Hola amigos! This is your boy Anthony with another adventure to tell you guys about. Though I did not got much studying done, I had quite the eventful weekend which I am completely glad about honestly. I noticed that I was stressing myself too much with classes and that I should not waste my weekends trapped in my room like hermit stuffing my nose into endless pages and pages of texts. A friend made a good point when he told me “Dude, stop taking your classes so seriously. Yeah, make time to study of course, but do not make that all you do while here. Did you come to Chile to study or to experience Chile?”. In my heart I knew that I was meant to use my time here to involve myself in this new world, observe, and live it; however, the sharp teeth from my piles of texts scared me to the point of almost forgetting that. Now I feel I am back on track.
At about eleven in morning, my friend Lua, knowing that I was planning on going on my usual run, asks me if I wanted to join her to run towards San Cristóbal Hill. I agreed and did not know what I had exactly agreed to. I knew San Cristóbal Hill was, of course, a hill, but I had no idea how long or tall it was. When I pictured a hill, I was thinking back to Cerro Blanco which I visited on my own and was not that bad to walk up since it was not really wide. This was not the case with Santa Lucia. The hill’s peak turned out to be the second highest point in Santiago reaching at about 2,890 feet (Cerro Blanco, which I spoke about in one of my previous posts, was about 292 feet). Thus, you guys can just imagine my face when I realized what I was facing.
Then run was not as bad I am making it sound, but I will say that I was completely exhausted when I reached the top and my legs were in pain. Lua, even though as worn out as I was, kept saying that we needed to go further, to reach the top. My face said “gurrrl you crazy,” but my legs said “let’s just get this over with.” And get it over with we did. Reaching the top, my eyes grew. The sun beamed down on us and surface at the top of the hill almost glowed. A smile stretched on my sweaty, panting face. “Wow,” was all I could say in the moment.
Like any tourist, we took cheesy selfies and photos of us there and of the landscape, then we sat down and took a good view out from under the Virgin Mary.
We then prayed, both in Spanish and English, and set off to jog back down the trail. I saw an area devoted to things people were thankful for and they would leave a small object behind to express that (usually family photos, rosaries, small notes, etc). I did not have much on me, but found my older brother’s business card in my wallet and decided it would work. Seeing that he recently had a beautiful daughter, I wanted to show that I was thankful for both him and my niece, Rubí.
Though the destination at the top of the hill was certainly a sight to see, without a doubt, the views of the city and of the landscape while jogging up, were just out of this world. Best part about it is that the hill is only about 20 minutes away me, with so many more different trails to go through.
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