El Cristo de la Concordia

When you get to Cochabamba, one of the first things you will notice is a big statue of Christ at the top of the mountain. Sunday morning, Tiana and I finally went to it!

Its 40 meters high, and its the biggest statue of Christ in the world! Even bigger than the one in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, and is a source of pride for many Cochabambinos! Its facing the city, and it has its arms stretched out, as if blessing the whole city. Situated at the top of a mountain, to get up, you can take the cable car, take a cab up, or climb up the stairs.

After being nearly killed while climbing a mountain at Incallajta, I was a little worried about climbing up this mountain. But this one has stairs, families with young children climb it all the time, and since I`m not with a bunch of other students, i figured I could really go at my own pace. Plus, I could definately use the exercise. So i decided to climb up.

Several local people had told us to not walk up, because there have been cases where tourists are robbed and/or attacked. But this American couple that we met at our school said they`ve been a bunch of times, and even though the local people warned them too, if you get there, you can see families climbing up, and you don`t feel threatened or scared at all. And they were right. When we got there, i saw a lot of people climbing up, so i stuck with my plan.

Climbing up was a lot of fun. After the first 1/4, I was going way too fast, and was having a hard time catching my breath. (altitute again). But after, i went much slower, stopping here and there to take pictures. Taking pictures was kinda funny, because Tiana had opted for the cable car, so i was climbing by myself. Pictures of JUST scenery are fine, but when all of them are just scenery, its can get boring, so here and there, i would place my camera on the stairs, set my automatic timer, then climb back down a few steps and smile for the camera! I felt like an idiot, so I was chuckling at myself, and I was also very careful to time it correctly so none of the other people climbing up would see me! The climb up was beautiful, you can really see the whole city, and I enjoyed it a lot.

When i reached the top 40 min later, Tiana was waiting for me. Then together, we walked around the Christ, and when we got to the back side, we giggled and took pictures of Christ`s ass.

You can climb up the inside, kinda like the Statue of Liberty. So we did that, and there are bunch of holes that you can peak out of and get a great view of the city. Halfway up, Tiana points out that we are probably AT the butt. Then, she realizes that if the back is the butt....the front is...!!!! Once again, we giggled like schoolgirls, and took pictures of us being in the Christ.

After that, we ate lunch, took some more pictures, then we both took the cable car back down. It was a good morning excursion, and got to see a little more of Cochabamba, our home for another 5 months.