Ninety seconds on Cerro San Cristóbal
Worth the ride up to stand beneath the white Virgin you see from all over Santiago, with the whole valley spread around her and a planted pine forest on the slopes below.
The statue at the summit is the Immaculate Conception, a tall white figure on a high stone pedestal. Lights fixed to its sides keep it in view from all over Santiago after dark, so the figure you ride up to is the one you have been seeing from the streets below. A small chapel sits inside the pedestal, where Pope John Paul II prayed and blessed the city.
Look at the forest as you climb. The hill was bare by nature, and the pines and mimosas around you were planted to make the park.
The ride up is part of the visit. The funicular, running since 1925 and now a National Historic Monument, climbs the steep slope on rails, close to the ground.
Starting at the lower station on Pío Nono, you board the funicular for a ride of five to seven minutes. The car stops halfway at the zoo. Stay on to the summit station.
Right off the platform, a circular walkway lined with crosses leads past a small chapel. Stairs climb from there to the statue and the terrace around its base, which is where you stand for the view.
For a different way down, walk to the cable car and ride it to Oasis, the station at the base of the hill. The cable car ticket lets you off at only one station, so stay on past the Tupahue stop. Oasis sits at street level, where taxis are easy to find.
Book your ticket online before a weekend or a public holiday. The queue at the lower station is slow on those days, and riders holding timed tickets walk straight past it. Foreign visitors pay a different rate from residents.
Fill your bottle at the refill points at the top of the funicular and at each cable car station. Go up late afternoon for warm light on the buildings and the mountains, though it is the busiest hour on the hill. Walk up soon after the park opens for clear air and a quieter summit.
Smoking and lighting fires are banned across the park, and the picnic grills are not in use. Cyclists share the summit road at up to 30 kilometres an hour, so walkers keep to the edge.
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