Fridays are Spanish class field trips. Today we went to the main cathedral in Manizales and took a tour amidst a deluge/thunderstorm combo. One of my professors (Diana) had prepared a whole exercise for me to complete whereby I was supposed to pay strict attention to the tour and answer various questions regarding the cathedral. However, 15 minutes into the tour, we watched a video which explained the cathedral’s history. The video had English subtitles. Whoops! Poor Diana.

The second part of the tour involved climbing a never-ending staircase to the lookout all the way at the top of the cathedral. We were told that, until 11 years ago, the stairs were made of rotting wood, there were no guard rails whatsoever, and climbers had to carry candles to provide light for the journey.

After going clockwise and upward for quite awhile, we were rewarded with a glorious (if wet) view.

We also had a chance to stand on a transparent surface overlooking the church. As I’m generally afraid of heights, I decided that I better partake.