Waterfall Hike Up The Andes

On January 15th we went to "Cascades de las Animas" which translates to "The Spirit of the Waterfall." During our visit to the Andes Mountains we had many events in store for us such as a massage, zip lining, horseback riding, white water rafting, and a waterfall hike.
 

During the waterfall hike, we hiked through the mountains to find two waterfalls. Before we reached them, we learned some things about the nature. We learned that one of the trees on the hike was actually able to make shampoo from the bark. We also learned about a poisoned tree which they call "Little Tree," shown in the picture below.

This tree almost acts like a poisoned ivy with leaves and berries that are both poisonous. These trees were all over our hike, but we also found another tree that was used as a medicine to get rid of the poison. The medicine tree works by rubbing the leaves on yourself.

Our tour guide picked berries for us that were edible and allowed us to try them. They were called Maqui Berries and were a dark purple, blue color, almost like a blueberry. Some of us liked them some of us did not, but it was a cool experience.

We also came across a part of the hike which was called "Zona de la Silencia" which translates to silent zone. We had to make sure we were quite while walking in this zone because it was the home of the Pumas. There was two different types of Pumas there, which were caged to ensure safeness. Two children of one of the mother Pumas were both killed by a hunter recently.

One of the waterfalls was called "Cascades de las Animas," just like the name of the park. This waterfall is believed by Chileans that it has a spirit in it, hence it's name. Some of us stuck our feet in to get refreshed.

 Below is a picture of the spirit that the Chileans believe lives in the waterfall.

The second waterfall we saw was a waterfall called "Cascada de Calibri" which was somewhat bigger than the first. These waterfalls were a site to see. We had a lot of fun and "Cascades de las Animas" was a great experience overall hiking through the Andes Mountains.

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