Cerro Manquehue (One of the Most Insane Things I've Ever Done...)

About a month into the semester, the UDD Global Ambassadors organised a hike up Cerro Manquehue, the highest peak in Santiago (1638 metres above sea level). Initially I wasn't planning to go, but my friend persuaded me, telling me it would be easy. Spoiler alert, it wasn't!

The first problem was that for some reason we started hiking at 16:00, the hottest part of the day. And on that particular day, it was at least 30 degrees Celsius, which is not at all pleasant weather for walking uphill. The second problem was that when we started climbing up the mountain, it soon became clear that my trainers were not up to the job, as they have no grip whatsoever. This would have been okay if it were possible to walk the whole way up the mountain, but there are several parts of the hike where you literally have to climb. I just about managed by holding on to rocks and trees to support myself. Unfortunately, at one point I grabbed onto a "tree" without looking at it closely enough and realised all too late that it was in fact a very sharp cactus... Definitely not an experience I want to repeat!

However, once we reached the top a couple of hours later, it all felt worth it. The views were incredible. I could see the Costanera Centre and it looked so tiny!

These are the photographs I took up there:

After that, I thought it would be quite a quick and straightforward climb down the mountain. I never thought that it would take twice as long as the way up! But that is exactly what happened... A group of about twenty of us took the wrong route, and ended up getting just a little bit lost. To make matters worse, the problems with my trainers were even worse going downhill and I ended up falling flat on my back (well... actually on my backside, haha). It hurt so much and I had horrible bruises for a week!

There were people who were going to pick us up in their cars at the end of the hike, which was supposed to finish at 20:00. However, by the time we got to the bottom, it was about 23:30 and they'd already left. In the end, 11 of us found ourselves squeezing into a five-seater car, going against everything I've been taught about road safety!

The hike was hard and painful, there were moments when I wondered if we'd ever get back down again, and sitting down the next day really hurt... However, I feel really glad that I did it. It gave me a sense of achievement, and weirdly, I actually had a lot of fun. It was definitely an experience I won't forget!