Friday, June 13, 2008

Zipaquira

Zipaquira is a small town about an hour north of Bogota that is home to Colombia´s most popular tourist attraction: a cathedral made of salt. It´s all part of the world´s largest salt mine and sits a ways underground. We took the bus from Bogota that through Colombia´s farmland, which to me looked like a mix of Switzerland and Iowa with a South American twist. When we got to town we had a ten dollar steak lunch.
We had to walk to the other side of town to get to the cathedral, which was worth it because we found a little shop and I got a new scarf. Plus the town is pretty cute.
The salt cathedral is in a big park, we could almost smell our way to the entrance, which pumps out sulfur. It was stinky, but out tour guide told us that sulfur is good for the lungs. When we first entered I immediately thought of Fraggle Rock, but things got more sophisticated as we got further in. The cathedral is on three levels. The route to the cathedral is made up of the stations of the cross. Brad and I both felt the lack of a Catholic education, but they had these helpful little plaques so we weren´t totally lost.
After the tour was over we were free to roam around, take pictures and lick the walls, they really are made of salt! Then we crossed back into daylight and took a bus to Chia.






2 comments:

Adam Straw said...

I think its funny that you were pleasantly suprised that the salt cathedral was actually made of salt. Wouldn't it have been lame if there was just a little salt in the jar at the front?

Sarah said...

World's biggest hoax: Colombia's salt cathedral actually made of pepper.