Cerro San Cristobal

After our business visit and tour at Universidad Católica Football Club earlier this morning, we all headed back on the bus for our next stop of the day, Cerro San Cristobal hill. This hill is located in northern Santiago and is the second highest peak in the entire city. The hill was named by Spanish conquistadors. Cerro San Cristobal is the location of a zoo and Santiago's largest public park.

Students riding the funicular

Funicular track

We exited the bus at the bottom of the hill, and were ready to make our way to the top. Luckily, Cerro San Cristobal has a working funicular, which transported us to the top of the hill. This meant we didn't have to walk all the way to the top. According to Matt Raggi: "a funicular is like a gondola". The path of the funicular was very steep and the ride to the top was not very smooth. Karine and Keighan were both a little scared on our ride up. However, the views were amazing.

Once at the top, there was a large area for taking pictures of the view. There were also many little shops for  souvenirs and snacks. Everyone was starving by the time we got to the top of the hill and many people bought empanadas. You can never have too many of those! At the peek of the hill, there is a 22 meter statue of the Virgin Mary, overlooking the city. Although the views were incredible, they would have been more clear had there not been a large landfill fire that occurred outside the city earlier that morning.

Virgin Mary Statue

Overall, it was a really beautiful and breathtaking site. Cerro San Cristobal was also the starting point of the Santiago cultural city game. After our small break on the peak, we were all ready from the next adventurous activity in the city!

View from the top