A new day in Bogota

Thursday Marie-Laure, Ana – a Colombian friend - and I visited Monserraté, a church on top of the mountains where you could see the whole of Bogota. This was spectacular! Bogota lies between the mountaintops and it is huge. There are about 8 million inhabitants!

Some people used to climb the mountain on their knees, but now the path is under construction because it was too dangerous.
Behind the church there were hundreds of plaques with prayers and thank you's for God. I even read one where they thanked God for giving him an American visa!

While we were passing the little shops, we met 3 Irish guys who were on a trip trough South-America.
When we got down with the teleferico - elevators- we took a cab downtown and visited the Botero museum. Botero is a famous Colombian artist who draws fat people in a cartoonesk way. Apparently he and his wife are very thin! The museum building was fantastic; it had patios, balconies, fountains,… Botero’s art wasn’t really my cup of tea although I really liked his version of Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.

After dinner at Ana’s we met up with the Irish guys and a couple of Colombian friends. They also invited friends who invited their friends. So after a while we were a group of about 15 people with different nationalities; Australian, Irish, American, Colombian, Dutch and Belgian! It was a great evening. Very strange finding yourself on the other side of the world, in a metropole, having fun with a lot of people you've never seen before!
Afterwards Marie-Laure and I stayed at Juliana’s apartment – another Colombian friend. It was a strange yet wonderful day!