I met Barbara early in the morning the next day, and we walked to the base of Monserrate, the giant mountain that dominates the city centre of Bogota. It rises to over 3000 metres above sea level, and on top of it is a church dedicated to "El Señor Caído" (The Fallen Lord).

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="The Monserrate that towers over Bogota"][/caption]

We took the funicular to the top of the mountain, from where we got spectacular views of the vast city. After clicking pictures and checking out the immaculately clean church and its surroundings, we took a cable car ride back to the bottom.

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Taking the funicular to the top"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="On the way to the church"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Flower"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Standing over Bogota"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="The interior of the church"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Another mini-church on the lower level"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="One of the stained glasses inside"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="The vast city of Bogota from the Monserrate"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Church bell"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Taking the cable car on the way down"][/caption]

After lunch, I went to check out the Museo del Oro (The Gold Museum) while Barbara went elsewhere. The Museo del Oro contains the largest pre-Hispanic goldwork collection in the world, and after a while one gets overwhelmed by all that gold.

While walking through the museum I spotted a dark room that others were also looking at, but no one was entering. So I did the first thing that came to my mind – I entered it. Others behind me followed, and when about 5 of us were inside the door closed automatically behind us. Before the door had shut completely, I had seen that it was a circular room. But since I had already wandered around a bit, and since it was pitch black inside now, I had no clue where the door was anymore.

For about 15 seconds, nothing happened and I could sense that the two girls who had followed me into the dark room were getting a little panicky. Then suddenly the walls were lit. There was gold everywhere and all of us realised that we were in the middle of a light and sound show! The show was really good, and we enjoyed it for the next 15 minutes or so.

Later in the evening, I met Barbara again and we went to the Bogota weekly couchsurfing meeting. With at least 60 to 70 people, it was easily the biggest crowd I had seen at a weekly CS meeting. Normally in Bangalore, if we get about 30 people, we consider it a good turnout. When I commented on this, the Bogotans said that getting so many people each week was very common!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Couchsurfing weekly meeting"][/caption]

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="400" caption="Couchsurfing weekly meeting"][/caption]

After spending a couple of hours with them, I said goodbye to Adriana, Luis and the other friendly Bogotan couchsurfers, and also bade farewell to Barbara. All of them had made my stay in Bogota fun and memorable, but it was time to move on. My next destination was Medellin, a city I was looking forward to visit because of all the great things I had heard about it.

(Many of the pictures in this blog post are courtesy of Barbara)