Slept like a baby for 8 hours ! AH…. That feels so good. Breakfast included with the price of the room. I picked up some tourist maps and brochures at the front desk and came back to my room to plan my day. By 10 am I hit the pavement.
The hotel is located in the historical area of Manizales so that’s where I started, just a few blocks down to the main plaza, named after guess who? Bolivar ! Started with the Catedral-Basilica. (There is always a cathedral or a church in the main plaza, have you noticed?) I then visited the Governor’s Palace. This building was spectacular, decorated like a wedding cake ! Great statue in the plaza, I’ll have to get the story on this because it appears to be part man, part eagle. Kept going down the street to another square (with a market) and another church: Imaculada Conception. This one looked fairly ordinary from the outside, but the inside was completely built in red cedar. It is 110 years old, but the baptismal font is over 150 years old, carved out of stone by the local Indians who were here at the time. With my limited Spanish, I did not quite get where it was located before it came to this church. The “Road of the cross” Chemin de la croix, is all carved out of wood in 3-D images. Checked out the shopping Plaza across the street: 5 or 6 levels in all. Lee-Anne, you would go GAGA with their shoe stores, beautiful leather and designs that are completely out of this world.
From there I went up a couple of streets to the cable cars. These were built about 3 or 5 years ago depending on who you ask. They start from the historical district, which is almost at the top of the mountain, and goes down to a middle section, then all the way down to the bus station. Haven’t found information on how high it is from top to bottom but for only $1,400 pesos (same price as the city bus) it’s a lot faster and the views are spectacular. TOOK LOTS OF PICTURES ! If you don’t get off when you reach the bus station, and just ride back up, you only pay once ! They are really good to the tourists.
Once I got back up to the historical district, I took a city bus to a different part of the city (middle section, business district) ironically called Cable, but it is for the old chair lift system that used to exist here. I got off at Cable Plaza and decided that it was time for lunch since it was past 1 o’clock and my breakfast was long gone. I had another Colombian style meal that consisted of beef, brown beans, platanos, rice and a slice of avocado. It was quite good, but I know I’ll regret eating those beans !
After lunch I crossed the street to the Torre de Herveo, and underneath it found the Tienda de Juan Valdez. YES, the coffee guy ! So although I had just eaten, I could not resist stopping for a ‘café con leche & un postre’. Postre means dessert. I had banana bread, which they call ‘banano’. Good thing I’ve been doing a lot of walking. Don’t want to regain the inches I’ve lost. 
Got back on a returning bus to “el Centro” but stayed on and rode all the way to the ‘Chipre’ area to visit ‘Torre al Cielo’ (The sky tower) which was closed ! and another church ‘Templo de Nuestra Senora del Rosario’ which also was closed ! Oh well. From there it was downhill to get back to my hotel, so I decided to walk off that lunch. Walked past the “Bellas Artes” which I thought was a museum, but turns out it was a university, so no visit, but two great pics.
On my walk back down the hill, I spotted a huge church which was a bit out of the way, but it looked interesting so off I went. ‘El Templo Sagrado Corazon de Jesus’ was in rough shape, but had spectacular coloured glass windows. It was only 3 o’clock, but I was really tired, hot (it’s 28 degrees today even though we are in the mountains) and I decided to call it a day.
Tomorrow morning, at 6:30 ! ! ! (yes, you guys as the office, I’m getting up at 6 am tomorrow) because I’ve booked a tour to Nevada del Ruiz, which is a volcanic mountain covered in snow. The last time it erupted, in 1985, it destroyed 4 towns. I’m going to be layering my clothing and bringing my leather gloves and ear muffs (Did not think I would need those until I got to Nepal & Tibet !) It is an all day excursion, with breakfast and lunch included, and after we’ve done the mountain, we go to the thermal hot springs for a dip ! From winter clothing to a swim suit; should be interesting !
On my walk back down the hill, I spotted a huge church which was a bit out of the way, but it looked interesting so off I went. ‘El Templo Sagrado Corazon de Jesus’ was in rough shape, but had spectacular coloured glass windows. It was only 3 o’clock, but I was really tired, hot (it’s 28 degrees today even though we are in the mountains) and I decided to call it a day.
I’ve spent two hours now downloading the pictures from my camera to my laptop, adding comments to each, then did my back-up. I’ve spent about 20 minutes writing this blog. I’m ready for bed and an early start tomorrow.
That’s it for today. Hope you are all having a normal life…. I’m not !
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