One sunny Saturday morning my lovely Chilean, a friend and I decided to go hiking in Los Andes so close by to Santiago city. We caught a lift to the base of the sector cordillerano at the end of La Reina, where we paid $1500 pesos to climb up the mountainside.
The beginning part of the track wasn't very charming but the further up we got, the more we gained a great view of Santiago, despite the impending smog. The looming Gran Torre Costanera, already the tallest tower in Santiago although it is still under construction, looked completely abstract as it quite distinctly towered over the rest of the city. The tower is due to have 70 storeys and be an estimated 300 metres tall. From our angle it even looked bigger than Cerro San Cristobal in the background.
We clambered on, past a stray horse eating from the scrubs budding with cotton-like flowers, building up a sweat as we continued to climb on and on. All of a sudden those familiar South America cactus sprouted up along the hillside; that constant reminder of which mountain range you are exploring. The terrain looked dry and yellowing but as we began our decent down to the Estero San Ramón, a forest-like canopy began to emerge.
Down by the river we found people sun-baking along the rocks. A 30-metre waterfall kept the fresh, flow of cool water constant and the urge to jump right in overcame me, but unfortunately it is forbidden to swim. We crossed the wooden, planked bridge and checked out the ecological toilets, sitting high on stints with giant barrels of compost underneath them.
Now on the other side of the bank, we began the ascent again, dodging the horse poop smothering the track. We came to another wooden, pranked bridge, although this time it wobbled as we crossed. It was the real-deal adventure bridge, the kind you see in Indiana Jones.
By this time 2 and half hours had past and we were now descending the last part of the track. The park has a few tracks to offer, including a 7-hour track right to the peak but we decided to do that another day. As we made our way down, we saw the strangely erect, lonely palm tree blocking our view line. It wasn't a real Chilean white palm tree however. It was actually a telephone aerial so tall that it was disguised as a palm tree to look more in place with its landscape, although the antenna pointing out the top didn't really help its camouflage. Apparently these types of palms are all over Santiago so if you ever come across one, you will notice because although the natural types of these palms are native to Chile, these aerial do rather look out of place.
Once out of the park, we walked along the street checking out the mansions that bordered it. This area on top the hill has become the trendy place for the rich to build super, gigantic houses. There being no public transport, this area completely depends on cars so of course expensive vehicles also lined the street. At the bottom, we stopped for some yummy cheese-filled empanadas (the cheese being a delicacy from the region close to La Serena). Once back at home, however, completely exhausted by this stage, I passed out on my bed and slept the rest of the afternoon.
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