{"id":8095,"date":"2026-03-29T12:41:45","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T19:41:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mscreativity.ca\/writing\/?p=8095"},"modified":"2026-03-29T12:51:05","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T19:51:05","slug":"andean-vacation-hot-springs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mscreativity.ca\/writing\/?p=8095","title":{"rendered":"Andean vacation. Hot springs"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Since I\u2019m practically an amphibian \u2014 and a thermophilic amphibian at that \u2014 and the weather nastiness on San Jos\u00e9 left us with a few spare days, we decided to drive around the hot springs. The ones located right around San Jos\u00e9 and Marmolejo. After all, San Jos\u00e9 is an active volcano \u2014 it\u2019s supposed to be hot.<\/p>\n

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The first stop was Termas Valle de Colina. For perfectly obvious reasons \u2014 they\u2019re only about fifteen kilometers from the parking area at the goat farm where people start for San Jos\u00e9 and Marmolejo. The springs are at 2500 m.<\/p>\n

We crawled back to the car around sunset, packed up, and drove off. The road there is\u2026 well, that kind of road, and those kilometers take time, so we arrived already at dusk. Not far from the springs there\u2019s a little booth with a barrier across the road, collecting money \u2014 15,000 local currency (about $15) per person per day. If you leave later, they\u2019ll charge you for unpaid time.<\/p>\n

This was taken in the morning, in daylight. On the left of the road, where the cars are \u2014 that\u2019s kind of a camping area (pitch your tent wherever you can). Water is piped from the stream, there are trash bins, and the area is cleaned.<\/p>\n

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The springs themselves are on the slope to the right. Groups of pools are arranged there, flowing into one another. Water at the inlet is 50\u00b0C, plus cold stream water. There\u2019s also a toilet and a shower. Shower water comes from the stream \u2014 cold but clean. The hot water is very mineralized, almost cloudy, but no hydrogen sulfide or other smelly effects.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t have photos of the springs \u2014 I didn\u2019t take the camera there. There are promotional photos online, and they embellish reality quite a bit, as usual.<\/p>\n

We arrived, pitched the tent in the dark off to one side of the road, and went to soak. The pools are always open \u2014 there\u2019s nobody to close them anyway. Soaking was wonderful after two weeks in the mountains.<\/p>\n

In the morning we went for another soak \u2014 we\u2019d paid, after all, and two weeks without washing hadn\u2019t yet been compensated. If it was relatively empty at night, by morning people had arrived. The springs are popular. People drive from Santiago (about three hours), and there are shuttles \u2014 not from Santiago itself, but from the nearest town with regular bus service to the capital. And not only locals (Chileans) \u2014 people come from Argentina, there was a whole crowd of young American college girls (U.S., that is), and others\u2026 all overheard from conversations between soaking neighbors.<\/p>\n

But aside from soaking with beautiful mountain views, there\u2019s nothing else to do there. There\u2019s supposedly some horseback route, but we\u2019re horses ourselves\u2026<\/p>\n

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We crawled out, blissfully melted from the hot baths, packed our belongings, and drove to Termas del Plomo in the Yeso valley. The valley lies on the other side of Marmolejo, so you have to leave one valley, cross over, and then climb up again. The crossing between valleys goes through the town of San Jose de Maipo.<\/p>\n

We reached the town \u2014 and got stuck. The road in our direction was closed because of a fire. What exactly was burning was unclear, but there was plenty of activity \u2014 from a pile of cars blocking the road to helicopters constantly flying back and forth. Looked like some campground was on fire \u2014 there are many there, it\u2019s a popular getaway for Santiago residents.<\/p>\n

We stood in line, realized night was approaching, there was still a long way to go, and prospects were unclear, so we decided to stay overnight in de Maipo. The map showed a huge municipal campground by the river. We arrived and found magnificent giant equipped empty spaces in a park on the banks of the Yeso. The caretaker living in the far corner said it was closed until\u2026 beyond that our Spanish failed.<\/p>\n

But the caretaker was far away and didn\u2019t care, there was plenty of space by the river, and we settled in perfectly. Good place, and looking for something else at that point would have been madness.<\/p>\n

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In the morning we drove into the Yeso valley \u2014 the road was clear now. On the way you pass along the shore of Yeso Dam, a huge reservoir supplying water to Santiago. \u201cAlong the shore\u201d is generous \u2014 there\u2019s a many-meter drop into the water along its entire length, and a dirt road scratched into the cliff about one and a half lanes wide. Pretty sketchy. I didn\u2019t like it.<\/p>\n

Farther in the Yeso valley is a park, and entry costs about $12 equivalent, but they don\u2019t seem to count days. No control on exit either.<\/p>\n

Look at this charming prickly thing. Calycera herbacea. Local endemic. Don\u2019t ask \u2014 it doesn\u2019t even have a Spanish name, only Latin.<\/p>\n

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View from the aforementioned prickly plant (and park entrance) toward the upper valley.<\/p>\n

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And here are the hot springs. Well \u2014 lukewarm, 29\u00b0C, you wouldn\u2019t even soft-boil yourself. More like try not to freeze. Elevation 2900 m. This nice stream really flows straight out of a hole in the rock. That\u2019s common here. Water appearing from nowhere. The water itself is cold. The stone pool wall built around it is pure decoration \u2014 yes, there\u2019s a knee-deep basin, but completely cold. People actually bathe in the puddles below.<\/p>\n

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View of the bathing puddles through Erythranthe lutea (monkeyflower).<\/p>\n

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The waterfall from the hole, closer.<\/p>\n

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Some cheerful Phrymaceae.<\/p>\n

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The campground has a proper water closet and sinks (water from the nearby stream). Lukewarm springs, and flat space for tents. When we arrived there were three tents; by the time we walked around, they had vanished.<\/p>\n

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Where there\u2019s water, there are plants.
\nTropaeolum polyphyllum<\/p>\n

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And birds. Creamy-rumped miner (Geositta isabellina). They nest in burrows. <\/p>\n

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We pitched camp; climbing into the \u201chot\u201d springs didn\u2019t feel appealing yet (not exactly warm at nearly 3000 m), so we decided to hike \u2014 a trail to a mountain lake with views of our unyielding Marmolejo was promised.<\/p>\n

First up the Yeso valley. Behind us \u2014 the springs and Marmolejo, dominating everything.<\/p>\n

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Yeso drops into a canyon.<\/p>\n

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Calceolaria.<\/p>\n

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Larrea nitida.<\/p>\n

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Mutisia.<\/p>\n

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Marmolejo and Yeso.<\/p>\n

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We continue ascending along the Yeso.<\/p>\n

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Seneceo aka ragwort<\/p>\n

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A little further on, a stream flowing down from somewhere above will join the Yeso on our side, while the Yeso itself will vanish into a hole in the rock. Or rather, it flows out of it. The water here likes to run through the cracks in the rock.<\/p>\n

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The hole from which Yeso flows out.<\/p>\n

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It flows there.<\/p>\n

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The stream flowing into it.<\/p>\n

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Monkeyflower<\/p>\n

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We turned away from the Yeso and headed upstream\u2014somewhere roughly in the direction from which the stream flows.
\nNastanthus spathulatus<\/p>\n

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We are approaching the lake.<\/p>\n

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A family of Magellanic geese lived on the lake\u2014with ten goslings.<\/p>\n

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As we approached, they decided to feign fright and go for a swim in the lake. Their acting, however, was unconvincing.<\/p>\n

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The lake<\/p>\n

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From the other side.<\/p>\n

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Leaving the lake.<\/p>\n

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\u0421haetanthera apiculata. I first spotted it back during our last year trip \u2014though it wasn’t in bloom at the time. But now… here it is.<\/p>\n

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The trail was beautiful; I am extremely glad that we took a hike along it. We descended back to the camp and had some tea with our friend, <\/p>\n

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and realized that immersing is inevitable.<\/p>\n

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For why, after all, did we come?<\/p>\n

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I\u2019ll share the technology for visiting these, uh, \u201chot\u201d springs.
\nYou step in, shivering slightly from the cold. Sit down \u2014 the water will reach your neck. Then you shuffle around with your backside, searching for a warm thin stream. They exist, but not in abundance. You find one, anchor yourself over it as best you can, and warm your backside \u2014 and through it, your whole body. The thin streams aren\u2019t stable; after a while they disappear, and you urgently crawl along the bottom searching for a new one. Without a warm thin stream under you, it\u2019s cold sitting in that puddle. Getting out is cold too, so you keep searching until they vanish or external circumstances call.<\/p>\n

On the plus side \u2014 nobody around.<\/p>\n

We warmed our backsides, bravely climbed out, spent the night. In the morning we headed toward Santiago, but first decided to explore a tributary of Yeso just around the corner from the springs\u2026<\/p>\n

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There are some really cool rock formations around here.<\/p>\n

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It flows out from beneath the rock\u2014that seems to be quite a common thing around here.<\/p>\n

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You can’t go anywhere without flowers. Morning glories grow everywhere.<\/p>\n

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More Phrymaceae.<\/p>\n

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On the way back \u2014 the Yeso reservoir.<\/p>\n

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That concluded our acquaintance with the hot springs.
\nFor the night we stopped once more in de Maipo, this time at a civilized campground with a hot shower and a pool. We grilled meat and indulged our organisms with beef and Carmen\u00e8re overlooking the Yeso.<\/p>\n

Santiago, based on two visits, will get a separate story.<\/p>\n

Discuss on FB<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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Since I\u2019m practically an amphibian \u2014 and a thermophilic amphibian at that \u2014 and the weather nastiness on San Jos\u00e9 left us with a few spare days, we decided to drive around the hot springs. The ones . . . → Continue reading Andean vacation. Hot springs<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":171,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[515,344,317],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mscreativity.ca\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8095"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mscreativity.ca\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mscreativity.ca\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mscreativity.ca\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/171"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mscreativity.ca\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8095"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mscreativity.ca\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8097,"href":"https:\/\/mscreativity.ca\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8095\/revisions\/8097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mscreativity.ca\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mscreativity.ca\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mscreativity.ca\/writing\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}