Cerro Santa Lucía

Hola amigos! It was another hot weekend, but George and I woke up early on Saturday for an adventure in Santiago. It was still cool out, so we walked from our apartment to Cerro Santa Lucía (Santa Lucía Hill).  Cerro Santa Lucía is a small hill that is a remnant of a volcano, and in 1541, Pedro de Valdiva, a Spanish conquistador and the first royal governor of Chile, officially founded Santiago from the foot of this hill. After the founding of the city, the Spanish conquistadors used Santa Lucia hill as a lookout point.

The Route:

Approximately 3 miles

Along the way, we made a dog friend.  He actually followed us for over a mile and a half... and we didn't feed him or even pet him.  I'm beginning to think George might actually be right about the fact that dogs just seem to like me.  There are many stray dogs in Santiago, but they all seem to be pretty well fed and content.  They all seem to get along with each other and with the pet dogs that people bring to the park.  In fact since being here, there was only one dog that seemed to have a problem, and it was a small yappy dog that an old lady had on a leash.

Our loyal dog friend!

For awhile we had two dog friends.

So I think when you're from Illinois Lincoln haunts you...

Our dog friend also very much enjoyed the morning sprinklers. He had such a great temperament. I think if I was going to be living here permanently I would end up taking in many many dogs...

He followed us all the way to Cerro Santa Lucía, but he decided to visit other dogs at the entrance rather than walking up all the stairs with us.  Pictures from Cerro Santa Lucía:

The entrance!  So many nice Palm Trees!

Pretty

City views

Nice fountain and view of the lookout on top of the hill.  It was quite busy at the top so we did not get any great photos from up there.

Statue of Pedro de Valdivia

Beautiful!

Ok, so this is actually my favorite photo... doesn't it look like a portal??  FUN.

Aside from our Saturday walk, we just did our normal weekly things.  Here are a few extra photos from the week:

Dinner!

Dessert!  I have been cooking dinners, and so George has been supplying desserts :-)

The city from our balcony at sunset.  Happiness.