Lea, the German girl I met the night before, and I made our way to Zipaquirá mid morning. We decided not to take the hostel tour which was expensive and go for it using public transport. 3 buses and short taxi ride later we made it to the famous salt cathedral. It is advertised as Colombia’s first wonder.
It is a salt mine which has been transformed into an underground cathedral. The different chambers were amazing and massive. We were pretty impressed until the end when we were directed further into the mine which has been converted into what can only be described as a big shopping centre. They even had WiFi down there!
There were lots of gimicky things for sale as well as multiple restaurants. A light show on the ceiling of one chamber, which I have to admit was actually pretty cool, and a 3D film about the mine. Overall, it was a great underground experience.
We walked into Zipaquirá which has a very nice centre and eventually found somewhere which served veggie food, after being turned away from multiple places. Even so, the soup ‘without chicken’ that Lea asked for, had a few chunks of chicken hidden at the bottom. It is constant battle to try to get South American’s (generally speaking) to understand that chicken counts as a meat.
Just before dark, we began the 2 hour journey back to Bogota. We got a little bit lost on the bus system at one point but did finally make it back. I quickly packed my bag and was off to the bus terminal for a night bus to Salento.
Carynm
2019-03-06
Salt cathedral looks like an amazing place - a very different experience xxx