Semana Santa

Last week AJP was home from school. Since Colombia is in essence a Catholic country, Semana Santa (Holy Week) is very important. Although, I might add that Semana Santa in Colombia is not nearly as important as in Spain. Because of Semana Santa, all of the schools have spring break during this week. The first three days of the week we did not really do anything spectacular. AJP, BLP and I went to the park, went on walks or they went shopping with me. JTP had Thursday and Friday off from work. On Thursday, we went up to Monserrate (a mountain above the city with a church on it). It was incredibly crowded. It is somewhat of a pilgrimage destination here in Bogotá. One can walk up the mountain; take a train or a cable car. One of the most interesting aspects is the altitude. Bogotá is about 8,600 feet above sea level and Monserrate is about 10,500. That means that whatever your mode of transportation, you have to climb up almost 2,000 feet to get to the top. After you get off of the train (the way we went up), you walk up the last part of the mountain to get to the church. There are realistic sculptures representing the Stations of the Cross along the way. The Stations of the Cross represent the events of Christ’s death, from his condemnation of death to laying his body in the tomb. Although, as Mormons, we do not follow the tradition of celebrating the Stations of the Cross, it was a good reminder of exactly what Easter is all about.

We went on a drive Saturday from Bogotá through La Calera and Sopó back to Bogotá. It was so beautiful. Everywhere we looked, it was green. There were parts that reminded me of Star Valley in the springtime. It was really nice to see the cows grazing in the fields and hear how quiet it was so close to a big city.

On Sunday one of the most remarkable things happened. AJP and JTP made a “tube” or a furniture fort in the living room. We were all sitting in the backyard of the tube when AJP announced that he wanted to give a talk on Easter. He proceeded to recount the death of Jesus with remarkable accuracy. In the end, he said, “Jesus died but he was resurrected.” I thought that was a great end to our Easter weekend.