Monserrate And Old Bogota

We had a great day out today. Patricia (Jorge Rico's wife) picked us up in the green Dodge Dart (dad you would love this car) at about ten this morning. We headed to Monserrate first. It is so high up in the Andes, about 3100 meters above sea level, that you have to take a cable car or train to get to the top (we included pictures of both). You could walk, but we definitely weren't up for that. At the top is a beautiful church and spectacular views of the entire city of Bogota below. It's pretty neat when you're looking way down upon the tallest building in Bogota. Visiting Monserrate today worked out great with it being Ash Wednesday. We were able to get our ashes in the church there. Luke got his ashes too, his first Ash Wednesday. Luke had his lunch on top of the mountain and then we began our decent down in the cable car. Patricia took us for a traditional Colombian lunch in Old Bogota at a restaurant called Fulanitos. We tried toasted bananas with a great dipping sauce and yucca, both of which were really good. Kenny and I then had fish with rice and banana chips (they are big on bananas here). Our meal was great and afterwards we headed out to tour some of Old Bogota. This town is the first in Bogota, founded in about 1530. The architecture is incredible and this part of the city reminded me a lot of old European towns. The area is about ten blocks and has narrow cobblestone streets, and is full of schools, museums, restaurants, and the President's house and palace (where he works) and also is home to their Parliament. There were so many beautiful churches and we were able to see Simon Bolivar Square. Simon Bolivar is who fought to liberate Colombia and four other countries from Spanish control. It was then late afternoon and we began heading back to our apartment. We weren't too far from La Fontana when Patricia made a quick turn into a Texaco station. She said the temperature of the car was pretty high and she heard a funny noise. We thought, this can't be happening. Nothing can happen to the green Dodge Dart on our time. For those of you who may not know this car has taken so many families of FANA that have come before us on their tours as well. Well it turned out it was an easy fix and we were on our way. Thank God. So overall it was a great day. We saw spectacular sites of the city, learned a lot about Luke's culture, and had a great day with our son.