On one weekend, we decided to hike through nature reserve Rio Los Cipreses, a beautiful valley around 200km south of Santiago. The park sits right next to "El Teniente", one of Chile's biggest copper mines. But thanks to favourable wind conditions, Rio Los Cipreses hardly ever gets smoggy. We started at the picnic area and gradually made our way up into the valley. We spotted some impressive "el condor pasa" (our umbrella term for all South American birds of prey), orchids, and even a snake of 1m, which I scared away with my special snake charming gaze. The great thing in Chile is, that once you have left the picnic area, it's likely you won't meet a single person. And should you happen to meet someone, it's usually another foreigner. Chileans enjoy having long outdoor BBQ's with all their family. However, they rarely make it outside the picnic area, so you will always have the actual park for yourselves. We've been to countless parks all across the country, and the scene has always been the same: Chileans have picnic's there, foreigners hike.
