Hi all, second day in Colombia. Breakfast was delicious - chicken soup, hot dogs, pastries, yogurt shakes. Really! Strangely, I didn't have any coffee. We took it easy and left the room at 11 for our adventure of the day. We had the same driver that took us from the airport to the hotel, Adrian.
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| Adrian |
On our way downtown we went through the expensive part of Bogota. Apparently ex-presidents live in these apartments. The road through this area was nice, lots of green trees, grass, flowers. Passed by a few very nice golf courses as well - very hilly and lots of trees. Didn't see Camillo Villegas.
There are two ways of getting to the top of the highest mountain in Bogota (Monseratte)- by gondola or by funicular. A funicular is a train that is stepped at about a 75 degree angle since it has to go straight up the mountain. I do think there are points where the tracks are on a 90 degree angle. So all morning the decision to make was - which way up would make mom most scared. It was agreed that the funicular would probably be the one where visions of the contraption failing were most horrifying. So that was what they wanted to do, of course, take the funicular up to Monseratte.
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| The gondola, or... |
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the funicular
(the picture is sideways, but this is how steep it is) |
As we were in line for the tickets, the last funicular of the day took off. How about that! So we took the gondola. As we sailed up the mountain, we realized this was a much better viewing option anyway. The tracks went into a tunnel for part of the way and for the most part was under the trees. We all really enjoyed the gondola, especially Joaquin - for the next hour he asked where the gondola was and if it was going up or down.
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| Waterfall under the gondola |
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| Funicular tracks under the gondola |
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| In the gondola, heading down |
At the top of the mountain, Monseratte, there is a cathedral and a very small but very cute tourist trap where we bought some junk. The views as you can imagine were spectacular.
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| Population 9 million |
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| There was a slope on the other side |
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Shops- about 16- each of which
sold exactly the same things |
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| Bros |
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| Pobrecito |
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| Two restaurants in Monseratte |
We didn't opt to eat at the beautiful restaurants, but there was a stand with empanadas and pastries which were scrump-deli-icious. After an hour of checking out Monseratte, we headed back down and went back to the hotel. We ordered empanadas, patacones (fried banana tortilla, topped with meat and sauce), avocado salsa, and a plato typico (rice, potatoes, a beautiful avocado, steak). Naps, movies. Hung out in the room all day.
Joaquin is still napping at 7 pm - but we are about to wake the boy so we can go across the street to BeniHana. Will report on dinner tomorrow.
