Funicular and aerial high ropes adventures in sunny Santiago

Santiago was our entry point into Chile, one of the most elongated countries in the world. As such it is also one of the most varied places one can visit as it stretches from the equatorial tropics in the north all the way down to chilly Cape Horn, which is only 600 miles of treacherous voyage from Antarctica. With so much country to explore, and several reasonably long flights in the last few days, we decided to relax into a long weekend in the capital before heading south.

Good times on Mount San Cristobal

It would be a stretch to say that Santiago is dominated by the peak of Cerro San Cristobal, not least because the other three main hills around Santiago are each slightly taller, and of course the Andes loom on the horizon of the city. However it seemed to us that San Cristobal and the figure of Mary that stands tall at its peak were a constant presence over us during our time here. With it so close to where we were staying it was the least we could do to go to the top. The great thing about this is that there is a range of unusual transport media to take on the mountain.

First, a funicular from street level up to the top (see note on pre-booking below). Halfway up there is a stop for the zoo that we bypassed, instead heading straight to the summit. There we skirted the food and tat stores and headed straight up to the statue of Mary and her commanding views of Santiago.

The vistas were wonderful, but there’s only so long one can gaze, and so we pretty quickly sought out the cable car station. First a funicular, now a cable car! The cable car takes you along the spine of the hill, and at the other end you exit the Estación Oasis right beside the high ropes adventure park.

High ropes aerial adventure park

Rafe and Odessa love a high ropes course. They climb indoors quite a bit at home both bouldering and roped. We have also sought out and enjoyed climbing several times on this trip including Bangkok (indoor), Cairo (indoor), Ao Nang (outdoor) and Llo (via ferrata). So in short, they’re pretty confident with ropes and heights. No sooner had they spotted the Parque Aventura they were straight in there!

Your height determines which of the three difficult grades you fall into and hence the activities you can do. Rafe made it in to the Puma level, but Odessa was firmly in the base Pudu group. For Rafe this meant he could do the long zip wires which were certainly high up and exhilarating. But aside from that, in truth Rafe found the rest of the course a little tame and easy for him, and Odessa even more so. She came away disappointed with the level of peril involved in her lowest level course, upset she couldn’t do the harder stuff with Rafe that she knew she could conquer. The high levels of supervision and safety here contrast directly with the enormous Bayeux Adventure park that Rafe and I went to in Normandy a couple of years ago where we both had a great time all day, but also came away with concussion and were very close to serious injury on several occasions (highly recommended!).

On the return cable car trip we got off at the intermediate Estación Tupahue stop. Here, aside from a very busy outdoor swimming pool and a cafe offering an ice cream opportunity, there is the historic Tupahue fort and also (and this was the real draw), one of the few geocaches to gather in the area which we bagged on a pleasant stroll through the hilly parkland.

Endless playparks

The subtext to our entire trip could easily be “playparks of the world”, and Santiago delivered in spades. The Mapocho River runs broadly ESE to WNW across the centre of Santiago, with much of its south bank populated by parks, green space and frequent playparks. A good few hours were spent touring these, avoiding the morning sprinklers along the way, making our way eventually to see Ulla out to the west of the city centre. After a few weeks without monkey bars this was a great opportunity for the kids to rebuild their strength and burn off some energy.

How we did it

Top funicular trip tips

We definitely recommend pre-booking the funicular + cable car combined tickets here before going to the foot of the mountain to board your ride. We didn’t pre-book our tickets, and therefore joined a queue of people increasingly hot and exasperated as people cruised by brandishing their advance booked timed tickets. We paid for the funicular+cable car combined ticket starting at ground level (Pio Nono station), but we didn’t take the additional tourist bus option.

It was a pretty warm and sunny day when we went up San Cristobal. There are water bottle filling stations at the top of funicular and also at each of the cable car stations. There is also an outdoor swimming pool (is the lido still a thing?) at the intermediate cable car station Estación Tupahue, which we didn’t visit but looked very inviting so take your swimming gear.

Good eatin’ in the area

We don’t often write about the food we’ve had on the trip. Lima was an exception as it was exceptional. Hot on its heels in Santiago the food highlight was a gloriously straightforward, meaty breakfast at Fuenta Alemana. As so often the case, the best things are the simple ones really well, and this was a great example. A hot plate in the middle of the bar and friendly staff who seemed to have been doing this a long time, delivering baps filled to the rafters with pork or beef and a few extras of your choice. This was a breakfast that saw us properly through the day. It also seems to be something of a local institution judging by the rest of the local clientele and the arrival of a CNN film crew.

We spent a very enjoyable evening at Patio Bellavista, a vibrant area crammed with restaurants, bars and craft shops in Barrio Bellavista which is known as an artsy neighbourhood. We sampled sushi, ate huge Nutella filled crepes and generally took in the ambiance while sipping pisco sours.

Hostel

We stayed at the very well located Hostel Merced 88, on the edge of the Bellas Artes district and south of the river from Bellavista. Our room with a balcony looked out on the leafy Parque Forestal and the hostel had one of Odessa’s favourite things, a rooftop bar. A pool table and table football in the common areas were hits for Rafe.

* Rafe’s list of potential cable car failure modes

• A plane cuts the cable
• Cable failure
• The arm of the grappler fails
• The wheels on the grappler failing
• Car too full and it hits something
• Support tower collapses
• Too heavy entering the station resulting in crash
• The doors fail and we get stuck in there for all eternity
• The doors fail and we fall out
• A big bird flies in the window and pecks us to death
• The cable car stops and we are stuck there