Cerro de Monserrate
Three thousand one hundred and fifty metres above a city already at two thousand six hundred.
Duration
2 hrs – 3 hrs
Difficulty
●●●○○
Best time
Late afternoon
Open
Every day
Entry price
To confirm
Monserrate rises five hundred metres above Bogotá and tops out at three thousand one hundred and fifty-two. The sanctuary at the summit holds a fallen Christ, a seventeenth-century sculpture that has drawn pilgrims for three hundred years — many climb the path on their knees on Good Friday.
From up there you grasp the shape of Bogotá: a city of eight million wedged between the cordillera to the east and flat savannah to the west, stretched forty kilometres north to south because it has no other option. The funicular dates from 1929, the cable car from 1955.
Getting there
Lower station at the end of Carrera 2, east of La Candelaria. Twenty minutes on foot from the historic centre, uphill.
What the price covers
funicular or cable car are paid, rate to be checked; the footpath is free
Rules on site
The altitude tells: the walk up is punishing for anyone newly arrived, and altitude sickness is real at three thousand one hundred metres. The path closes on weekdays and is only safe at busy hours.