October 1st 2014
This day starts like most days, I wake up. Today there’s a single goal in my mind, making it to Zipaquira, a town about an hour outside of Bogota and 2 hours from where I am staying. But the goal wasn’t just to make it there, it was to do it independently.
Bogota, despite being 8 million strong, does not have a subway system, instead they developed the Transmilenio system of big buses travelling in separate reserved lanes all the way up and down the thriving metropolis.
I figure out with help from fellow travellers and the internet which bus I need and head to LAs Aguas station maybe 10 minutes walk from Lima Limon and pay my fare (1400-1700COP). The bus is there right away and I climb on, lucky enough to actually get a seat.
We start our journey and the train quickly fills up. As we zoom past stopped early morning traffic I’m glad for the separate lanes of the transmilenio and amazed by the sheer urban sprawl of Bogota. Even moving at a good clip it takes a full hour to get to Porta De La Norte, one of the last transmilenio stations where I’m told buses to Zipacaria depart from.
Sure enough I climb off one bus, step through the turnstiles and am immediately hustled onto another bus (4,300) which hits the road about a minute later. The ride through Bogota was beautiful and fascinating to se the vast difference between ares of the city, the ride to Zipaquira is just beautiful snaking out through the Andes mountains towards the town made famous for it’s salt mines and, more recently, cathedrals.
The driver shouts out the name of the town as we come to a stop on a busy through free and I climb off, looking for the signs to direct me to the salt Cathedral. I stop at yet another excellent Colombian bakery before heading up into the charming mining town.
Walking through a pedestrian road full of shops of every variety I eventually spill out into the towns main square, which is quite beautiful in it’s own right. I take a seat and try to guess which way to go as the signs have disappeared. I also get my camera out, feeling secure, free from the crowded buses of Bogota.
I decide to continue on the same road, and wander up to another charming little plaza before finally asking for directions from a kind old man who pointed me straight there.
I’m surprised by how empty the walk up is, after all I’ve read that this is Colombia’s most visited religious site, but I only met two people on my way up, a couple living in Hong Kong from England and Australia respectively. The poor people have all there bags and the hill up to the Cathedral is not insignificant. I offer to help as we chat and follow the white line in the pavement which marks our path, but they refuse and manage it on.
When we finally reach the ticket office we find a lot of different options, varying in price from 23 000 to 45 000 COP. There’s a climbing wall, a light show, a 3d movie, a miner’s experience, an archaeological museum, a brine museum, and of course the Salt Cathedral itself.
In the end we all settle on the same package P3 for 29,000 COP which includes the standard three of the Cathedral the light show and the 3d movie as well as the Miner’s experience.
I speak the best spanish of the three of us so as we try to figure out where to go and if there’s a place to store there luggage, I take the lead. There’s an ice cream stand that will watch the bags but they both decide to keep them, and we hurry to the cave mouth where we wait a few minutes for a guided tour to begin.
To enter the Salt Cathedral you need to be with a guide, once you’re in though, you’re mercifully free to split from the group. Our tour is of course in spanish and as we walk into the underground place of worship I realize I never really learned many mining or archaeological terms in spanish. I find that if I really focus hard I can understand most of it, but frankly with the incredible surroundings I’ve got better things to do then listen closely. Like explore.
Slowly I separate from the group and wander through the surreal surroundings, illuminated by soft glowing lights embedded in the rocks which change colour with times. Ave Maria plays quietly in the distance more often than it doesn’t. There are endless crosses carved into the cliffside which even after years of mining is still rich with veins of salt
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As the tour group leaves me behind I’m left all but alone in this stunning underground sanctuary, and quickly I find that around each corner is another wonder.
Time starts to blur as I stumble upon randomly placed sculptures in the dim light, dodging through passageways of all shapes and sizes, glad for the well signed nature of the route to the exit. Without those signs I know I’d have trouble ever finding may way out of this tiny section of what was once a massive labyrinth of mining tunnels.
Eventually I round a bend in the stone and am struck by the incredible beauty of the main area of the Cathedral. Looking down from above as the light shifts it’s soft radiances from midnight blue to emerald green and on to a lovely plum purple. An Angelic figure holding a herald’s horn looks down on the scene and the biggest cross of all. I’ve caught up to the tour again, but the group do nothing to spoil the foreign and strange beauty that surrounds me.
The tour departs and I spend a while just breathing in the beauty, giving them a big enough lead before setting off deeper into the complex of caves, down some stairs and onto the lower level of the complex. There I find more sculptures, narrow passages and different angles on the stunning main chamber. I wander in slack jawed awe for a good 45 minutes before settling down in one of the pees and taking out my laptop to write, hopeful the staff won’t be offended. churches everywhere are different, some seem thrilled by the idea of someone writing there, others not so much. I’m lucky though as when staff members pass they just smile and continue on their way, and sitting in that incredible Cathedral is a place ripe with inspiration.
Words flow and hours pass, when I finally emerge from that alternate world I realize it’s almost 4 o’clock. Packing up my stuff I head quickly towards the exit and find instead countless shops, a veritable bevy of underground outlets selling souvenirs and everything else. Even a couple of crane games available.
I wander through the shops only to realize I’m heading the wrong way. On the way back I stumble onto the 3D movie theatre just as it’s about to start, and since it’s only 15 minutes I stop in. The theatre is something to behold carved in to the rock somewhere around 1000 meters below the ground. The movie is corny and ridiculous but quite entertaining as it tells the story of the mines and the history of the town too.
I duck out of the theatre quickly and stumble onto the miner’s experience tour. Deciding that I can spare the half hour before hurrying back to Bogota I get my helmet and light and join the group as we are led through narrow endless tunnels deeper into the cave system. Though we have lights on our helmets we are told not to use them and instead stumble through the caves in complete darkness, one hand on the back of the person in front of us, and one hand on rough cave wall.
We’re led deeper into the mines by a friendly guide with several stop off points. We get to use the pick axe on the wall, and I’m surprised by how difficult it is to carve off a chunk of any decent size, the salt shatters to pebbles altogether too easily. Then we simulate laying dynamite and detonating the charge all running away as the speakers broadcast a loud boom. It’s a little corny, but lots of fun, and the one child who’s there has eyes gone wide with glee throughout the entire experience.
That done I set off at a brisk pace back up some steep stairs and out of the massive and incredible cave system, so glad I made the effort to get here.
I hurriedly stride through the small town back to Calle 15 to find a bus back to Bogota. I’ve not eaten lunch but there’s no time so instead I stop and pick up a stick of chocolate covered strawberries for the ludicrous price of 1000 COP. That becomes my only regret for the day, not buying more than one.
As I come to Calle 15 I am instantly hailed onto a bus bound for Bogota. The return journey goes about as smoothly as the ride out and By 6:30 I’m back in la Candelaria and enjoying a burger at a Colombian restaurant called mega burger. It’s surprisingly delicious and a lovely cap on a great day.
