The first clear day that most of us were here in Santiago (Sunday 24 June), we climbed Cerro San Cristobal. "Cerro" is Spanish for "hill", and this one rises from the very center of town, about 200 and some meters above the city. It had just rained the day before (while Maritza and I were running around looking at apartments) so the smog was very low and thin, giving us spectacular views. There is a picture of the hill from my apartment in my
previous post. We found a footpath (see image on left; from front to back: Mike, Maritza, Alex and Elliott), but it ran into a road about halfway up so we just walked up that. Lots of runners and bikers, and not too many cars.
We stopped about halfway up and had some yogurt and juice atop a little lookout tower at a little false summit. Mike and Elliott are squinting into the sun, and that's me and Maritza with the palm trees and snowy mountains behind us. We continued up a little ways and from along the road we could see Wei's apartment building (the only one of us who had a place at that point, since he arrived
two weeks before any of us). On the left are Alex, Elliott, Mike and Maritza looking at it. After following several signs towards the "cumbre" and the "Virgen" we made it to the large statue of the Virgin Mary giving a blessing to the citizens of Santiago from atop this central location. Below the figure is an open-air sanctuary, which would be a very pleasant place to have a mid-summer Christmas Mass. We hung around the top and took in all the views. Elliott and Alex decided to
walk back down a trail that we found that leads to the top without joining any roads, but Maritza and Mike and I were intrigued by the funicular lift that runs up the very front, and what seems to be the steepest slope of the hill. It cost I think about $500 or so one way (about one US dollar) and was much quicker than our route up. The gap through the trees on the left is the track of the funicular. A funicular works very much like an elevator, except that instead of being vertical, they rest on train tracks up a steep hillside. It consists of two carts tied directly to each other by a cable hanging over a pulley at the top of the lift. There is only one track, but it splits in the middle for the cars to pass. The two carts act as counterbalances, thus it takes very little power to lift a group of people if there is another group at the top to haul them up with their weight (and high potential energy). We later saw these all over the steep hills of Valparaíso, where they call them ascensores. Below are four views of Santiago from the top. Don't mind the smog.
The first clear day that most of us were here in Santiago (Sunday 24 June), we climbed Cerro San Cristobal. "Cerro" is Spanish for "hill", and this one rises from the very center of town, about 200 and some meters above the city. It had just rained the day before (while Maritza and I were running around looking at apartments) so the smog was very low and thin, giving us spectacular views. There is a picture of the hill from my apartment in my previous post. We found a footpath (see image on left; from front to back: Mike, Maritza, Alex and Elliott), but it ran into a road about halfway up so we just walked up that. Lots of runners and bikers, and not too many cars. 
We stopped about halfway up and had some yogurt and juice atop a little lookout tower at a little false summit. Mike and Elliott are squinting into the sun, and that's me and Maritza with the palm trees and snowy mountains behind us. We continued up a little ways and from along the road we could see Wei's apartment building (the only one of us who had a place at that point, since he arrived 
two weeks before any of us). On the left are Alex, Elliott, Mike and Maritza looking at it. After following several signs towards the "cumbre" and the "Virgen" we made it to the large statue of the Virgin Mary giving a blessing to the citizens of Santiago from atop this central location. Below the figure is an open-air sanctuary, which would be a very pleasant place to have a mid-summer Christmas Mass. We hung around the top and took in all the views. Elliott and Alex decided to
walk back down a trail that we found that leads to the top without joining any roads, but Maritza and Mike and I were intrigued by the funicular lift that runs up the very front, and what seems to be the steepest slope of the hill. It cost I think about $500 or so one way (about one US dollar) and was much quicker than our route up. The gap through the trees on the left is the track of the funicular. A funicular works very much like an elevator, except that instead of being vertical, they rest on train tracks up a steep hillside. It consists of two carts tied directly to each other by a cable hanging over a pulley at the top of the lift. There is only one track, but it splits in the middle for the cars to pass. The two carts act as counterbalances, thus it takes very little power to lift a group of people if there is another group at the top to haul them up with their weight (and high potential energy). We later saw these all over the steep hills of Valparaíso, where they call them ascensores. Below are four views of Santiago from the top. Don't mind the smog.
