Driving Up Cerro San Cristobal Hill

On Sunday we visited Cerro San Cristobal, the iconic hill that overlooks Santiago with the statue of the Virgin Mary on top. We took the video below as we slowly drove up the road that takes you to the top of the hill. The first minute is really shaky though it gets better from there on in. The video is below:



Notice all of the 'healthy' people walking, running and cycling up to the top - not easy in the summer heat. This is quite a common activity on the weekend (we took this on a Sunday) and it can be interesting watching all the different types of people and characters that are going up or coming down the hill. Check out some of the panoramic views of the northern part of Santiago from half way up.

We had to start the video from just after going through the gates at the bottom of the hill so that it would fit into the maximum 10 minutes allowed on YouTube but at least you get an idea of how it is.

In order to take your car up the hill, you have to pay $2.000 Chilean Pesos (February 2009).
The best time to go up Cerro San Cristobal is after a day of rain since the rain clears away the smog and you have an amazing view of the entire city (instead of a haze in the distance). Also when it rains in winter it leaves a lot of snow on the Andes Mountains down to a low level.

Tomorrow I’ll try and put up the panoramic video of Santiago that I took from the top.

Does anyone here regularly run or cycle up this hill on the weekend?