Amazing Views from Cerro Otto

On Friday I left the house early to walk an extra kilometer past my school (4 in total, which is about 2.5 miles) so I could ride the Teleferico to the top of Cerro Otto Meiling. (Cerro in Spanish means "hill", but this "hill" was 700 meters higher than the city of Bariloche, which is about 2,100 feet.) It offers spectacular panoramic views of the area, from the entire Lago Nahuel Huapi spread out on one side with it surrounding mountains, to the mountains even higher where ski resorts are and where tons of snow was sitting on the other. The snow on top of the "hill" was about 3-4 feet deep. There is a revolving restaurant, along with small souvenir stands, snack stands, and several places to take in the view. There is even a most unique art gallery, dedicated to Michelangelo. It houses replicas of three of his most famous statues: David, the Pieta, and Moses, in full-size replication! In a very small room in which it is most difficult to get a picture of David! It also contains about 25 pictures of other works of art by Michelangelo, such as photos of the Sistine chapel, etc. Why this art museum is housed at the top of this hill I have no idea. But it was interesting.

There are also several winter activity options at the top of the hill, such as sliding down a packed down area sort of like a luge. They rent you these little plastic sled seats that look like they were made by Tyco (I think that is the huge plastic toy manufacturer in the States) and you sit on this and slide! There were two tour buses of older teens visiting and that was their main focus.

Anyway, the views were spectacular. I spent about two hours just drinking them in. There are amazing places all over the world and whenever I visit them I continue to stand in awe of the creative power of God in fashioning this marvelous world. It is a shame more people are not able to travel and witness the amazing glory of the earth. I am totally baffled that so many of those people who hold power and who actually make the decisions that are affecting our world in terms of energy policy, conservation policy, recycling policy, etc., are people of means who do travel widely. This earth is such a treasure, such a precious jewel, and we continue to be so arrogant, or so petulant, to think that the lifestyles of 6 billion people are not affecting the climate, the ecology, the environment that is necessary not only for our own survival, but for the survival of all the other living creatures with which we share the planet. I know the earth is an amazingly resilient ecosystem, and I am convinced that until the sun explodes or dies that the earth will survive, but we may not survive and the majority of the species that have evolved to date may not survive, unless we change our practices and lifestyles.

Enough preaching, if you wish to see more of the stunning views from Cerro Otto, follow this link to the Kodak Gallery albums: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=6d2p4u6.2yr3x4yy&x=0&y=7jwxdv&localeid=en_US