Monserrate

Sunday morning we went to Monserrate, which is a pilgrimage site on top of the mountains. Our driver dropped us off at the little tram station. We bought the tickets and proceeded to board the tram. Now what I hadn't realized was that the tram went straight up the mountain. The train was specially built so it was kinda like stairs, so that when it was going up you weren't falling over. As we were riding up the mountainside we went through a very long tunnel. Now this tunnel was only a couple feet taller then the tram and well I am very claustrophobic so that was a little.....freaky. We arrived at the top off the mountain and were received by non-polluted air. It was amazing. I felt like I could breath again. We walked the rest off the way up to the church and arrived to a packed church.

Arriving at the church

 

Full Church

All the pews were full, the side and middle isles were full, between the sanctuary and the first pews was full, people were poring out of the doors. It was amazing. We waited around until the 10:30 mass when we crammed ourselves into the middle isle about halfway to the front. Mass was nice and we could tell that the sermon would have been a very good one if we could have understood it... Inside the church right above the alter was the the statue of the fallen Christ.

The Fallen Christ

After mass we walked down a little 18th century replica street. It was lined with street vendors selling little trinkets and food. We saw real typical Colombian food. Which I thought actually looked a little gross and smelled weird but that could just be my opinion. 

Entrance to the market

One of the Stations of the Cross that we walked by

 The view of Bogota, isn't it beautiful? 

Beautiful Arch

A waterfall wall

At this point it was about time to head back down the mountain so we started winding our way back trough the market and back to the tram station. But then, my family got lost (they may say I was the one who got lost but please don't believe them). After a while I finally found my family and told them what naughty people they were to go and get lost. We continued on our way to the Tram station and they almost got lost again! I do have to keep such a close eye on my family. Well, we finally arrived at the tram station without them getting lost anymore and took the tram down to the bottom of the mountain (just as freaky going down). The driver drove us back to Unicento ( the big mall that's 20 min from our hotel). Where we got lunch and shopped for some necessities and got ice cream. As we finished our ice cream we walked to the bus station where we planned to take a free bus back to our hotel. Well we looked at the sign to see how long we had to wait, the sign stated that there was no bus on Sunday. Well we all moaned and realized that we had to get ourselves back to the hotel with our own two feet. Well with a little protesting we walked back to our hotel arriving back at around 5 o'clock. We were all exhausted. We just crashed on the couch and sat there staring at the walls. That night we kids all crashed on my bed and watched a movie.

Monday...boring day, just did school, went to the park and I have Latin class soon (Skyping in for it). 

We will be leaving for Cartagena  and Santa Marta on Friday for ten days. When we get back we will probably have another week or so before we can go home. :( We are all very ready to be home now. But getting out of our "prison" will help greatly. ;)

<3