A good day to be tourists

We've been planning since last week to go up to Monserrate, so today we did. Last Saturday we thought we were going to go up Monserrate, but since we found out it's cheaper on Sundays, we ended up just walking around and exploring instead and we went to a wonderful restaurant to get bandeja paisa and soup and we ended up talking to the family that runs the restaurant and they gave us the phone number for a student from Germany who is living with them. So last night I worked up the courage to call and we told her to meet us at the transmi station and to look for three blondes. We were easy to find.

The four of us had a great day being tourists, which is a good change from being teachers all week. We rode the funicular up to Monserrate, the cathedral on the mountain overlooking downtown, and attended a surprisingly contemporary mass. We spent a lot of time just staring at the hugeness of the city, from the skyscrapers to the slums.

Then we rode back down to the level of the city and explored. Our progressive lunch included tamales, mango biche, and pastel gloria, which is a flaky pastry filled with cheese, guava, and arequipe. We spoke in English and got lots of stares and compliments (like "Son muy lindas.") and it was a good day to be tourists. Tonight I'm working on lesson plans because tomorrow begins another week of school!