First stop in Santiago …..
So happy that my Son James is joining me for the next two weeks of the trip! We hiked to the top of Parque Metropolitano Cerro San Cristóbal. The massive hill in the middle of Chile provides the best views over Santiago with 306 degree vistas and the 722 hectares park that surrounds it is Santiago’s largest green space.
We hiked up the steepest switchback trail on this hot pre-summer day in Santiago. It was Sunday morning and it seemed like half the city was out and enjoying this beautiful park.
At the top of hill, sits the Virgen de la Inmaculada Concepción statue. The featured pic of this post is from this base of this 14 meter solid white landmark with the noon sun proving its shining crown. James and I snapped at shot near the statue’s feet with the Bellavista end of the park and city in the background. Locals told me that we were in the exact location where Pope John Paul II said mass to local crowds in 1984.
For fun and to get down the hill the lunch, we took the gondola down to get a good view of the other side of the park with multiple picnic, hiking and recreation areas.
Walking through beautiful local streets of Santiago back to our hotel we stopped for a very leisurely almuerzo of multiple types of Ceviche and Cusquena cervezas. Not a bad start to the day!
#santiago, #CerroSanCristóbal, #chile,