Bogotá, Part Seven

Part Seven:  Day Two, Zipaquirá

After we finished with our tour of the salt mine, we headed back to the town that is the cathedral's namesake:  Zipaquirá.  It is a small, quaint place that is fairly unremarkable.  Our first stop was lunch, which was included in our tour.

Zipaquirá, from the parking lot of the Salt Cathedral

As with other parts of South America, meat is the main thing people eat in Colombia.  And, they eat lots and lots of meat.  We wheeled up to the entrance of the restaurant and there was a grill, almost out on the street.  The tour guide ordered for us, though I did ask for just a half portion:  I could see what other diners were getting and I knew that I could never eat that much food, and I did not want to waste it.

What came out first was soup, which, for me, was the best part of the meal.  Colombian food, from all I could tell, has almost no spice whatsoever.  In fact, there was a dish of "hot" sauce on the table.  I reached over to use it and was sternly advised by our driver and guide both that it was "very, very hot."  It was not.  In addition to the tasty soup, there was a lime-based drink served, something akin to lemonade, but not quite.  Very good.

We finished eating, loaded back into the vehicle, and headed for the town square.

The town square looked like a smaller version of the one in Bogotá, with a church and some municipal buildings.  Mountains rose up around the town.  Stray dogs lazed about in the square.  And, just then, we hear a crash behind us.  There were stone pilings to keep traffic off of the square and some woman had ran into one, and with enough velocity to rip it out of the ground.  Funny.

Looking down one of Zipaquriá's streets, just off the main square

Cathedral, on the main square

Traffic is also of the animal-drawn sort.  Notice the stone pillars.  This is before the woman came through and nailed on of them

Looking across the square, with the fog-shrouded mountains rising up behind

Another shot of the square

Another shot of the square

Another shot of the square

Another shot of the square

A couple of stray dogs, in a state of extreme relax

Philip, in front of the cathedral

Another of the square

Cathedral

This is the cathedra's steeple:  notice the grass and vegetation growing atop it

One of the finer structures on the square

Another from the square

We were only at the square for about fifteen minutes before it was time to head back to Bogotá.

After a day riding as a passenger in Colombia, anyone would be happy to be out of the car and on firm ground.  I know that I was.

For dinner, we gave in to exhaustion and decided to eat at the hotel.  It had been pretty good our first night there, so I had fairly high hopes.  They were dashed.  This time round the service was not that great and the food was equally mediocre.  Too bad.

We headed back to the room after dinner and turned in for the night, hoping for a good night's rest before our last day.