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Rides in Chile - near Santiago
Horse Riding near Santiago
Our one day ride to El Morado is only 80km(1.5hrs) from Santiago with an impressive Andean environment shaped by tectonic forces and running water. The trail is 16km/5hrs round trip, starting at 1,900m and reaching San Francisco glacier at 2,700m. Afterwards we offer an optional visit to thermal bath and hotsprings at Baños Colina.
Longer rides are available on horseback in this incredible area, where the scenery rivals the best in Chile. Visitors have compared it to the majesty of Patagonia without the journey, and in the months of January and early February the flowers to be seen are like nothing else in the world. The valleys and slopes are carpeted with purple calendrinia, pink ananuca, yellow calceolaria, purple and yellow adesmia and even the comparatively rare almost black jabonaria, and you see it all best from a horse. These mountains are also a pastureland for goats and horses and you will see many domestic animals grazing with their young, as well as wonderful birds - humming birds, siskins, perdices, perhaps a condor.
Longer rides on horseback near Santiago
There are some 6 or 7 separate days which can be put together to make a ride of any number from 3 to 8 days. Rides include the glacier, a high lake with fossils around it, the base of Marmoleo, a mountain refuge used by climbers and a ride up to 'El Avion', the high valley where an aeroplane crashed in 1963. The path up this valley has spectacular flowers and the views everywhere of the mineral colours and rocks of the Andes mountains leave one gasping. A photographer's paradise too, and as we ride at a leisurely pace there is time to take some stunning photographs -although they rarely do justice to the actual scenery. We have a lovely campsite, and there is also the option of a good simple hotel. For people who dislike camping the hotel is a comfortable option, but you miss the evening with the birds and the horses and sleeping among the flowers, and possibly swimming in the ice-cold lake just near the campsite. This is an opportunity to have a ride tailor made to the number of days you have available..
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