goodbye smog cloud, hello los andes!

Santiago is located in a valley surrounded on all sides by mountain ranges.  Beautiful, yes, if you could actually see them.  It's a blessing and a curse because these same mountains keep the smog concentrated over the city and is especially apparent when you try to do any activities that involve a little bit of exertion...like jogging half a mile.  Not too much oxygen around to help you out there.

And so a group of us decided to get away from the city on our day off and climb the peaks directly east of Santiago, the edge of the Andes.  All we had to do was take the 403 bus at 7AM all the way to the end and then a smaller bus about five minutes to reach Parque Mahuida, a communal park with farms, rodeos, camping, and hiking.  We went for the hiking.  The climb was long and the trail was incredibly steep and dry made up of loose sand and lots of rocks.  We had to constantly be looking down at where we were stepping because one loose rock or slip on the sand would mean a very unpleasant tumble down the mountain.  The landscape was pretty shrubby and dry as well but as we climbed, we could feel the air getting clearer.  We had a view of Santiago the entire climb but as we got higher and higher, the city disappeared under the brownish gray cloud of smog until we could only see what was immediately below us at the foot of the mountain.  After about four or five hours, we reached the ridge where when we looked over the other side away from the city, there was the vast opening to the many peaks of the Andes.

Santiago under the smog cloud.

Entry into Los Andes

There are stray dogs all over Santiago and the park was no exception.  A big pack of them followed us for about half an hour as we climbed but started to fall back the further we got, except for one little guy.  He was a little black pup that followed us the entire length of the hike, sat with us while we ate lunch on a peak, and then led us back down.  I say led, because on a few occasions, he found the trail for us when we lost it.

No water anywhere on the way up, the pup had to be thirsty

The crew at the top!

It was certainly nice to get out of the city for the day and to get some work in for the legs.  This weekend, we move to Hostelling International where we'll join the rest of the volunteers for Inglés Abres Puertas and start the Ministry of Education training.  I'm excited to meet them all!

Besitos