Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Pam and Mary Ann's Visit: Monserrate

The week of Carnival/Mardi Gras, my Aunt Pam and Mary Ann escaped from New Orleans' Mardi Gras madness to visit me in Bogota- my first (and so far, only) visitors!  I hadn't been living here for too long at that point, so I wasn't sure exactly what to show them, but I knew I wanted to see Monserrate, the church at the top of the mountain near my house.

After taking the "scenic" route (i.e. I didn't know exactly how to get to the base- oops), we arrived at the lovely old house that serves as the base for the gondola and funicular.

Looks steep, huh?

 Good thing we didn't have to climb it (although that is on my list of things to do before I leave- many people climb it on their knees, as a pilgrimage). 




In the area where you board the gondola, there's a little garden.  I thought it was cute.  

Preparing to ascend.


Ascending... it was already obvious that the view would be fantastic.  

Passing a descending gondola on our way up.


Bogota is huge.  


I included both photos because a different person has her eyes open in each.  


 The view from the steps of the church.

The view out the doors of the church.  

Mountains on my right, Bogota on my left.  Camera in front of me.  

After this photo, it started raining pretty hard, and we took refuge in the nice restaurant at the top of the mountain.  We had warm drinks and waited for the rain to die down; when it did...

 The light was golden and gorgeous.  This is the restaurant where we had our drinks.  We wanted to come back for dinner, but alas!  Sickness struck on the final day and we had to cancel our plans. 



And that, folks, is Monserrate!  I was very happy to have two such lovely companions with which to explore it!

...

Edited to add:  I forgot to include two photos from Pam's camera- a view of the church itself, and of the interior of the restaurant.  Enjoy!


3 comments:

  1. Oh my god. That church! That view! I'm completely floored by the beauty. Thanks for posting. =)

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  2. I'm glad to see you've been taking lots of photos! That garden is so cute!

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  3. These pictures remind me of sugarloaf in Rio de Janeiro. Beautiful :)

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