Licking Salt
Day 117
Same as when I thought of Colombia I didn’t know what to expect, I certainly didn’t know what to expect from its capital Bogota. Reading the name alone left images of a dirty crime ridden city. However like most of Colombia you really have to visit before making any judgements. As with the other Colombian cities we had visited already Bogota was a livable, vibrant, modern and relatively safe place. Sure it has its issues, there is much more crime here than Medellin and its not nearly as clean. However it also has a total population just over 8 million people. Set at 2650 meters above sea level the city enjoys a beautiful climate, although it is chilly at night. The cool nights make for a great sleep and we were finally refreshed from the overnight bus here.
Over the last day and a half we have walked around the hip, bohemian La Candelaria neighbourhood were we are staying. The narrow cobbled streets lined with many well preserved colonial buildings makes for pleasant walking. We checked out several churches and chilled out at cafes, it was another Colombian city that I could see myself living in. At night we had some of the best and freshest pasta we’ve had anywhere. When walking and sipping coffee became a bore we attempted to culture ourselves in the outstanding Botero Museum.
Fernando Botero is Colombia’s leading contemporary artist. Most famous for his sculptures and paintings where he depicts everything as fat. Its pretty funny and I actually quite like it. For example every man, woman and child is always painted as plain old fat. In one painting that included horses even the horses are fat. His sculptures are the same, everything is over sized. He must have been a funny guy to hang out with. The museum contains a huge collection of his own work in addition to a very impressive collection of impressionist art that Botero himself donated. Picassos, Dalis and Monets were all here, best part was this great museum was free.
I was enjoying our cable tv this morning as Jordana was showering. “Hey Jordana, something is big is going on”. Every channel was tuned to a press conference with proud looking Colombian government officials. Every so often they would cut to show a face of some FARC rebel leader. Even with my limited Spanish I could figure out that this guy, Comandante Reyes, was important to the FARC, and probably more important to the Colombian government now that he was dead. For myself I was more concerned at what this all meant for the security situation in the country and if it would effect Jordana and I. As for right now we planned on forgetting about that and were headed out of the city to the small city of Zipaquira. Where a large salt mine has been transformed into a salt cathedral.
We climbed on Bogota’s modern and efficient Transmilenio bus system. Its a really great system but a tad confusing. The buses have dedicated lanes and stop at stations much like a subway would. Its clean and quick as well. We had to ride out to the last stop in the north than transfer to a regional bus to Zipaquira. About halfway we realized we were on the wrong line and headed back. Finally we found the “Portal Norte” and quickly transferred to a Zipaquira bus. Wow, the transportation system looks better organized here than in Toronto, seriously. Right, so we arrived in the pleasant city of Zipaquira around midday just in time for mass. The salt mine was converted into a cathedral in the ’50’s but fell into disrepair. In 1995 it reopened and today as we line up to enter, it has become a big tourist attraction. Albeit a local tourist attraction, not many foreign visitors around. “$8! That’s insane, and we aren’t even religious”. I was shocked to see the steep entrance fee to enter the church. We lined up and waited about 40 minutes to finally enter. I guess visiting on a sunday at 12pm mass wasn’t the best idea to avoid crowds. A tour was included but all in Spanish so Jordana and I just took off on our own.
The cathedral is huge, well it is an old mine after all. Oh and yes the walls, floor, everything is salt. “Mmmm salty, ewww”, Jordana commented as she licked a wall. First we passed the 14 stations of the cross, all carved out of salt and lit up. I’m not that religious but all 14 looked the same, should they not be different? We continued along the cool tunnels until coming to the main cathedral. It was impressive. A huge subterranean church with giant pillars carved of salt. Everything, other than the pews, speakers and priest was carved from the salt walls. It was interesting to see during mass but most people were there to have their picture taken as they posed all over the cathedral.
Leaving we were both a bit let down. Sure it was an interesting place but the steep entrance fee and whole touristy feel of the place didn’t impress. Really how religious a place was this?
We returned to the city slowly as we drove through a hail storm. It was our last night in Bogota before heading further south. Back at the hotel we watched BBC inform us that Ecuador and Venezuela had cut diplomatic ties with Colombia and sent thousands of troops to the borders. Wow, this all seemed a bit harsh. Although it made me think, if the U.S.A. were looking for some guys they wanted dead and found them 1 km over the border in Canada and then proceeded to bomb that area without Canada’s knowledge. Would Canadians be accepting of that? Probably not. Anyway, I just hoped this doesn’t escalate further.
Tags: Bogota, Colombia, south america
Michael Coroneos
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