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.

Bogotá, Part Four

Sunday Afternoon (Day One)


As I’m writing this, I, of course, did survive my ride in the death cab for cutie (now I know where the band may have gotten its name).  But it shook me up pretty bad.  We went back to the room to recompose and figure out what to do.  In the end we decided to walk up to the Zona Rosa, which is an upscale shopping area with restaurants and cafés.




Half of the Street In Front of the Hotel Open Only to Cyclists, Walkers, and Joggers:

Random Buildings Along the Way:

Photo of Some Random Guy, Dancing In Traffic:

The walk from our hotel to Zona Rosa was along a mix of busy, chaotic roads and quiet, residential side streets.  We walked at a relaxed pace and managed to arrive in about twenty minutes.

There are a couple of shopping malls and some street-level retail.  The area is pretty indistinguishable from similar offerings all over the world.  I’ve seen similar malls in Warsaw, Buenos Aires, Beijing, San Francisco, and on and on.  But, it’s what we’d expected from what we read in the guidebooks and online.

We eventually found a spot to have a little lunch.  The waiter was friendly and spoke English well enough for us to get by, though he started off saying “I speak English.  But not friendly.”  After a couple of minutes of speaking, though, we realized he meant “fluently,” and not “friendly.”  I thought it was odd, though, that someone would warn me upfront that he was going to speak to me in English but he wasn’t going to like it!  Funny.




At the Restaurant We Ate At Was Having a "Festival of Hamburgers:"

After our late lunch we strolled around a little more before heading back to the hotel room.




Scenes From Around Zona Rosa:

In One of the Shopping Malls at Zona Rosa; Gas Is Bad, But Groggy Gas May Be Worse:

Philip Poses With a Horse:

On the Way Back to the Hotel, We Saw These; They Were Everywhere Around Town:

Back in the room, we freshened up and got ready for dinner, then headed to the lounge for a pre-dinner glass of wine.  It was about then that I started to really notice the altitude, though I didn’t yet know what it was I was dealing with.

Finding a place for dinner was no easy task:  we went to several near the hotel and they were all closed.  We traipsed up steep hillsides, and then ended up back at the hotel for suggestions.  Seems it was a national holiday the next day and that meant that many restaurants were closed.  (Interestingly, we asked several people and nobody could name the holiday!)

By the time we found a place to eat, my reactions to the altitude had become much more severe.  I’d pretty much lost my appetite, I was having issues breathing, and I wasn’t feeling very well.  It was all a shame, because the restaurant we ended up at seemed quite nice.

After dinner we went back to the room, unwound a little, and then went to bed.  Sadly, the altitude also affects the sleep pattern, as neither of us slept very well, not on that night nor on the others.  Actually, on that night, I even woke up at some point, unable to get enough air.   It’s pretty panic-inducing to awake in the middle of the night, heart racing, unable to get enough air.  I wished I'd heeded the warnings about altitude and had stayed better hydrated and taken other steps to combat its affects!


Next Up:  Monday

Bogotá, Part Three

Day One, Sunday Morning:  Market and the Death Cab

Sunday morning we awoke to our first daytime sighting of Bogotá.  Our view from the room was sweeping, looking northward over the vastness of the city’s northern suburbs.  To the right, we saw the mountains climbing quickly, just a few short blocks east of the hotel.  The city was vast and our view gave us our first signal of just how big a metropolis is Bogotá.

The views from our room:

For breakfast, we went downstairs to the Executive Lounge for something to eat.  The spread was cold-cuts and cheeses, fresh fruit, cereal, and scrambled eggs.  There was coffee and fresh-squeezed juice.  The spread wasn’t comprehensive or big, but it was enough to be filling and to make a nice start to the day.

Our agenda for Sunday included a local craft market, though they called it a “flea market.”  After the market, we planned to go down to the old quarter and explore there.

To get to the market, we coordinated with the hotel front desk for one of their taxis, for about six dollars.  They’d drop us off and we’d get a local taxi to the center city.  The ride to the market was smooth and without incident.

This was our first exposure to a city that is still a bit notorious, so we were a little on guard.  And, the altitude was a little noticeable and left us winded if we walked too fast.  It was a bit of a foreshadowing event I paid little attention to.

The market was just okay.  I did find one gift that was quite nice and I saw a few possibilities, but it wasn’t as exciting as some of the other markets I’d seen in other cities.

The Market:

The street near the market:

After the market we were looking for a café to relax a little.  It was a little difficult to divine out which places were cafés and which were restaurants.  We saw a couple of folks on the patio at one establishment, so we went there and had a coffee.

Philip's Artistic Take on Our Coffee Break:

After the café we scouted around a little more at the market and then embarked upon a terrifying taxi ride.  Our intent was to go to the old city, which was about as far south of our hotel as the market was north.  We hailed a taxi and quickly realized that disabled seatbelts are de rigueur in Bogotá.  You see, there were seatbelts but they had been tucked behind the seats and were irretrievable.  The buckle was also disabled and pushed down into the seat so that it was not reachable.  The taxi drivers seem keen to make sure you do not have this safety option.

The taxi ride was just about one of the most terrifying experiences of my life, as we darted through traffic and pedestrians at great speed, nearly hitting a couple of cars and a bus and then, the final straw, we nearly rear-ended a car about twice as big as the taxi we were in.  I’ve had crazy taxi rides before and usually am able to just suck it up, but, without seatbelts and in such a small car, it was too much for me.  The thin air wasn’t allowing me to get in full breaths, and that didn’t help.  Finally I’d had enough and we directed the driver to our hotel and decided we’d do the old quarter later that day or another day.  I was never so glad to get out of a car in my life.

Next posting:  Sunday Afternoon

Bogotá Part Two: Getting There

Leaving DC

Saturday—departure day—arrived.  We finished packing, had breakfast, and headed off to the airport for our adventure.  Taxiing to the airport in a Virginia cab is so much easier than using a DC cab.  The drivers are always nice, competent, and don’t try to cheat their riders.  And, it’s cheaper because the Arlington cabs don’t add-on extra fees for fuel, bags, and so on.  But, I digress.

We arrived at National at about eleven, finding it almost empty.  We hung out in the SkyClub for about twenty minutes before going to board.  Boarding was uneventful.  We were on a Boeing 757 and they boarded through the second door, which meant that we turned left for First class.  It’s nice because the rest of the plane isn’t filing past during boarding.  Boarding complete, doors closed, we pushed back and were soon airborne for an uneventful flight.

The view from the SkyClub

Changing Planes In Atlanta

In Atlanta, we had a quick lunch at Café Intermetzo, which was okay but not spectacular.  Then, we got the Plane Train down to ATL’s new terminal and concourse, F.  There’s also a new SkyClub there that we checked out.

Boarding time came and we arrived at the gate just as boarding was about to commence.  The gate agent had a Columbian accent and sounded just like the gal on Modern Family.  Every time she spoke we got a laugh out of how close the accent and voice tone was.

The Flight To Bogotá

The flight to Bogotá was also on a 757.  We also managed an upgrade on that leg, which was nice.  Usually in F on Delta choice of drink is offered; on this flight the pre-departure offering was water, juice, or sparkling wine. 

For dinner on the plane we ordered the South Asian meal, which was noodles, rice, and vegetables.  It wasn’t bad.  The service was generally good and it was a pretty pleasant flight.

The most interesting part of the flight was seeing the Florida Keys and Cuba from the window, and dramatic thunderstorms.  Just before landing, we could see some pretty spectacular thunderstorms not too distant.  Luckily we were unaffected by them.  They gave quite a show.

The Florida Keys

Caribbean Clouds

Islands

Arrival Into Bogotá & The Harrowing Ride Into The City

Getting through immigration was really no problem at all and my agent even greeted me with a very friendly “Welcome to my country.”  We hadn’t checked any bags, so there was no need to wait for them to come up.  We breezed through customs without issue.

Next up was getting cash.  There were plenty of machines and the second one we used worked fine.

Getting a taxi from the airport into the city has been set up specifically to keep the traveler from being cheated.  One waits in a line, tells an airport rep sitting in a booth their destination, and receives two printed receipts, one for the driver and one for the passenger.  The receipt shows the destination and the cost.  Load into a taxi and off you go.

And, when I say “off you go,” I mean it.  Riding in a taxi in Bogotá is a harrowing experience, done at great speed and with little care for safety.  Huge, axel-destroying holes appear in the road regularly and as a surprise to driver and passenger.  Seat belts in these taxis are universally disabled, just to add to the suspense of whether or not you’ll make it alive to your destination.

On the plane, just before landing, one of the flight attendants came past and asked if I wanted more wine.  I thanked him and said I didn’t.  He answered back “Are you sure?  I’m just going to throw it out.”  I took it.  I’m glad I did, because I needed it for the taxi ride!

Checking In

Somehow, against all odds, we did make it to the hotel alive and able to tell the tale.  Check in at the Hilton was uneventful, though it did seem to take a little longer than usual, with lots of documenting this and that.  We received our keys and headed to our room on the 13^th floor.

The room itself was spacious enough, clean, and new.  It was dark out, so we couldn’t see the view but, when we saw it the next morning, it was impressive enough.  Our room faced north, so we didn’t get the skyline but we did get to see the expansive sweep of the valley and the surrounding mountains.

A few photos of the room

A Quick Bedtime Snack

By this point it’d been about five hours since we’d eaten, so we opted for a quick bite in the hotel restaurant.  It was about 10:30 by now, so we had just a few minutes before the kitchen closed.  The food was pretty good for a hotel restaurant.  After dinner it was off to bed to get some rest.

Bogotá, Part One: Introduction

The Planning

For about a year now I’ve been reading so many travel articles and blog postings about Bogotá.  They discussed how exciting it has become, how interesting it is, and, above all else, how it has emerged from a long, violent period, and has become safe.  I thought about it and one evening spotted what I thought was a pretty good airfare.  A little more investigating and we decided that we’d go in June, for my birthday.

We found plenty of availability on Delta, out of National, connecting through Atlanta, and into Bogotá.  At a time when tickets to California were pricing out at over $800, the $550 airfare seemed almost like a bargain.  For the hotel, we entertained a few ideas but in the end settled on the Hilton, which opened just last November.  Normally, when traveling abroad, we stay at a local hotel; in this instance, though we erred on caution’s side, in case the city wasn’t as safe as we’d heard.

Another sacrifice we made was not staying in the historic center of the city in favor of the more expensive, exclusive, and sterile northern suburbs.  The Hilton is near the Zona Rosa, Zona T, and some of the other areas of town that are pricey, safe, and not that interesting.  But, on the bright side, it turned out to be near some pretty good restaurants.

Scouting online to determine our must-sees, we decided that we needed to see the Salt Cathedral, about an hour north of the city.  For this, because we didn’t want to rent a car, we booked a tour guide.  That was our last booking item and we were ready to fly.

Our Itinerary and Plans

Our itinerary would take us out of Washington National (DCA) at noon on Saturday, give us a three-hour layover in Atlanta, take us out of Atlanta at about 4:30, and get us into Bogotá at about 9:30 in the evening.  On the way back, our flight was out at 9:30 Wednesday morning, getting into Atlanta at about three o’clock, and into National at about six in the evening.

Preliminary plans in Bogotá would take us to a flea market on Sunday, then to the historic center.  Monday we’d do the Salt Cathedral.  Tuesday we’d play by ear.  And, Wednesday we’d go home.  At least those were the plans; what we actually did and saw, as well as photos, forthcoming.

Time Flies

Ten years ago yesterday, a certain me met a certain Philip on a Sunday evening in San Francisco.  How time does fly!

Lasik, Bogotá, My Website, and All the Rest

It's been so long since I've written anything here that I thought I'd write a quick catch-up post.

Lasik Update

The latest on this is that my eyes seem to have settled at 20/25 and 20/50.  So, my option is to leave them as-is or do a "touch-up" Lasik procedure.  When the eye doctor asked my preference, I told her I hadn't paid $4000 to still need glasses or contacts.  (I'm a little uncomfortable driving at night without glasses.)  My procedure is set for next month.  She said that my right eye needs just two or three seconds of laser.  Not looking forward to it but I want it done right.

What's Up With My Website

For a long time, nothing.  I bought new software about a year ago that simply didn't work.  It was unstable and posting content on it was just frustrating because often the work was for naught.  At Christmas Philip bought me a Dreamweaver license.  My next task is to learn how to use Dreamweaver and get back to my site.  Sadly, I've not been writing about my travels and I'm missing it.  So, in the meanwhile, I'm going to write here about my travels and then transfer the verbiage to my site when I get back to the site, which I hope will be very soon.

Bogotá

Mid-week last week we returned home from a few days in Bogotá, where we went for my birthday trip.  Yes, Colombia.  I'm working on some narrative about that and will post that here in several installments.  Stay tuned for tales of altitude sickness, a cathedral of salt inside a mountain, stray dogs, bomb-sniffing dogs, shopping, eating, and crazy driving.