there was nobody else to synchronise with ...........
Eddy won all the technical marks for his half twisting back flip ............
And Sara got full marks for technique and style with this very clean dive with minimum splash ...........
Eventually the swimmers tired and got dry and redressed and we bade farewell to Tamara, Mauricio & Ampara. On the way back in the car, Eddy attempted to run over a few parrots (or maybe parakeets?) which were grazing in the road (he failed).
But after we stopped, they all flocked back to the road to continue grazing. The ones that stayed in the trees though, were much more photogenic, their true colours being more evident.
The rest of the drive back to the cabin was uneventful, but when we got back we needed to settle in to the five-bed cabin Eddy & Sara had originally booked. It was every bit as nice as the eight-bed cabin, if anything a bit more stylish.
After our fascinating expedition to see the Siete Tazas (Seven Cups) a few more kilometres off-road driving brought us to a veritable hive of activity in the remote Chilean National Park, Radial Siete Tazas. Large buses had struggled up to this entrance to the park with hordes of tourists, while others arrived on dusty motorcycles and the most hardy on push-bikes.
As well as a small shop/café, a lovely little restaurant served the ever changing population, and various campsites and cabins offered accommodation. The café did a basic but acceptable coffee, and a cat family to pass the time watching while appreciating our coffees.
But a rickety bridge over a small river gave us the first view of our reason for coming:
some rock pools in the river (Rio Claro again) where others were already swimming ......
The pools looked rather cold for swimming but, before I got there, Clemente had already been in, fully clothed apparently - not necessarily intentionally.
An interesting set of stepping stones got us all across to a tiny beach where the more intrepid members of the party started trying the water. Here's a huaso (horseman or cowboy) giving one of his horses a drink in the river by the stepping stones.
The most intrepid actually changed into their swimwear. I settled for sitting on a rock, mid-stream, with the camera, not at all convinced that they would really all follow Clemente's lead. It gave a good vantage point for a group photo as well as the water action.
Left to right: Sara, Amparo, Tamara, Eddy, Clemente, Mauricio and Barbara. One by one though, the youngsters did get in. Barbara and Mauricio settled for a paddle, but Eddy, Sara and Tamara all braved the mountain waters with Clemente.
It didn't start out as a diving competition, but everyone had their own technique and flair.
Clemente got 10/10 for this spectacular bouncing off the surface of the water jump ............
Tamara won the slow motion dive and the synchronised swimming, except that there was nobody else to synchronise with ...........
Eddy won all the technical marks for his half twisting back flip ............
And Sara got full marks for technique and style with this very clean dive with minimum splash ...........
Eventually the swimmers tired and got dry and redressed and we bade farewell to Tamara, Mauricio & Ampara. On the way back in the car, Eddy attempted to run over a few parrots (or maybe parakeets?) which were grazing in the road (he failed).
But after we stopped, they all flocked back to the road to continue grazing. The ones that stayed in the trees though, were much more photogenic, their true colours being more evident.
The rest of the drive back to the cabin was uneventful, but when we got back we needed to settle in to the five-bed cabin Eddy & Sara had originally booked. It was every bit as nice as the eight-bed cabin, if anything a bit more stylish.
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