Baños de Colina

Originally posted to El Cantar de la Lluvia on Wednesday, October 25, 2006


Another ride to the Cajón del Maipo, that long valley that snakes inwards from southern Santiago towards Argentina, stopping some 30 or 40 km short of the actual border. One can cross it, so I understand, but only on foot or on horseback.



This time I didn't go up the Embalse El Yeso branch, but rather the southern one, towards Baños de Colina.



Less snow, less mud than other rides; spring in its full glory.

The colours, the colours! When you get back to Santiago after a day's riding in the Cajón, everything looks grey and dull. Up here, it's like some god dropped his box of pigments.



The other day I went to the Instituto Geográfico Militar, to see if they had some good maps of the area. I wanted to learn what the mountains around here are called, and perhaps discover new routes. I spent quite a while flipping through the maps, but I didn't buy any. The area behind Valle Nevado was charted in 1986, and the ski center wasn't even on it. I think the Cajón maps were made around 1996.



Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to leave the bike at the foot of one of these hills, change clothes, and hike up one of the trails.



Or perhaps up this one.

I think this is from the last stretch of road before Baños de Colina.




Same road, facing the other direction.







Mud from the thaw, but nothing to be worried about.



A mine, closed for winter.



The last leg, looking back.



Apparently the snowplow had been through a few days ago, clearing the access road.

I carried on; I didn't stop at the Baños. I saw a road that carried on up the valley, so I followed it, until I came across deep snow, and that was that.



The quick flip through this area's map at the Instituto Geográfico Militar was enough to tentatively identify the peak in the next photo. If I'm not mistaken, the border with Argentina is just around the corner, a few tens of km away.





See the track in that photo? It's amazing how there's tracks all over the place, visible only when the snow reveals them, like fingerprints and powder.

So I came back to the Baños and said... hey, why not? So I parked the bike, and walked up to the pools. I had initially planned only to dry my socks and boots, but the water was too tempting, so I got in. May we be thankful to Allah for the concept of boxer shorts.

Not knowing what there was on the bottom, underwater, I slipped in carefully. Smart move, because the mud on the bottom was full of thorns, and small pieces of thorny plants. Occasionally a whole branch. All this surely had been blown into the water from the surrounding hillsides, dotted with thorny shrubs and dry grasses. Luckily, all this crud collected towards the edges, so I floated over to the center of the pool, and was able to sit and relax in the hot, hot water.

I was happy, relaexed and happy. The water didn't have that great sulfurous smell, but it was saltey, extremely salty, something I had not expected.





After a while a guy came up to the pools, and started chatting with the group of people in a lower, cooler, pool. He thanked them for coming, particularly at a time like this, after the fire, we need all the help and support we can get. He then stopped by my pool, and explained: a week ago, someone had set their restaurant and snack bar on fire, not 100 metres away, on the valley floor. He said that it was always kept unlocked, even throughout the winter, in case someone needed to use it as a shelter in an emergency. And this is what they get for their consideration.

He told me that the admission fee is normally 4500 pesos, and that one can do many things apart from simply bathing in the hot springs. This is their site, if you'd like to find out more: Termas Valle de Colina.



Red as a shrimp, it was time to get out of the water, because the mountain's shadow was creeping up the hillside towards us, and once the sun went, I'd freeze.

My hair was stiff and smelled of sulfur, and that's just the way I like it. That's right girls, scream in horror, but that's just me.

And with that, it was time to turn back.











Definitely worth another visit, no?