Aneya & Lauren: Park in La Reina.

Aneya: Check out those Andes! At twilight they're especially clear.



Aneya: I was trying to get Lauren to jump, this is what ensued.


Aneya: Lauren told me she used to hang upside down from these things all the time, so I told her to show me. Well, this took a while. First she tried climbing up it, but was too scared to swing down. Finally, she got it!

Aneya: So last week a new friend of mine took me out to show me all the different parts of Santiago I hadn't seen yet (turns out, there are many!) One of the places he took me was a beautiful park in La Reina (a suburb north of Santiago, right up against the Andes). The park used to be called Parque Intercomunal and is now Parque Padro Hurtado (Chileans love changing the names of things- streets, monuments, parks). Ya know, just to be confusing.

Lauren: It was so confusing. It took me forever to find it online, because older posts had it as parque intercommunal. But then there was this other name coming up, and Google wasn't yielding anything. I wanted to see this foresty park! Finally I found a post about the name change.

Aneya: It is one of the most beautiful parks I've ever been to. When my friend took me it was sunset, the mountains were a deep purple, the sky was pink, the rolling grass going on forever. The park has a cute little lake where you can rent boats, ducks floating around you. It also has ponies you can rent, a little train that runs through it and a large stadium for shows (or impromptu football games) It's really just lovely.

Lauren: It's gigantic. It was so nice. When we finally found this place, there was just so much to do there. The lake was super adorable, tons of ducks with really stranger coloring, little paddle boats, oh, and the huge, gigantic Andes.

Aneya: So anyway, I decided I had to take Lauren to this amazing place, what with her being a tree lover and all. My friend had driven me there, and it was far-- probably an hour outside of the city-- but I figured it couldn't be that hard. Take a metro here, a bus there and voila!

Lauren: Oh, the things I will do to see some trees. Parks here are known for being really scattered, growing everything that will take, and there were so many varieties here. Getting here was the problem. Two metro transfers, a bus, and another mile walking. It was scorching hot -- the summer heat hasn't broken yet -- and I was seriously beginning to believe that death was neigh. But then we found the park. Looked around a bit, laid out the blanket, read, and examined some really cool bark on trees. This was what I came for.

Aneya: We took a metro, then a bus, but somehow ended up getting off at the wrong stop, and walking forever, in the blistering heat. I don't know why this always ends up happening to us. I forgot how much easier things are with a car! Anyway, we finally made it, and crashed at the first sign of shade.

Lauren: I'm used to life without a car, but this was ridiculous. Buses here are much more regular, as are metros, but because they are so frequent and reliable everyone takes them. You have a small pocket of space, and that's it. Oh, and no air conditioning. I was getting a little claustrophobic with all those people around.

Aneya: We read our books and plugged in our ipods, ready to fall asleep, exhausted from the commute! The park was completely empty- it was a Wednesday at 4, I guess most people had better things to do. But that was fine. There was the occasional man on a horse, some kids, but mostly, it was dead.

Lauren: Horses! People ride their horses here. It was a bit surprising. I don't think I've ever seen a horse just hanging out in the park. We laid in the shade, until it wasn't shade anymore because the shadow of the tree moved. Then we decided we had rested enough. It was time to explore more.

Aneya: When we were fully rested we walked around the entire park, then took the bus home. (An hour on a bus is a lot longer than an hour in a car, let me tell you. Especially when the driver is a maniac and people are slamming into you from all angles) But, it was worth it. I'd definitely do it all again, if it meant getting to that beautiful park.

Lauren: It was really an amusing ride home. We saw some really gorgeous old buildings, a lot of Santiago coming from La Reina home to Centro. We had seats so I was happy to just plug in the iPod and watch the world go by. An excellent day at the park.

-- Aneya & Lauren