Santiago from within and out

These past couple of months have been full of work and play, the epitome of a year abroad in which I want to experience as much as possible of Santiago, both within and out of the office.  This has meant many hours spent recently dedicated to learning about the telescopes here in Chile, applying to use the new ALMA observatory in the Atacama Desert, and preparing for observations with the Gemini South observatory, a giant optical telescope with an 8-meter diameter mirror.  Chile is known for its astronomy, its clear skies, and that's why I'm here.  But, these same skies and landscapes lure me outside apart from astronomy, the cordillera surrounding Santiago calls to me as I'm biking to or from the office, asking me to promise me to come play after I have met my deadlines.  And so I have, on bike and on foot, inside the city and out.  Along with several of my Fulbright compatriots, who apparently have the same ideas in mind for adventure.

View of Santiago.

And when I return to real life, I apologize that I haven't had time to share with you all via my blog.  Any of these adventures merited its own post, but in the end, this single post will have to serve merely as a bookmark for some photos, which I hope will tell more of the story.  And, the post can also serve as an invite, a message that I am relaying to you from the landscapes that surround me here, asking you to come for a visit so that soon we can experience something like this together.  You won't regret putting aside your daily life for a while, I promise. At least I didn't.

Bici-cultura

Riding my bike down the main road in Santiago, called the Alameda, was an experience I couldn't pass up.  Emily, a Fulbright friend, is an avid partaker in cultural activities throughout Santiago, and particularly has been involved in bike events which have had a recent surge in popularity around the city.  The hoards of bicyclists converged on a plaza downtown, and we took off with stops along the way at culturally interesting destinations.  One stop involved riding up Cerro Santa Lucia, a historically important hill (cerro means hill) in the center of the city, and we had enough time to climb on foot to the top and get a better view of the city.  In general, it's fun to be involved in this type of event and to see that hundreds of others, all ages and many families, are pushing for more of a bicycle culture, and taking over downtown on occasion.  Also, at the end of the ride, we made screen-press t-shirts as a cool bici-souvenir!

None of my own photos, but we make an appearance here!

Cerro Provincia

Two Fulbrighters, "Camp Counselor Kyle" and "Old Man Chris" (the nicknames naturally came after several hours hiking together), and I have been formulating a plan to climb the largest nearby mountain, Cerro El Plomo, by the end of the year.  With this goal in mind, we decided to hike Cerro Provincia to kick off our "training".  We arrived to the park via city bus and a short taxi ride, and most of the hike we enjoyed a view of Santiago below, sometimes reminding us of our proximity to our city-lives below, as well as our relief to escape the smog that curtained the city. We stayed the night in the shelter at the top, a geodesic dome providing little more than a roof and floor, but certainly adequate for maintaining bodyheat from the seven of us (a group of 4 Chileans shared the shelter with us) as we slept.  Kyle brought all of the equipment for cooking a delicious spaghetti dinner, and indulgent oatmeal-PB-nutella breakfast -- food to warm the body and soul.  The hike down we discovered Santiago in all its glory, because the smog from the day before didn't return and we could pick out more details below.  Two days above the city, away from internet (but amazingly enough close enough to the city to have cell signal), and greeting the other hikers along the trail was a refreshing break from my normal routine, and a baby-step towards our goal of El Plomo. Hopefully this is just the introduction to the hiking saga.

More photos here.

Beautiful breakfast.

Cerro San Cristobal

Emily was the link to this "get-to-know-your-city" event as well, this time a hike through the trails of Cerro San Cristobal, the larger cousin of Cerro Santa Lucia, and near the downtown.  An foundation called "Sendero de Chile" (Trail of Chile) organized the tour of the trails which they maintain, with the goal of exciting Santiaguinos about the natural treasures of the city.  I have biked/jogged/walked most of the roads of the cerro, but was amazed at how much I had missed by taking the road-more-traveled.  Our guide showed us the Japanese garden, an amphitheater overlooking the city, the trail where a tourist train used to run in the 1920s, an abandoned restaurant that was a popular destination back in its day, a garden of mediterranean climate plants, the Sendero de Chile HQs with another garden dedicated to sustainability, and even an astronomical observatory from the early 1900s.  Along the way, our guide showed us "then-and-now" photos, introducing us simultaneously to hidden treasures of Santiago past and present.  We were nearly always looking at the Costanera Center, what will soon be the tallest building of South America, and someone also pointed out that some of the buildings which the Costanera Center towers over were the tallest buildings when they were constructed.  One great pleasure of the journey was sharing a Saturday with a group of others, all ages (from about 2 and up) and levels of hiking experience, several nationalities, feeling like we were within the city but not quite.  Truly we were surrounded by large buildings, we saw the smog lift through the day, so there was no doubt that we live in a big city.  But there was a tranquility on the hill, among the trails and trees, that provided a beautiful retreat and a reminder that respite is never far.

More photos here.

The group enjoys a view from the hill.