journeywithmadonna

Monseratte is Bogota’s proud symbol and is a white church up 3152m and can be seen from most parts of Bogota. The top has unbelievable views of Bogota which I have not really captured here. Monseratte peak is one of the most popular destinations for tourists so we decided to wait for Dawn and Yves to arrive so we could all do it together. And arrive they did at 6:30 am this morning after flying all night and didn’t look too bad either. After a few coffee for Yves and a short cat-nap for Dawn we headed out to hike up to the Church. I was so looking forward to the hike which is a Mecca for pilgrims due to the Church’s altar statue of the Fallen Christ dating from the 1650’s. On Saturday and Sunday mornings hordes of people hike the 1500 steps to the top to attend Mass. Unfortunately, however, due to altitude issues in Bogota and certainly at the top of Monseratte it is not unusual for people to get dizzy, headachy, etc. Dawn was hit with this and decided it would be best for her not to take the 90 minute hike up but rather ride the funicular or cable car up. Being the good friend that I am I decided she should not do this alone so I accompanied her on her journey in the cable car up the mountain. On the way we met many Colombians who have to be the friendliest, most helpful people in the world! Beautiful Juliette had fabulous English so we chatted the whole way and she stressed to us the importance of pronouncing the second “o” in Colombia and not make it sound like a “u”(much like the actress on Modern Family whose name I forget). Anyway after a great ride up we wandered around, met a few people due to our very white skin and waited for Jim and Yves to arrive which they did some time later. One look at them and I was so grateful for Dawn’s headache because, as Jim said, “that’s one of the hardest 80 minute hikes I’ve ever done”………. Glad I missed it! The view, however, was magnificent and the number of adults and children on the top of the mountain was amazing. There was no way you could get into the massive Catholic Church for mass, but no matter, as there was another mass after. I’m not sure how many they had but as Dawn and I went down on the cable car they were still lined up to come up. In case you haven’t guessed it the guys got their second wind, and a lot of water, and walked down which they said was just as bad as the hike up.
Monseratte was definitely worth doing and we spent the rest of the day wandering around window shopping looking at people and the sights and visited the gold museum. By 4pm we were pretty tuckered so decided to have a couple of beer at our hostel and go for a very early supper. It was hard to believe that Dawn and Yves were still standing as they had been up so long but we managed to go out for a very typical ColOmbian meal and it wasn’t long after that that they became incoherent………and Jim too! So here I am doing my blog as everyone else is asleep and grateful for another fabulous day in Bogota, ColOmbia where the people are happy, kind and very hospitable. Headed to bed because even though I didn’t do that long hike I’m tired and eagerly awaiting what tomorrow has to offer. Hope you’re all well!u

This little guy was quite curious about what we were doing so we took his picture with the iPad. Needless to say he was delighted, as were his parents.

Well we made it to Bogota on an overnight from Victoria, via Toronto, and mighty tired we were upon arrival. Not a big deal as we’re on vacation and can rest whenever we like so after strolling the Plaza de Bolivar, which had a musical event going on, we headed back to our hostel and crashed very early to get ready for the day. Bogota is huge and there are people everywhere on the streets! I really am a country bumpkin from Tidnish so it takes a little while to acclimatize myself to any city and this one has 7.4 million people in it and, it seems, just as many vehicles. Crossing the street here doesn’t seem to be as big a deal as it was in Asia but I keep an eye on the locals and cross when they do but have found out already that doesn’t always work. We found a neat little hostel on-line for our first night here and it’s worked out pretty good so think we’ll stay a couple of more nights. It’s in the La Candelaria district of Bogota which is the cobbled historic centre and during the day is bustling but at night extremely quiet and it is suggested that after dark, ie. 6pm you travel by taxi for safety reasons…..OK I’ll do that. Many students in this area and it’s just a ten minute walk from the Plaza de Bolivar, museums and pretty centrally located and recommended as one of the areas to be in. Guess we got spoiled by Asia prices last year as we’re finding it’s not as cheap as we thought here for accommodation but safety and cleanliness are our top two criteria and it meets those. The staff are also fabulous, all women, single parents and very courteous……lovely thus far. Today we headed out early to find an ATM, with directions from the hostel, but not much luck. The map we were given of the area was terrible which was quite stressful for Jim as anyone who has ever travelled with him is well aware (?Marilyn?). We wandered around in circles for quite some time and then I started asking for help which usually works. What I forgot, however, from our previous trip to South America(Peru) is that everyone is too polite to admit they don’t know and just smile and give you directions that never really work….and we listened and tried this for quite some time before we caught on and realized that we were on a wild goose chase. Finally I heard someone speaking ‘broken English’and asked again and we were just 50 meters away……the hostel will be paid! We went for an early supper and had forgotten our English to Spanish dictionary at the hostel so ordering from our cute little Spanish only waitress was a challenge. However we knew that ‘pollo’ means chicken so we decided on that but what came was a medley of rice, ribs, beans, beef and sausage……thank God we decided to split a meal. We decided just to go ahead and eat what came and then realized that when we pointed to our chicken dish on the menu the little waitress thought our fat fingers were pointing to the item above(ie. carne medley). Live and learn and one lesson learned from today was: Don’t walk/wander around looking at your map because you will either step into dog poop, step into a sidewalk hole(ankle breaking variety) or, more seriously, step in front of traffic. Fortunately for us today all that happened was walking into dog poop and that’s easily erased. Overall our first day in Bogota has been fabulous and tomorrow morning at 7a.m. Dawn and Yves arrive so we’re headed to bed early again tonight so we can be up early to greet them with coffee and get on with the day……stay tuned!