A weekend of hiking and prayer

The weekend started with Yom Kippur on Friday night.  One of the large supermarkets that is near the Jewish community sells challah every week and this week (and I assume last but we weren't here) they sold the traditional sweet, round challah for the Jewish New Year.

Mmmmmmm

We went to services at Ruaj Ami which is the more progressive synagogue led by an American-born Rabbi.  It had some familiar tunes but the best part is that Kol Nidre (the opening prayer which is done with the same tune everywhere as far as I know) was done with a french horn.  It was amazing.  They also had drums and a piano.  It definitely livened up services.  Unlike in the States, Yom Kippur is not a fashion show but rather people take the "dressing up in white and with no leather" pretty seriously.  They also, just like Shabbat, tend  to go to services in the evenings so we went to Kol Nidre and Neilah (the closing service).  During the day I always like to take a walk but nobody was in the mood for a big adventure so we went downtown to another hill - Cerro Santa Lucía.  You have to climb up a series of paths and stairs to get up about 70 meters and then get a fantastic view of the city.  There are several monuments on the hill and many places where young couples "hang out."  Most people live at home until they get married so there is a lot more PDA here than elsewhere.

We went to a break-the-fast at a friend's house and stayed up much too late.  Sunday we went to an asado for a birthday party of the wife of Rob's colleague who lives in our neighborhood.  They have four kids, three of which are approximately the same age as our kids.  Jonathan spent the whole time (5 hours?) playing futbol and rugby and I spent quite a bit of time trying to clean the knees of his pants.....

On Monday we had a mellow morning and then headed to Parque Natural Aguas de Ramón.  It was Día del Descubrimiento de Dos Mundos - Columbus Day - and the kids had the day off.

Just 10 minutes from our apartment!

So you think that if you are going to go hiking in a park with a name like that it will all be rivers and waterfalls but....if you are hiking with two people who are interested in water they will, of course, focus on the prominent pipes and water treatment plant in the valley.

Water treatment plant

We finally got up to this park which is all of a 10 minute drive from our apartment but felt like a world away from Santiago (until we looked behind us and saw the skyline).  We thought we'd just try the baby hike which was all of 1 km because we are more kvetchers than hikers but we ended up on a 6.6 km route up a "hill" and into a valley without the best footwear.  Everybody except for me was pretty much kvetch-free.  We're ready for the next adventure.  The Santiago Times, a local English-language newspaper, did a write-up on the hike.  Rachel and Andrew - the kids are game to do it again when you visit.

The way up was very dry and full of cacti

Grandma - this one is for you - it reminded Jonathan of the cactus garden at Stanford

The half way point across the river

Following the leader - She just "loved it"

He showed up all of a sudden and we just let him pass....