North of Bogota: Salt Cathedral and Crazy Bus Rides, Sept 17

Saturday, September 17


It was a calm bus ride Saturday morning leaving Bogota, first by the mass transit bus system then a regional bus heading to Zipaquira about 100 km north.

There are some nice vacation homes outside of Bogota!

According to some, Zipaquira is the numero uno tourist destination in Colombia - the mines that have been providing salt to the region and beyond for over 500 years.  The draw is that they have mined out the salt in an area, making a "Cathedral of Salt" and also a series of the 14 stations of Jesus.  It is unique for sure, but neither of us will have this as our personal numero uno attraction.  While interesting, it felt a bit contrived.  My family visited the original salt cathedral here back in the 70's.  Duane & I kind of wondered if that one might have felt more like a place of worship for the miners rather than built specifically for tourists.  Don't know.  Will have to compare stories with my parents as my memory is blank from my first visit back in the 70´s.

Over a thousand that can celebrate mass in this underground cathedral.

We did an additional ¨miner´s tour¨ hoping to see how mining was really done. The hats were the most authentic part.

We then fumbled around Zipaquira with our packs on trying to find a bus. Once we found where we needed to be, we had a wait.  Duane felt confident enough to go ask for ice cream on his own.  He came back with none, but asked me again how to say "ice cream" in Spanish.  He returned from a second shop without ice cream and not knowing exactly what happened.  A bit later I decided to go find some yogurt.  The people asked me if I was with "that other guy".  Then asked what he was wanting.  Apparently they understood his version of "helado" to be "cigarillos".  We all had a good laugh.

Boy, and then we had a wild ride.  Duane had the dubious pleasure of being in the front seat.  Probably not a good idea since he is not as used to their crazy driving.  Plus, where I was, I didn´t even know the driver was on his cell phone.  The good thing is that bus companies are required to post in a visible place their injuries, accidents and deaths for the previous month.  This company had all ¨0´s¨.  Posted, that is.  After the really crazy bus ride, we then transferred to a smaller van - camioneta.  That ride was better, but not exactly relaxing.  As laid back as latin americans are said to be, there was nothing laid back about the driving of these two guys.

We broke a travel rule of having a place reserved if you are getting to a destination after dark. This wasn´t a safety issue at all.  Our destination, Villa de Leyva, has been a bastion of safety for Colombians thoroughout their internal conflict.  It was just annoying after a long day of travel to walk around trying to find a hostal.  But we really did luck out.  By happenstance, we found a place with a private bathroom which would prove to be handy over the next few days.

VMonk