The Salt Cathedral Day 357
Sunday February 28, 2010 – checked out of Hostel Sue we were so right about the room, when we got home this morning there was this guy & girl having a DNM right by our window. Lee banged on the window to shit them up but it only lasted a couple of minutes. It was actually pretty funny listening to the guy rave on to this chic, luckily we had had enough to drink to drift off. We went over to The Cranky Croc to check-in, well the guy behind the desk stuffed up he has put us in a dorm instead of the private room we booked!! Bit pissed off but there is nothing we can do. Went for a walk and could only find a room at a hotel called San Sebastian way too expensive but there wasn’t much else.
We had brekkie with Brian & Jess then jumped in a cab to ‘Portal Norte’ from there we jumped on a bus to Zipaquira (we did the wrong thing and went inside the bus way, you have to pay just to get in & out so try to avoid it).
We arrived out there a bit after 1 and caught a cab up the hill for 4,000. The place was really organised and well laid out. We bought a ticket to get us into the Cathedral, 3D movie and a tour of the mine.
Catedral de Sal (in Spanish) was quite amazing. It was born from an old salt mine, dug straight into a mountain outside the town. The mines date back to the Muisca period and have been intensively exploited, but they still contain vast reserves that will last another 500 years.
The surprising thing was it wasn’t just a cathedral there were other rooms and chapels and the lighting was fantastic. There was not an English tour starting so instead of waiting we just went down into the mine/tunnel ourselves. After viewing a few of the sculptured crosses we ran into a English guided group which was excellent, we learnt loads more. Like the fact that each ? is dropping 3mm a year so in 150 years the area we were standing in would all be joined up again and they could start mining again.
The 3D movie was a bit of fun but informative at the same time. The mine tour got a little boring, our guide was trying his hardest. He would talk to everyone in Spanish and then tell them to walk on and try to translate parts of what he had just said but sometimes he just couldn’t find the words. We were holding up the group when a kind Colombian living in the States offered to translate for us so the whole tour could get moving.
We were underground nearly 4hrs so when we came out we were starving. We decided to checkout one of the restaurants we had seen on the way up in the taxi, they had a large open fireplace burning out the front with extra large skewers of meat roasting, the meat was amazing. We had a bit of a walk around the town the. Hopped on the collectivo (small local bus) to take us back to Bogota.
It was about 7pm when we got back, Brian & Jess had to fly as their plane was leaving at 9.30pm to Cartagena. Lee & I went back to the hotel & watched TV.