Cerro de Monserrate 5-16-15

Woke up early and ate breakfast with our host family. Marlene and I decided to walk to the nearby park also known as “Park Way”. Parkway can be compared to Central Park of New York, but way smaller. It all happens there. By the way, in Bogota during the weekends, major avenues are closed down for recreational use. Today being Saturday, we saw entire families cycling, playing soccer, and walking their dogs (an astonishing number of pets in Bogota) on the streets. I feel that it serves its purpose; to reduce obesity and promote health. The capital's sky was foggy, and soon it began to rain. To protect ourselves from the rain Marlene and I decided to enter Carulla supermarket. We shopped and tried leaving the store but, I was stopped by a guard asking me if he could check my pockets. I allowed him. I immediately though it was because of the way I was dressed. Outside the supermarket, we bought flowers for our host family and walked back home.

We all met at Jenny’s house and took off to the iconic Cerro de Monserrate. We took a taxi to the bottom of Monserrate. The taxi driver was very friendly, and said “if you don’t eat a tamale and or a cup of chocolate, you basically didn’t visited Monserrate”. He was giving us a list of more places to visit. We got off and the smell of food was inevitable. It smelled delicious. We rushed to buy our tickets and got on the funicular. It was an incredible five minute ride to the top of the mountain. This gorgeous “3152 meters above the sea level [mountain is] Colombian’s capital symbol par excellence, not only as a natural effigy, but because of its religious character whose Sanctuary has been visited by millions of pilgrims since its founding in 1640” (http://www.cerromonserrate.com/en/). At the top, the lookout is terrific, a perfect view of the entire city of Bogota. It was a terrific experience. We came down on the tramway. It was incredible. Back at the entrance, I enjoyed a delicious grilled corn with lemon, salt and butter. I bought a cup of green mango slices, exquisite. Not to mention the delicious “Arepas” Marlene and I bought near the “Septimazo”. It’s been a terrific adventure, exploring and connecting with our diverse Latin culture.