TransMiCable and Cerro Guadalupe

Similar to the system in Medellin, the TransMiCable in Bogota is a gondola lift system that provides service to the final station, Mirador del Paraíso, in the steep hills of Ciudad Bolívar district.  It opened in December 2018 and again, as in Medellin, this cable system enables the 700,000 people living in the highest points in the capital’s low-income neighborhood of Ciudad Bolivar south of the city a chance to economically travel to the city to work and shop.  What the people living in this colorful pueblo managed to earn their livelihood before the gondolas, I dare not imagine.

The ride up showed us in an up close fashion the neighborhood on the hillside.  The houses on this hillside are painted in mellow shades of blue, yellow, and pink giving what once was a sad-looking neighborhood, a rainbow effect.  The colorful project began in 2016 as a cooperative effort between a street art collective and the community.  The neighborhood, I read, from children to pensioners, took up paintbrushes and transformed their once dismal neighborhood into a stunning piece of art.  They pained the fronts of over 215 houses and added creative murals to others.  It was a sight to see and today this town is one of Bogota’s most beautiful neighborhoods.

The very last item on our list of must-do’s was a trip to the top of Cerro de Guadalupe.  At a slightly higher altitude than Cerro Monserrate, it completes the pair of mountains that are iconic hallmarks of Bogota.  The religious retreat and chapel with its tall steeple on Cerro Monserette gleams a brilliant white when the sunlight falls upon it in the afternoon.  Similarly and nearby still in the eastern hills, a statue of Our Lady of Guadalupe, created by sculptor,  Gustavo Arcila Uribe in 1946, stands 49 feet tall.  It too appears lighted when the sun lights crosses her face.   Cerro Guadalupe is a sacred place that has been visited for the centuries by the indigenous Muisca  and still today, especially on Sundays, Bogota pilgrims make the journey to the top of the hill to pay homage to the site. 

It is possible to walk up to the top of the hill via the paved road, however, it is very, very steep, narrow and winding.  We took a car to the top; more than once we witnessed very close calls when cars and motorcycles tried to pass each other. We saw no walkers but we did pass a group of about six bikers who clogged the road as the pumped and pedaled.

The view from the top is the best in Bogota.  At 11,023 feet high, a vista of the entire city of Bogota, from north to south, is clearly visible.  Bogota is big!

Of course, even on that chilly morning, a few vendors had stand set-up stands to sell souvenirs and foodstuffs.  I saw a thin, bubbly fried circular piece of something that looked tantalizing.  We are about to leave Colombia so I thought, why not?  Try something new.  I broke off a piece. It tasted like a huge circle of cold fried pie dough.  Ugh!   Although I have tasted some pretty good treats purchased from vendors, I’m beginning to think my luck with street food is not always so great.  I tried to give the “pan” to our driver, no, he only smiled.  I tried to give it to a local man.  He just laughed and said, “No me gusta!”  My thoughts exactly!  He said I could leave it on the grass for a perro.