Gliding

Today Daniel finally enjoyed his birthday present - a glider flight above Santiago. He was waiting for a smog-free weekend and today finally dawned clear, after a week of rain had washed the city air clean. Daniel went up as the passenger in a two-man glider and they soared over his favourite mountains - Carbon and Manquehue. He even got to steer the glider for a while!

Before:

Arriving at the glider (Manquehue in the background)

Meeting the pilot

Pre-flight check

Super excited to go!

All closed in...

Held upright to go down the runway

Tied to the big plane and ready for take off!

During:

Going up (see the "tugboat" plane in front)

Cerro San Cristobal

Santiago with Los Andes in the background

Heading straight towards Cerro Manquehue (who's steering?!)

Cerro Carbon and Cerro Manquehue

Approaching the runway for landing (on the right of the river and freeway)

After:

One very happy (birthday) boy!

Cerro San Cristobal

On Sunday afternoon we headed to the northeastern suburbs of El Centro to do a bit of sight-seeing in the Parque Metropolitano de Santiago. This park is home to several trails, Jardín Mapulemu (botanical garden), the Zoológico Nacional, Jardín Japonés, cable cars, a wine museum, and more. We didn’t manage to fit everything into this visit, but we’ll definitely be back with a picnic to explore further.

At the park entrance, we joined the queue at the medieval-style castle, which serves as a station for the 1925 funicular to take visitors to the top of Cerro San Cristobal.

The 45-foot high Statue of the Virgin, donated by France in 1904, dominates the top of the hill. It can be seen from most of El Centro.

The views of Santiago and the Andes are superb at the top of the hill and we could almost make out the snow-sprinkled mountains through the smog!