Cerro San Cristobal

Yesterday D and I decided to take advantage of our last day of doing nothing (he goes back to Valpo since his U is finally stopping the strike and we both are working this weekend) and hit Cerro San Cristobal for some much needed exercise. And of course because I'd been whining about wanting to see "la cordillera" for several days. Winter may mean hell here in many ways, but at the same time, it's the only time we get to enjoy the mountains in their blanket of snow. Due to a lot of rainfall, the mountains have been gorgeous. Anyways, we were debating going or not because it was the first "pre-emergencia" day for bad air. Pollution, oh so yummy! We sucked it up and decided to go fill our lungs with smog and take pictures while we were at it.
Cerro San Cristobal is a large park towards the middle of Santiago and is a great place for some exercise in what most approximates nature in this wonderful metropolis and that of course includes a massive incline that you may be missing in other workouts (treadmills here, anyone? yeah, no incline, just flat, flat, flat boredom). On weekends it is full of cyclists and runners of both the beginner and hardcore persuasion, and of course, tourists. Tons of them. In the summer D and I would run up and at the top treat ourselves to some mote con huesillo (a chilean treat made of highly sweetened peach juice, some kind of cooked grain like barley - that's the mote - and dried peaches that have been re-juicified - those are the huesillos - I find it very delish when done well). It is quite the refreshing treat on a hot summer day, and I especially like the ones on San Cristobal. Often the street vendors give you tiny portions with narsty crusty bits of peach. No good. But then again, some are, so it's hit or miss I guess. Before I go any further, I have a very important and necessary disclaimer: do not go alone. Just don't do it, do not run that risk because I highly doubt it's worth it. San Cristobal is a big place and people with not the best of intentions can easily hide away and attack when they please. I don't mean this to scare anyone off, just to be completely clear that you keep your gringa/gringo head screwed on straight (or wherever your head may hail from).
So, I've been wanting to go for about a week now, a desire seriously reinforced after seeing Kyle's badass photo she took from the top of San Cristobal and put as her new header. Sick photo. So disclaimer no. 2: my photos aren't gonna look anything like that, but perhaps they will allow you to approximate between them to get a sense of what these mountains really look like. I usually run up the 5 kilometers from the bottom to the top of the hill, but today I decided to bike up with D. I was nervous about it because the first and only time I did it I thought I was literally going to die and was moving so slowly I thought the bike would fall over from lack of momentum. Sad story. But I'm glad to say that my gym membership seems to have paid off, even though I've been really bad lately and only going about twice a week. I could've made it up to the top without stopping if D hadn't had a fit of a smog attack. Suffice to say he does not have a gym membership.
Here we are before our adventure up

My favorite picture during our rest where D got annoyed at me for being so sucky at taking one handed photos of us. So typical, D trying to fix the damn thing and me just peeing my pants laughing.
The mountains!!!! And the smog blanket I breathe everyday. If this is pre-emergency, what on earth is emergency going to look like? Ugh. I don't want to know.
And then on the way down I saw this crazy tree. I don't remember what it's called, it's not the monkey puzzle tree, is it? I don't think so, but it is pretty sweet. It has cactus-like spiky thingies as leaves. I asked D what he thought it was and he said "pino" - pine. Yeah I don't think so honey, it's not exactly your average Christmas tree.
Speaking of Christmas, I am currently listening to Christmas pretending it is the holidays. Perhaps in a near future post I will explain the US ex-pat need to celebrate Christmas in July here. I'm just setting the mood to celebrate my holiday season. It helps me through the winter, people. I bake holiday cookies, too. I'll let you know when, and we can rejoice in spice cookie bliss and hot cocoa.