Vacations and nice places to go to

2011-04-01 Visiting Cerro San Cristóbal Today we went for a trip to the summit of Cerro San Cristóbal. Lucky for us we had a more or less clear day, but as it is there always seems to be smog covering over Santiago. Today there even was a smog warning and cars with number plates ending on 1-4-9-or 0 were not allowed to drive. But in spite of that we walked from Matura to mount San Cristóbal. This hill is a spur of the Andes and its peak is at 680 meters. The point is marked by the giant statue of the Virgin de la Immaculate. To get to the top of the hill we took the funicular to Terraza Bellavista, where we had a beautiful view over the city of Santiago. From there we had to climb a steep stairs to the huge white Virgin were we enjoyed an even more pretty view over the city with the suburbs disappearing in the haze and just the summits of the surrounding mountains were clearly seen. In and around the Virgin many tourists making pictures, but also a lot of devoted praying going on. The air was filled with religious music coming out of the speakers at the theatre just below the statue. Unfortunately the teleférico was out of order, so we had to go down using the funicular. Once at the summit we walked all the way back home again which took us well over 45 minutes.