Christmas fun: sunburn

The past two Christmases I've been fortunate enough to be able to go hiking up mountains. Last year, I visited the Pyrenees and got to fool around in waist-deep snow surrounded by peaks that looked like giant meringues. This year, it was all about sunburn...

Escaping the pressure cooker that is Santiago city is fantastic. The atmosphere is clean and the air is still, free from the noise and the crowds. Travel just a few kilometres south-east and you're in the foothills of the Andes.

Getting there is really fun. Civilisation takes you as far as the outer suburbs of the city by Metro, and then it's onto a micro. Micros are quickly achieving legendary status in my mind. They are small buses, very, very old and rattly, that the driver proceeds to hurtle around country lanes at around 100km per hour. Usually the driver has music blaring - accompanied by a sign that says something like: the radio on this vehicle is fixed at an adequate volume, get used to it. And then there's the in-house entertainment. Buskers and street-sellers use the micros as a regular source of income from a captive audience - so far I've endured rappers, ice-cream sellers, plaster sellers and a clown that told homophobic jokes. Most of the time I feel dreadfully uncomfortable, but however inappropriate the clown was, I did feel sorry for him. It was a tough crowd.

Anyway, back to the countryside. Having been dropped off in the middle of nowhere by the micro we made our way on foot to the Rio Clarillo nature reserve - a type of national park centred around a small river. A slight miscalculation on our timing meant we had an hour's walk under the midday sun from the gatehouse to the start of the reserve proper. You can guess from the title what happened.

After a spot of lunch, we went for a dip in the crystal clear spring. Now how many people can say they did that on the 28th of December? Then we headed up one of the foothills on a nature trail, a supposedly 'easy' path that had me puffing and gasping and dragging myself up by the handrail. Thankfully we were rewarded by a fabulous view, lizard-spotting and I think, on a distant craggy mountain-top, an eagle.

The scenery was amazing, pretty green, despite the arid conditions. There were giant cacti everywhere - and I mean giant, at least twice as tall as I am. We took in another trail through an arboretum, this walk a lot more leisurely, which showcased many native tree species, including one called 'Laura'!

By late afternoon, the midges started to swarm by the river so we headed for home, the three kilometre walk back to the gatehouse feeling even more exhausting after a full day's walking. Then we hopped back on the micro and returned to the city, thankful for a day's respite and for finally having the chance to see some of Chile's gorgeous countryside.