Ain’t no Mountain high enough! (Except when it’s located at ~3000 metres altitude)

As I climbed up (okay, it was more like crawling) the last steps to the top of the stunning mountain Monserrate, I see the rest of my group, which had arrived at the top almost 30 minutes earlier, cheering me on and shouting that I had almost made it. With my face red as my leggings, sweating like a whore in church and my heart pumping like there’s no tomorrow (literally felt like I wouldn’t see tomorrow at times), I made my last steps towards the church that sits on top of Monserrate.

• 

• 

• 

• 

Fun fact: climbing up the popular tourist attraction in Bogotá, a city that itself is located on a whopping 2 640 metres above sea level, is not the best idea when you’ve only lived at the unfamiliar altitude for 4 days. Monserrate is not the most strenuous hike ever, but considering that the top of the mountain measures 3 152 metres, it is worth noting that breathing ain’t a breeze up there. I was hit hard with that reality when I presumptuously joined a group of fellow exchange students and a couple of locals to hike up Monserrate on a chilly Tuesday morning. ‘I’m sure it won’t be too bad’, I thought, ‘how much of an impact could the altitude have?’. Oh boy, was I wrong.

It took me about 1.5 hours to get to the top of Monserrate. The record is 17 minutes, one of the locals (who is a member of the hermanos sin fronteras) told us that his personal best-time was 24 minutes, usually it takes him around 40 minutes. I was the last person to finish the hike and I did so huffing and puffing and feeling incredibly dizzy. The difficulty of Monserrate is that it mostly consists of steep parts of stairs, with few level parts that can be used to catch one’s breath. This rather humbling experience taught me to take altitude differences seriously – the tightness in my lungs and dizziness made me think about giving up and turning back a few times.

To be fair, it is possible that I am simply blaming the innocent altitude of Bogotá for my hiking performance, when it reality it might have been my lack of physical fitness. But for my ego’s sake, let’s stick with the former explanation ;). I have made it my goal to face the mountain again once my body should have adjusted to the altitude more and report back – after all, I now have a time to beat!

Regardless of my despair during my ascend, the view on top of Monserrate was totally worth it. Once you get up there, you have an amazing outlook on all of Bogotá, a city that seems to be never-ending. My group and I spent a while on the top, drinking tea and enjoying the scenery. However, this view can also be appreciated without feeling like you’re about to pass out – there is a cable car running daily that takes you up to Monserrate. Of course the sense of achievement after accomplishing the hike boosts the beauty of the mountain even more!