Dear Readers, we have come to that time in our adventure where it’s time to start throwing away clothes that have begun to break down (ie, developed holes, weird stains, or smells that will not go away). Today I put my hand in my back pocket of my ONLY PAIR of jeans (the one where I put my cell phone in when walking around) to discover a hole in the pocket. And you’re probably wondering why someone would not bring a backup pair of pants…well, I assumed I’d be coming to the tropics and hot weather. Not cold weather that has made an appearance more than I’d ever willingly invite. I’m just hoping the jeans hold up for the next 27 days or the weather doesn’t require pants. These suckers are going in the trash before i leave though because they are beyond repair.
This morning Lisa met me downstairs for breakfast since we decided to go to Monserrate today. At 10a we departed and I only made one navigation mistake but she told me she does it all the time and wasn’t uncool about it. I’m glad I met her because walking around Bogota with a buddy made me feel a little less anxious. On the way we chatted and took cool pictures. Warning, this post contains a lot of pictures of ME because I like me and because I rarely have someone so willing to snap fun pictures.
We rode the funicular up because it takes Colombians 1.5 hours and since I’m not Colombian and altitude makes me breathless, I paid the $12 USD round trip cost. The top of Monserrate is over 3,000 meters but the views are amazing. The city looks like a miniature version of itself.
Also at the top, there was a pair of angel wings. I decided to have fun with it and couldn’t contain my smile while standing in the “praying pose.” Or maybe I’ll just consider it the namaste-end-of-yoga pose.
Since we saw everything there was to see at the top, we rode back down and I navigated us to the Museo de Oro (Gold museum). This is the world’s largest collection of indigenous gold pieces at over 50,000 items. There’s even a famous offering piece that the new ruler/king/tribal leader (I forget) threw into the lake to ask Mother Earth for prosperity. Apparently, there was so much gold around (think the story of El Dorado – the city of gold) that these indigenous people thought they were gifts from the sun. So in order to honor the earth, they would throw these gold pieces into lakes because lakes were considered portals/entryways to earth. Imagine why the Spaniards decided to come to this land…there was so much gold that people were “throwing it away.” They even went so far as to drain the lakes to recover gold. What’s in the museum is what remains after 3 more countries came to steal gold. This is that offering piece and I’m pretty proud how it came out even though it’s not in focus (no flash and very hard to take this picture). This is one solid piece. Amazing, right?
Some more from the museum. Entrance was 4,000 COP. That’s a little over 1 USD!
I’m now in my room packing and waiting for Lisa to finish getting a tattoo. Then we’re headed to an empanada shop she discovered last night while I was busy being lazy. Tomorrow I’m headed to Medellin for my second (of third) stop in Colombia. Oh, and Colombia believes in postcards. I just might like them a little better than Chile. Jajajaja!
There She Goes... 