El Cajon del Maipo and Refugio de Lo Valdes

Marmelojo from the road to Baños Colina

Living in Santiago the Andes are a constant backdrop, but Santiago isn’t a mountain city (altitude 520 meters/1,700 feet) and Santiagueños focus much more on the coast--Viña del Mar and Valparaiso--than on the mountains. But the Andes are really there, and they are really close.

This week, the first week in June, we had a few days of beautiful weather—clear and in the 60s—and my friend Sid suggested we take the opportunity to go up the Cajón del Maipo into the Andes before the snows. So on Tuesday Sid and Romualdo (like me both ex-professors, though in physics) drove up the canyon.

The lower canyon is a popular day or weekend destination from Santiago, with lots of restaurants, hostels and lodges, but these become less numerous as the valley narrows and the altitude increases. We turned up the valley of the Río Volcán, populated mainly by livestock ranches—cattle, sheep and goats—and the scenery became spectacular with the Volcán San José in the background.

The road, used by heavy trucks carrying crushed rock for Santiago construction, requires near constant repair.

Alamos (poplars) shelter the houses from the strong winds.

At an elevation of 1946 meters (6,400 feet) and 77 km (48 miles) from Santiago we come to the Refugio lo Váldez, constructed in 1932 as a headquarters for hikers and climbers. It continues to function as a restaurant and hostel, with simple accommodations.

We took advantage of the restaurant, with onion soup followed by pork chops and spatzel, a nice bottle of wine and coffee.
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The view of Volcán San José from the Refugio.
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Then we continued up the road. The Refugio is in the background.

The Baños Colina are on the side of the Volcán San José, a few hundred feet up from the valley floor at an elevation of 3,500 meters (11,500) feet The water in the upper pool reaches 150°F.