Last Friday, we and 3 other friends were set to go to Cajon del Maipo, to enjoy a 1-night stand in a cabin and 2 days of hiking. One of the days of hiking was suppose to include a hike up to a shrinking glacier guided by Al Gore. To start the day off, we woke up to the sound of rain lightly tapping on our illegally tinted windows as if to quietly challenge us. Sine it has only rained one time the whole time we have been down here, this was indeed an unwelcome noise on the day of some outdoor adventures. Like the soldiers on the beaches of Normandy, we disregarded Mother Nature’s forewarning signs and decided to courageously fight through the rain in hopes of catching glimpses of some awe-inspiring landscapes.
We met some friends at the metro station and we were off on the first leg of our journey to get to our eventual destination. The metro trip went fine and now we were a 1/3rd of the way there, but the remaining 2/3rd’s was going to prove to be the challenge. After getting off the metro, we boarded a small bus that took us up the mountain and about 30 minutes away from Cajon. Stepping off the bus into a gloomy afternoon, we were all in high spirits that we would soon be at Cajon.
Our group on the bus!
The gloomy town of San Jose
Our hopes would soon be dashed as the bus driver directed us towards the information office. After being told by several different sources before our trip that there were many collectivos (cheaper taxis) we could catch to Cajon, we thought this would be easy. However, the lady at the information desk delivered some bad information, which I’m not sure if she gets paid to do that. Apparently, the collectivos don’t run up to the Cajon. We would have had to take a bus at 8:30 that morning and that was the only way to get up there for a reasonable price. The lady did say she could arrange a taxi that would cost $60 a person for a 30-minute ride. We politely declined and decided to regrettably return to Santiago not having laid my glacier-blue eyes on any slow-moving masses of ice originating from an accumulation of snow. Sorry, but I didn’t want to use the word “glacier” twice in a sentence.
We stayed in San Jose for a quick bite to eat and had some Chorillana
In order to get our hiking fix we opted to hike the 2nd highest point in Santiago, Cerro San Cristobal. Atop of this hill is a massive statue of the image of the Immaculate Conception, which is about 46 feet high and weighs roughly 80,700 pounds. Needless to say, I think it would be tough for Yao Ming to sink a hook shot over the Virgin Mary. Several elements were hopefully going to combine to make this a spectacular view from the top. The precipitation the day before cleans the smog out of the air and actually turns into snow to add some nice dandruff to the Andes overlooking the city. Also, the lack of city traffic because of Semana Santa weekend also means less smog altogether. So, we proceeded with the 2-hour round trip hike and caught some pretty good views. Pictures below…
Where the snow is in the background is where we supposed to be seeing the glacier
At the top
The Zoo at the top of Cerro San Cristobal
Afterwards we stopped and got sopapillas
We spent our Easter day playing cards with friends and enjoying some "Gato". Gato is a type of boxed wine we found here that is pretty tasty...yes, we are classy!
This weekend, the placement program we went through, TeachingChile, is putting on a mid-semester party. They are providing free booze and are catering in food. As the general consensus from all the other teachers is that we were charged too much, I think everyone is looking to get their money’s worth from this party.
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