Sunday, April 30th

So, Santiago, while not a hilly city like Valparaíso, has a couple of cerros, or hills, scattered throughout the city. There are seven or eight major ones, and I explored two. I heard news that there would be a food festival on Cerro Santa Lucía today, so I headed to check it out [*]. I live near this cerro. It's only three metro stops away or about a 25-minute walk east. I did have some trouble with trying to buy a ticket online. They were using a Chilean ticket website to handle payments, and it didn't accept foreign credit cards. I have encountered this before with certain things in Chile and Argentina in the past, and it seems to have only got worse nowadays. However, I could pay in person, using a foreign credit card, funnily enough, and I got in, ready to check out the Ñam Food Festival.

I first picked up some tacos from a restaurant called Tlayolli [†]. They had one vegetarian taco called the Taco de Jamaica, where the main topping was hibiscus flower, which was interesting. I hadn't had that before. The other was a classic Taco Al Pastor that was delicious. They had a pretty popular stand, I will say. I had to wait a bit for my food. But I wandered over to the drinks tent for some beer, and they were ready by the time I returned.

Next, I picked up some interesting empanada-looking things. I later learned that these are Bolivian salteñas, similar to an empanada but filled with more of a soup or stew filling rather than the usual Chilean pino beef filling. They were also good, and I got a beef and vegetarian variety from the Jigote food stand [‡].

Aside from the food, Cerro Santa Lucía is a pretty cool place in the city. It's full of greenery, plants, fountains, squares, and old churches and stuff. There is a statue and plaque at the top of the hill proclaiming that this location is where Pedro de Valdivia declared the region for Spain and founded modern Santiago in 1540. As such, it is full of history, and now there are excellent views of the city as it has grown around the hill.

After sightseeing on the hill, I picked up some dessert and headed back home. The doughnuts I picked from Free the Donut were exquisite [§]. The jam-filled one was my fav, but the chocolate was no slouch.

Saturday, May 6th

Perhaps to make up for the food indulgence of last weekend, I decided to check out another famous cerro in Santiago, the Cerro San Cristóbal [¶]. This hill is much bigger than Santa Lucía hill, maybe five times as large. It also connects to a range of hills that lead out of the city. Some long hikes and bike trails can take adventurers on a multi-day journey out of Santiago. And all of this is accessible from the heart of the city. Cerro San Cristóbal is ringed by the metro and can be accessed by three lines. It's great! The cerro hosts the Parque Metropolitano, a Japanese Garden, public pools, an observatory, a statue of the Virgin Mary, and associated churches and parishes. There is also a cable car system with multiple ways up and down the hill. It was a complete package for a day of adventure in the city, and I took it up on the offer. I think I walked ten kilometres up the crisscrossing paths to one of the peaks, where I saw an old chapel and got great views of Providencia.

I eventually crossed from the central peak, past the observatory, towards the statue of the Virgin Mary. This area has good access from the cable car to the bottom of the hill. As such, it is more touristy, with vendors selling food and trinkets. Beneath the statue is an outdoor auditorium for sermons and an old church building, along with sculptures, graves, and other religious things.

And finally, my funny find of the afternoon. This statue of a head peeking out from the bushes and judging the passers-by.

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[*]	Cerro Santa Lucía

[†]	Tlayolli, Punta Arenas 10, Providencia, Región Metropolitana, Chile

[‡]	Jigote Salteñeria, Av. Gral. Bustamante 280, local 2, Providencia, Región Metropolitana, Chile

[§]	Free the Donut, Arauco 1011, Santiago, Región Metropolitana, Chile

[¶]	Parque Metropolitano, Av. El Cerro, Providencia, Región Metropolitana, Chile