Photo album of Monserrate, the mountain overlooking Bogota in Colombia

For centuries, one of the primary attractions of Bogotá, the capital of Colombia, has been the mountain called Monserrate overlooking the center of town. Its height is 3,152 meters or 10,341 feet above sea level, compared to the city proper at 2614 meters or 8576 feet. This mountain reminded the Spaniards of a similar mountain in Catalonia called Montserrat, hence the name. Monserrate also shares with Monserrat its popularity as a pilgrimage for the faithful, who visit the church at the top to pray for assistance or express thanks for prayers answered.

Whenever I go to Bogotá, Monserrate seems to beckon me to go to it, time and again, especially as the mountain and church, which are on the eastern side of the city, are visible from virtually any vantage point. As a graduate student, I first went to the top in 1980 with some of my fellow students, and my latest trip was in 2012 with the family. The appearance of the site has improved greatly over the years.

There are two options to take the comfortable route to the top: by inclined railway or "funícular," or by cable car or "teleférico." Regardless of which means of transportation is taken, the ticket for the round trip is pricey by the standards of Colombian attractions. The other option is to take the long walk to the top via the footpath, but it is generally recommended to do this only on the weekends when there are many more people making the same trip, and of course if your physical condition permits it. I climbed up once with a large group back in 2004, but we opted to take one of the easy routes down. There is a page in Spanish, updated in April 2013, explaining the restrictions in using the footpath, including hours that the path is open to the public.

It's inevitable to find fellow foreigners when traveling to Monserrate. On the one short trip we took in 2012, I met travelers from the United States, Canada, France, Brazil and Japan. There are plenty of souvenirs for the visitor to choose from and lots of delicious food at all price ranges.

For more information, go to the official English-language page for the Cerro de Monserrate.

From Monserrate one can also see the Cerro de Guadalupe, which is higher than Monserrate and features a statue of the Virgin overlooking the city. The Bogota webpage for the Cerro de Guadalupe mentions that public transportation services this attraction on Sundays for celebration of Mass. Inquire locally about schedules and conditions. (Note: There is no safe footpath to the top of Cerro de Guadalupe.)

The building at the base of Monserrate

There are stands to buy food and drinks at the bottom as well as at the top

The rail cars (in Spanish: "funícular") used to make the climb have changed over the years

Pulling out of the station; an older train (red) can be seen at the right 

Higher and higher

One view while ascending

The "funicular" is about to disappear into the tunnel

In the tunnel, near the top

You see this sign shortly after leaving the "funícular" rail station: 10,259 feet above sea level.  From there you climb higher to reach the sanctuary. The abbreviations in the Spanish text stand for "metros sobre el nivel del mar" or meters above sea level.

The climb after leaving the "funícular" station



View of nearby Cerro de Guadalupe, which is higher than Monserrate

Lots of pretty plants at every step of the way

Nearly at the top, facing the front of the sanctuary

Looking to the southwest of Monserrate

The part of Bogotá nearest the station to Monserrate

Cerro el Tablazo is the name of the flat mountain visible in the center

View in the distance, past the edge of Bogota

Bogotá extending north

The beginning of the path down the mountain. The path is best used on weekends when there is safety in numbers.

Inside the sanctuary

Another view inside the sanctuary

The statue of the Black Virgin or "Virgen Morena"

View "behind" Bogota, facing east

Going toward the food and crafts stands behind the church

Lots of foreigners as well as locals congregate in this area

Lots of souvenirs to choose from

Still more souvenirs. After so many years of traveling to Colombia, I gravitate toward food

Homer Simpson couldn't be forgotten, right?

The famous Colombian hat called "sombrero vueltiao"

Ruanas, hats and men's shoulder bags, called "carrieles"

Coca tea comes from one of the indigenous populations of Colombia

Achiras, a favorite snack made of cheese and a local flour

At the top are replicas of jeeps and the folk buses called "chivas." Men's hats are still popular; at times you will even see women from the countryside wearing these, as is common throughout the Andes. The bag in the left center reads "Guajira," a province in the north of Colombia.

This is during a weekday, but Monserrate still draws a crowd

Lots to eat, but my favorite are the crunchy roasted corncobs

View of the church from the souvenir stands

In the center you can see scarves with the logos of two of Bogota's soccer teams: Millonarios (blue) and Santa Fe (red). The yellow bag below the scarves has the pattern of the "molas" of the Kuna people of northwestern Colombia and Panama

Returning to the church from the souvenir stands

Buildings further down the hill, Cerro de Guadalupe and another mountain in the background

More panoramic views of Bogota

A popular restaurant on the left

The frailejón or espeletia grows at the higher elevations

There is a path for Stations of the Cross behind the sanctuary and extending down the mountain on the other side

Looking back toward the church along the Way of the Cross

A tall eucalyptus tree with ferns to the right. The eucalyptus tree has a characteristic fragrance. 

The flowers that grow at different elevations are fascinating

Many ferns also grow in this area

The top features some nice restaurants as well as a cafeteria

Cable car or "Teleférico" station, where we will begin our descent

Workers in a precarious position

Cable car beginning its descent

Looking straight down from the front of the cable car or teleférico

Lots of interesting plants are visible during the ascent or descent

Now from the bottom, looking upward

This pretty sight is at the bottom

Back where we started!

Monserrate beckons...again!

The Art of Savoring and How It Applies to Travel

As much as I enjoy travel, I have found that what makes a trip worthwhile is relaxing and reminiscing about it after I return to familiar ground. When I reflect, I appreciate the true worth of the experience. I like to call this "savoring." Much as we like to savor the flavor of a favorite dish or a glass of wine, so too can a travel experience become even more enjoyable over time.

A case in point was when I visited the town of Anapoima in Colombia last year (August 2012). We had four days of lounging by a pool in an ideal climate, doing as little as possible. A few hammocks were conveniently located at the side of the pool, and our family would take turns lying down there when we weren't swimming or going for a snack. I could choose to look at the sky to my right or to a few tropical plants to my left. I would get a glimpse of a hummingbird zipping by too fast for my camera, or I could look up to the canopy above me to see where turtle doves had made a nest and were feeding their young.

The four days came to an end and we were headed back to Bogota. After we finished our entire vacation in Colombia and returned to Philadelphia, I eagerly uploaded my pictures to my computer. One picture showed my view of the plants and in particular a colorful heliconia. I love my job, but it can be stressful at times, so I will stop briefly at odd moments during the day to look at that picture on my desktop and recall those four days of leisure. This technique has gotten me through many a rough patch. The experience has paid handsome dividends and my savoring that experience ensures that I will appreciate the privilege to travel before embarking on my next adventure.

Eyeing a beautiful heliconia

Tanny and the Boys: Living Monument from St. Martin

Tanny and the Boys is a well-known six-member “string band” from the island of St. Maarten. The members are: George Violenus, manager and tambora player; Jocelyn Arndell, guiro (scraper); Federico “Culebra” Nathaniel Smith, ukulele banjo player and vocalist*; Maxime Emeal Reed, guitarist and lead vocalist; Edward Violenus, accordionist; and James Roosevelt Samuel, marimba. The Violenus brothers were born in Aruba to St. Maarten parents; Culebra in the Dominican Republic, also to St. Maarten parents; Maxime in Anguilla; James in St. Maarten; and Jocelyn in Curaçao. Regarding some of the lesser-known instruments, the tambora is a drum played with sticks and is placed on the player’s lap. It is a standard fixture of the merengues of the Dominican Republic. The ukelele banjo is a smaller version of the familiar banjo but unlike the banjo individual notes are not played with a pick, but rather chords are strummed and serves as accompaniment to the lead instrument which plays the melody. The marimba as used in the Caribbean, not to be confused with the xylophone-like marimbas of Central and South America, has its origins in the African kalimba or thumb-piano, a series of metal tongs mounted on a wooden resonator board and played by plucking the tongs. The Caribbean version is used as a bass instrument and is known in Curaçao and other parts of the region as the marimbula.
The accordion provides the distinct element to Tanny and the Boys’ music. It is used in other parts of the Caribbean such as the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Belize, Dominica, Aruba and Curaçao, but this accordion, played against the background of both English Caribbean stringed instruments and Afro-Latin percussion, is a style unique to St. Maarten.

The interview and recording session took place in March 2003 at the house of guitar player and marimba maker Carlson Velasquez. Carlson’s house is just across the border on the French side of the island, in one of the few remaining pieces of countryside. The preferred place for music making at Carlson’s house is under the shade of a mango tree, so the six musicians set up there. Articles previously written about Tanny and the Boys had focused on the musicians and their backgrounds, so instead I asked the group about the origins and rhythms of the songs from their two albums: Fête (1992) and Classic Tanny and the Boys (2000). What I learned was that the diversity of their musical knowledge is truly phenomenal, an outgrowth of the diverse origins of the group members. To summarize, their repertoire includes English Caribbean calypso, waltz, polka, and schottisch (the schottisch is similar to the polka but slower); American country western and blues; Dominican merengue; Spanish Caribbean bolero; Colombian cumbia; French Caribbean beguine; and tumba from Curaçao. Not only do they play these forms well, they also have the versatility to change the rhythms of songs according to their preferences. For example, the song “Fever” is an old St. Maarten calypso which the band plays in a merengue rhythm. “Come Go to Bed” is an original composition of Eddie Violenus in a combination of waltz and schottisch rhythm. “Lanta Mainta” is the tumba that George sings in Papiamentu. Fans of Jim Reeves country music will recognize the song “He’ll Have to Go” although it is listed on theClassic Tanny and the Boys CD as “Your Sweet Lips.” The group also plays the song “When I Grow Too Old to Dream,” which had been sung originally by movie actor Nelson Eddy!
Tanny and the Boys exemplifies the influence of human migration for economic reasons as an unwitting assistant in the development of exciting, eclectic folk music. For example, when employment was scarce in St. Maarten in the early part of the 20^th century, many of its inhabitants migrated to the Dominican Republic or to Aruba and Curaçao for work. While absorbing the cultural heritage of those places, they were always conscious of their St. Maarten origins and they or their descendants often returned to the island when its economic fortunes began to improve, particularly during the tourist boom which started in the 1960’s and continues to this day. This is certainly the case with the Violenus brothers and Culebra. What is also remarkable is that St. Maarten seems to stand alone among the nearby islands in this specific diversity. When stepping off the ferry from French St. Martin to Anguilla one can feel the change to a predominantly English Caribbean environment. Unfortunately, this diversity has not been studied to the extent that other Caribbean islands have been studied; for example, little Carriacou, part of the nation of Grenada, has been studied extensively due to the existence of its African-influenced music. However, in sources currently available in the United States, there is virtually nothing said about St. Maarten, Saba and Statia, with the exception of the book by Malena Kuss titled "Music in Latin America and the Caribbean: Volume 2: Performing the Caribbean Experience." This article hopefully is one small step toward rectifying that imbalance.

*Note: Culebra passed away in 2011 at the age of 86.

Sources:

AVS News online.com, "Federico “Culebra” Flanders-Smith Remembered," December 27, 2011.

Esposito, Michael. Interview with Tanny and the Boys, Belle Plaine, St. Martin, March 30, 2003. 

Sekou, Lasana, ed. Fête – Celebrating the Traditional Festive Music of St. Martin. St. Martin: House of Nehesi Publishers, 1992.

Sekou, Lasana. Liner notes to Tanny and the Boys LP Fête and CD Classic Tanny and the Boys.

Sheehy, Daniel E., “Netherlands Antilles and Aruba.” In Olsen, Dale A. and Sheehy, Daniel E., eds., The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, Volume 2: South America, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. New York: Garland Publishing, 1998, 927-931.