Day 21 (yesterday): The Virgin - nooo I'm not referring to myself

You know that big Virgin statue I keep taking photos of? Well, you can go up to the top of the hill and not only have an amazing view of the city, but climb up part of the Virgin. So when Matt and Jenny and I met for the afternoon that was my sugested activity. It actually appears closer than it is. I´m glad we decided to take a cab instead of walk, we would still be on our way up there.

See the hill she sits on? That is called El Panecillo, which means a small piece of bread. The hill itself is of volcanic origin, as is most stuff in and around the Andes. In 1976 some Spanish guy was hired by some religious people to build a statue of a madonna. He used lots of aluminum and built the 45 meter tall virgin. What is special is that she has wings. Jenny actually said, hey why does she have wings and at the time I didn´t realize that she is claimed to be the only madonna-like statue to have wings.

So we hopped in taxi and headed up the hill...

Apparently she is standing on a snake, which is supposedly a ¨classic¨madonna image... huh.

You can climb up to her base and look up... It´s a bit frightening.

Of course I had to snap a self portrait, but since I actually had friends with me I was able to get a shot taken...

It is really difficult to get good photos of the sky and mountains here. Everything looks a bit hazy.

We headed back down and look what I found!