In Bogotá

Said goodbye to the hot and sunny coast on Sunday to make my way to the mountains.

The final leg of my trip will feature catching up with classmate and friend Liliana in her hometown of Bogotá, Colombia.

Impressions of Bogotá have been very positive. It is enormous, friendly, cosmopolitan, pretty, and has seemingly limitless activities to explore. 

Interesting factoid of the day: At 8,649 feet above sea level Bogotá is the third highest capital city in the world. Also interesting is that the first and second highest capitals are also in South America; La Paz, Bolivia tops the list at 12,335 and Quito, Ecuador is number 2 at 9,350. 

Yesterday Liliana, her sister María Fernanda, and I went wandering around the old part of the city center. 

Bogotá is located in a valley surrounded by beautiful green mountains one of which is home to a church where  people make pilgrimages to ask Jesus for miracles and gives thanks for prayers that have come true. The tradition is similar to that which takes place at the mountain and monastery of Montserrat located outside Barcelona. Appropriately, the Colombian version is called Monserrate.

It is located almost 2,000 feet above Bogotá and the primary way to get there is a cable car-type thing suspended from a wire.  

Needless to say, I was a little apprehensive. 

 Views from the top were amazing. 

Happy to report that I broke a  personal altitude record today as 10,341 feet is the highest above sea level I've been with my feet still on the ground. Take that Mt. Brown at Glacier Park!