san cristobal

it took me awhile to finally get around to doing the few touristy things there are to do in Santiago. the first thing on my list was to go up the hill "Cerro San Cristobal", the most noticeable and one of the largest hills in the city due to the big statue at the top that's always lit up - la virgen inmaculada, a symbol of the Catholic belief of the "immaculate conception". whatever that's supposed to mean. (just kidding, but religion definitely is not my forte)

here is a picture of cerro san cristobal that i took from the balcony of my friend's apartment



the first time i went up the hill was when my friend from california was visiting me from studying abroad in buenos aires, argentina

this day also happened to be the first time i had ever seen snow on the mountains in Santiago!

photo i snapped of Plaza Italia walking to meet up with some friends! snow!

the quickest and least strenuous way to get to the top of cerro san cristobal is to take the "funicular" - an elevator thing sort of like a ski gondola that's on tracks and takes you up to the top

el funicular 

some views from the top of the hill! lots of smog though :(

me, sabina, chloe, lucy

the second time i went up to san cristobal was in the evening:

Santiago de Chile

photos from the inside of the little worship display beneath the statue

city lights!

i got the best view as my friend sylvia and i decided to walk the full 6 kilometers to the bottom of the hill. 

this was not the smartest decision for a few reasons:

1. it was 7 pm and the sun had already completely set

2. the road we had to walk down had no street lights and was secluded on both sides by huge trees

3. a lady that worked on the hill had warned us to not have any of our valuable belongings visible because there have been multiple instances of muggings 

we might have questioned our judgement a few times while trekking down the hill but luckily everything turned out to be fine, and i got to take this awesome picture: