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.

Bogotá, Part Six

Part Six:  Day Two, The Salt Cathedral at Zipaquirá, Part Two

(This is the second part of our day at the Salt Cathedral at Zipaquirá.  The first part is here.)

Soon we found ourselves at the Salt Cathedral’s main attraction, the principle sanctuary, which is enormous and, though a bit kitschy, certainly impressive in size and scope.  One’s first impression comes from a sort-of balcony/mezzanine, overlooking the sanctuary below.  As before, the photos do not really do the space justice, but one gets the idea.

First view of the main sanctuary.  Look closely and you can see the people standing on the floor below.  That is the closest you can get to understanding the magnitude of the space

Philip with the sanctuary behind

Walking from the mezzanine to the sanctuary floor below, one passes a "salt fall."  Once upon a time, we can assume, water flowed here but eventually the water stopped leaving just the water

With the people one gets a sense of scale

Upon the sanctuary floor

The cross, up close

One last shot of the sanctuary

This sculpture was on the floor of the sanctuary.  It helps to give a sense of how kitschy the whole place is

On the way out, we passed this:  it is a sculpture carved into the salt on the wall

The Salt Cathedral was interesting enough, and I would certainly recommend a visit, but I don't know that I needed a full tour of the place.  If you are really into minerals, mining, or the religious symbolism, then a tour would be helpful; otherwise, if, like us, you just want to see the place, get a hotel-sponsored taxi to the cathedral for a quick look.

Coming next:  a quick visit to the town of Zipaquirá.

Bogotá, Part Five

Part Five:  Day Two, The Salt Cathedral at Zipaguirá, Part One

For Monday we had booked a tour to the Salt Cathedral at Zipaquirá.  I had done some online research and found a company via TripAdvisor.  The tour was pricey for Colombia, at about $125 each.  It was an eight-hour tour, with private driver and individual guide, and included lunch.

Given that I’d had an especially bad night’s sleep and was having issues with the altitude, it crossed my mind that maybe it was best not to do the tour.  But, the alternative of missing seeing the cathedral wasn’t very appealing, so I figured I would suck it up and go.

We went to the lounge for breakfast but I had no appetite so I had just a couple of bites of fruit and left it at that.   A call came from the front desk:  our tour company was on the phone and they wanted to confirm we were still going on the tour.  “Yes, as long as there are seatbelts in the vehicle,” I answered.  The person on the other end of the line seemed perplexed by the question.  (If you have been following along you know my observation that the Colombians hate seatbelts.)

When the tour guide came into the lobby, he introduced himself and told us that he’d gotten our question and that the vehicle did have seatbelts.  I know all of this must seem very silly to the Colombians but, the way they drive, I wanted to be strapped into the car if it hit something, a possibility I could certainly envision.

The vehicle was a sort-of truck/SUV, with bucket seats in the front, a bench seat in the back, and then some sort of a covered storage area in the back.  It was almost an off-road vehicle.  The ride there was bumpy, even though we were on freeways most of the way.  On city streets, potholes ranging in size from small to axel-breaking were commonplace; only an alert driver makes it through unscathed, as one comes upon these potholes with no warning.  The freeways were generally pothole free but the pavement was generally buckled and made for a jarring ride.

At any rate, the drive across the countryside brought to mind some photos of Hawaii, with steep, lush mountains climbing up to meet the clouds, disappearing into the fog.  The Salt Cathedral was basically in a straight line, due north of the city, with mountains flanking us the entire 45-minute drive.

From the vehicle.  This was the scene each day:  clouds, sun, and rain

Some kitschy Taj Mahal replica in the countryside, flanked by lush mountains

Our guide was keen to share lots of details with us about Bogotá, Colombia, the salt mines, and the cathedral itself.  He had a real passion about the cathedral and its religious symbolism and especially about salt and other minerals.

Without actually having visited the cathedral it is very difficult to grasp the sheer size of the “rooms” inside the mountain.  There were several, each at least the size of two American football fields and as high as a ten story building.  It is said that over a million people could easily fit in the cathedral.  I certainly believe it.

The cathedral is actually a disused salt mine; actually it is part of an active salt mine that is no longer being mined.  Heavy equipment is used to haul out the mined salt.

Truck used to haul salt from the mine

Us, in the plaza at the entry into the mine

Going into the mine

Our guide talks about the salt on the walls

Us, standing next to a cross carved from the mountain's salt

It is really difficult to get a sense of how deep and large these caverns are.  These photos do no justice, but it’s the best I could do. 

Hard to see how deep this is, but it was difficult to see the end.

This one is a little better but still does not fully tell the story.

 By this point we were not even halfway through out tour.  More photos and narrative are on the way!

Next up:  more photos from the cathedral, including the main sanctuary, which is enormous.