Piscina Tupahue

 A couple Sundays ago, Drew and the boys went on a hike with our first friend in Chile, Antonio, who is actually Venezuelan. We met him in Oct. 2023 when we were visiting Santiago for the first time to see if it would be a good fit. We met him playing volleyball, of course, and discovered he is a super nice guy who also loves to hike. So, last Oct., Antonio actually showed us the same hike to the top of Cerro San Cristobal, which is a very accessible hike with a great view of the city and some tourist attractions. We reconnected with Antonio since moving here, and so this time, Drew, the boys, and Antonio did the same hike but from the opposite direction. The boys had a great time, but because they went too early, alot of things at the summit were closed (church, statue of Maria, snack shops). So we said we'd go back.

We take public transit whenever we see things inside the city. The boys love riding the extra long buses that wiggle in the middle.

So, last Thursday, we decided to go back to Cerro San Cristobal, but with a different approach. We still took a city bus to get there. The boys wanted to sit together :)

But this time instead of hiking, we took the gondola up. Its about $4/person round trip, not bad as far as tourist traps go. We also had a buch of gear as we were planning on checking out Piscina Tupahue, which is a public pool located up there. Hiking with all the pool things would have been a bit much. The gondola was very fun, and because we were going on a Thursday, there were no lines. I can imagine though on a weekend in the middle of summer, it might get super busy. There is a designated stop for the Tupahue Pool, but we didn't stop there and instead went all the way to the summit first.

At the top of Cerro San Crisobal is a Catholic Church that we explored. Has Mass there every Sunday at 12pm!

The view from the top also shows you how expansive the city really is, and how small our Vitacura bubble really is. Definitely puts things into perspective. 

The main attraction at the top is a giant statue of Mary. The boys didn't get to see this on their hike, so that was fun to see with them. It's enormous, much larger than this picture makes it seem.

We then took the gondola back down to the Tupahue stop, and checked out the pool, which was $7/adult and $4/kid. The pool was built in 1966 and is considered a National Monument of Chile. It was originally a quarry, and the pool is built using stone from that exact quarry. It's huge, over 80 meters long and 25 meters wide, and apparently can fit 1,800 people. I decided I didn't want to experience the weekend crowds, hence why we went on a Thursday, and it was certainly busy, but not crazy. It had showers, a free bag check, grassy areas to lay out, a snack shack, and a cool center rock outcropping that the boys loved swimming around. The pool was actually quite deep, there really wasn't a shallow kiddie area, hence why the boys liked clinging to the rocks. They rediscovered their love of swimming, and overall it was a very fun day. Most Chilean families seem to spend the entire day at attractions like this; they bring packed lunches, coolers, chairs, etc. and make a day of it. I'm realizing that while the prices for these places seem very reasonable to us, a family making $100K every year, for a family making $510,000 Chilean pesos a month which is the national minimum wage, or about $531 USD, which equates to only $6,372 USD a year, these prices feel steep, so they get their money's worth. Again, definitely puts things into perspective.