Colombia Día 3: Monserrate

Yesterday we took a teleférico (gondola) up to Monserrate to enjoy an incredible view of Bogotá. Despite my app saying their was only a 40% of rain for one hour, it rained most of the morning. I actually forgot my rain jacket (it’s probably still hanging in my entryway, right above where the luggage was sitting), but I’ve been fine with just my Heat32s under a T-shirt (my idea to save space by just bringing a couple pairs of Heat32s to wear under shorts and T-shirts here in Bogotá worked out really nicely). Luckily I had the kids’ rain jackets and we weren’t actually out when it was raining really hard (yay for more long bus rides?!). Also I think the rain kept the crowds there down.

Because the teleférico didn’t open until noon, we went to the Museo de Oro first. My daughter was really interested in all the pre-Colombian gold sculptures, but my son was struggling to use an inside voice and keep his hands off every pane of glass he saw. We ended up only lasting 30 minutes but it was cheap so I consider it a win. Baby steps on museums I guess.

Outside the museum the kids got to take a (very) short ride on a llama, which they loved.

After the llama, we took a cab to the teleférico.

The gondola is big, but there is only one on each of two wires, so it takes a while to get through the line.

At first my daughter was scared to go, but once she saw the gondola, she was fine.

At the top you can see all of Bogotá. I couldn’t believe how big the city is.

We walked through a little market full of aggressive suggestions to buy wares and eat at local spots.

But the view on the other side was worth it.

We hit up McDonalds before we went home, because they were starving and I needed to get them something I’d know they’d eat. (Unfortunately they have not become more willing to eat new things here, but we’re making we’re making it work.)

We got home early because we needed to take showers and I needed to do a load of laundry. There is no hot water in our place (so I’ve been washing the dishes – and my face! – with cold water every day) but the shower had one of those electric water heater heads. I learned the hard way that it really only warms the water to a cold, but not freezing temp. I knew the kids would have a fit if I tried to shower them in that water (they already hate showers) so we developed an elaborate system of mixing scorching water from the stove with the temped water from the shower to create an acceptable temperature. I wonder if we’ll have hot water at any of our other places!

Having a washer and dryer really saved us. I’m so glad we get to wear clean clothes tomorrow because we are really getting our stuff dirty with all the riding on public transport we’re doing (there is a lot of sitting on bus floors when we can’t find a seat – just like the locals!)