Thewesternprovinceblog

Hola todos. For the first full day in Bogotá I decided to head to Monserrate, a sanctuary 3000 meters into the mountains. 

I’m up and running fairly early and go out for some coffee and an empanada before heading to the mountain. Now there’s two ways you can climb up this mile high mountain, there’s the hiking trail or you can take the cable car. This time I decided to be lazy and take the cable up, however would also make a point of hiking back down, so queued up and bought a one way ticket up for £4. 

It is quite a quick ride up the mountain and soon we are up. It is quite a small place with a church and several stalls and restaurants. It’s a bit of a tourist trap up there to be honest but it’s got some lovely views of the city from up there and a little sort of trail with representations of different countries. From what I gather this is to do with this being a pilgrimage site both in the modern day and from when it was a holy site for the Muisca peoples – the native tribes which resided in Bogotá before the Spanish came here.

I didn’t spend that long up here about an hour, during which time I did bump into one of the french fellas I met back on Ometepe (the one who explained me how to properly eat a crepe if I recall 🤣). Still always good to bump into people you’ve seen before travelling a similar path.

After this and a look round the stalls it was time to walk back down. Hiking down still felt quite tough from the amount of steps I had to walk down. Also everyone heading the other way looks absolutely shattered so doing it this was was definitely the right call. 

Later that evening I go to the Viajero hostel for a drink and a bite to eat. I talk to a few people there both locals and other travellers though nothing much comes of it. I later go back to my hostel go have a drink on the terrace and get chatting to another French traveller who is heading for Panamá and central America. Good I met him as I was able to trade the last of my Nicaragua Cordoba’s for Colombian pesos. Best of luck to him. I forget his name! 

All in all was a good day. My 2nd day however wasn’t so great.