SALT CATHEDRAL
One of the must see tourist sites in Bogata is the Salt Cathedral, an underground cathedral carved out of an old salt mine. Susie and I went today. Susie has a sense of direction, I have none, so she guides us around. We first went by taxi a good distance to the North Portal Bus station where we had to catch a bus to Zipaquira, the town of the Salt Cathedral. Buses came and went but with the help of a woman who was going the same place we followed her onto the bus she got on. It was full, but after a little I got a seat with my knees just under my chin next to a woman who closed the side window curtain and fell asleep. So I didn’t see much on the way. But we got to Zipaquira. It was already almost 3 and we were hungry. Susie found a restaurant in the article she had read which was on an uphill walk to the Salt Cathedral. On the way we discovered a beautiful central plaza and then a second plaza, but I was already tired and didn’t feel like walking around. We ate a great meal at the restaurant, barbecued pork ribs, with a very attentive waiter, the designated English waiter, who said sorry a great deal but who we had great trouble understanding, not his fault that we know no Spanish.
It was just a short walk to the entrance to the Salt Cathedral, but it turned out to be a long walk up a hill, often with flights of stairs, to get to the actual entrance. I was exhausted by the time we got there and paid our 100,000 pesos ($25), a lot by Colombian standards, which soured us a little. We had to wait a while to be allowed in and when we did it was with a huge crowd and a guide who spoke rapid Spanish. After jostling along with the crowd for awhile we left the crowd and wandered on ahead.
The Salt Cathedral has been chiseled out of the prior salt mine, so there was while salt globules lining the wide tunnels we walked through. Off to the side of the main tunnel were hollowed out caves with stone crosses in each one, each lit by colored lights which shifted from one brilliant pastel to another. Each was numbered and my guess was that the guide was explaining each station of the cross, which I had heard vaguely about, but not being a Catholic, had no idea of the significance of each.
On our own we came to larger, high ceilinged chambers. The largest, which we took to be the central cathedral had a light show of on the wall of scenes from nature. A couple of others had rows of pews, like a chapel, that looked like places of worship, also with colored lights.
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But somehow, maybe because I am not Catholic, maybe because of my weariness, maybe because of all the neon lights, maybe because I didn’t understand a word of Spanish, maybe because next to the presumed cathedral with it’s light show was a salt tunnel lined with carved out caves filled with high end shops and a snack bar, I didn’t sense the presence of the sacred. Instead I had the feeling that I was in a well managed tourist site which was designed to part me from my money.
Following the visit to Salt Cathedral we found a taxi to take us to a comfortable bus to Bogata, followed by a taxi ride through Bogata’s very tumltous rush hour to our apartment and rest.
BILLYBABA’S WANDERING 