Cerro Santa Lucia is a small hill in the centre of Santiago that is a popular and pretty city park; it allows for good views of the city and the nearby Andes. So, even though my iPhone doesn’t register steps, I decided to climb it and see for myself. (‘Cerro’ is Spanish for hill.)
The buildings at the foot of the hill look distinctly neoclassical in style, and I even wondered if the statue of Neptune came from Rome somewhere. The palm trees gave it a tropical feel, too. I think the buildings were built a little over 100 years ago, although the hill itself was founded (if that makes sense) by city founder Pedro de Valvidia in 1541.
Although it’s only a small hill, there were lots of steps to climb, and many of them were quite slippery – a good thing it wasn’t raining or snowing. The views kept changing as I got higher, and the garden ambience was very pleasant, so it was all quite manageable.
The city buildings gradually emerged into view, some of them providing mirror-like reflections of views too. As well as buildings, I could also see Cerro San Cristobal, Santiago’s other main hill, which is a bit higher than Cerro Santa Lucia. (I’ll climb that one too before I leave.)
Near the top of the climb, there are some religious items, including a chapel and a statue of the first archbishop of Santiago. And lots of that beautiful blue sky, too!
Finally, the last set of steps appeared, leading to a small lookout on the top of the hill, with splendid views of the city and of the nearby Andes.
The photo at the top of this blog was taken from the top of the hill. Here are a few others of a similar kind, to show the spectacular nearby mountains. Still a bit of snow-capping, despite the warm spring weather (as the mountains are a good deal higher than the city).
There were lots of flowers around the park, such as these examples:
After my climb, I needed some nourishment, and so wandered nearby to nearby Barrio Lastarria, which was mostly centred around one street, but with lots of interesting walls and eating places. I saw these lovely murals, not yet graffitied, so obviously quite new (you may need to click on the photos to see them properly):
The largest of these murals was huge and is dedicated to Gabriela Mistral, the poet who was Chile’s first winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. The other murals shown here were very cleverly done I thought, especially the one with the trolley bus – using part of the actual walls in the murals. The people in the street almost look to be part of them in fact.
I indulged in an ice-cream in Emporio La Rosa, which was described as one of the twenty five best ice-cream shops in the world. That seemed a good enough recommendation to give it a try. The ice-cream was OK, and I enjoyed it, but I did not think it was especially wonderful; maybe the other twenty four shops might be even better?
I also noticed a small movie theatre and indulged myself even more, as they were showing the recent film Loving Vincent, which is constructed entirely from hand-paintings in the style of Vincent van Gogh. We had a communication breakdown when I purchased my ticket, however, as the ticket seller was trying to get me to use the device shown below.
I thought at first that it was some kind of lucky dip, but eventually I realised that he was asking me (in fact, demanding of me) to choose my seat. Each little roll of paper had the associated seat number … a neat bit of low technology, once you understand it! Somewhere in the back of my mind I remembered the word pantalla for screen, fortunately, which was a pretty big clue to the whole thing.
And the film? It was wonderful, describing Vincent’s life (but mostly the events surrounding his untimely death). Hand-painted by a dedicated team of around 100 artists, certainly a new direction in film-making that I thoroughly enjoyed. It finished with the haunting song, Starry Starry Night, one of my favourites, too.
Another thoroughly enjoyable day in Santiago.
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