One of the truly fascinating sites is the Salt Cathedral located about 60 minutes drive from Bogota in a small city named Zipaquirá. There are many guided tours that will take you there, but as my blog title indicates, we are “backroads wanderers” and we explore and make things happen on our own. This allows us the freedom to come and go as we please, stop when we want to take a picture and basically customize our own little tour. So how do we make that
happen. Well you can rent a car and drive yourself, which I think is a crazy thing to do in Bogota. The traffic and the volume of motorcycles and scooters that just weave in and out and ride the white lines is incredible. So even though I have driven in many countries, we decided to hire a driver, allowing us the opportunity to just enjoy the ride and watch the people and the countryside go by.

We hired an English speaking driver through the Hilton that worked out just great. He was able to give us the local flavor as we passed through the city and then the smaller towns on our way to the Salt Cathedral.

Upon entry into the Salt Cathedral, you probably won’t be very impressed until you start hearing the facts that your tour guide provides as you move down deep into the caverns of the mountain.

It seems that this area was once underwater with a great saltwater sea. About 250 million years ago the Andes were formed as the plates of the planet began pushing together. The salt of the ocean was absorbed into the mountains that remained. This then became an area that was mined for the minerals and in particular the salt (halite).

Over 90% of Colombia is Catholic and as the miners went deeper and deeper into the mines, the miners carved small sanctuaries, as places for their daily prayers asking for the protection of the saints before starting to work. They began by building in smaller side caverns the stations of the cross. It was declared unsafe and ultimately closed. However, in 1991 the construction of a new cathedral was undertaken beginning with a contest for a design of a new, safe cathedral and in 1992 it was reopened, although 200 feet below the original in deeper caverns. The lighting and the carvings out of the stone are quite impressive. As we moved through the caverns and stations, the guide continued to provide some unbelievable facts that you can research and read on your own at their website www.catedraldesal.gov.co

The main sections of this incredible structure are as I said earlier, the Stations of the Cross, the Dome and the three naves. The 14 small chapels represent the stations of the cross illustrating the events of Jesus’ last journey. Each station has a cross and several kneeling platforms carved into the halite structure for the workers to pray each day.

The Dome is just what it is called, a rotunda-like room from which we descended to the bas- relief cross chambers, the balcony and the labyrinth.  From there you approach the naves which are connected to each other by a crack that you can walk through. In the main nave with the large cross there are four large columns representing the four Evangelists.

As you approach the main cathedral and its three knaves we look forward into the main nave at a tremendous cross  at its front wall. The guide asks for guesses as to the weight of this cross, providing its dimensions of something like 20 meters high and 10 meters across. 20 tons was one…thirty tons was another…she indicated she would tell us later. Here is a picture of this cross! Can you guess?

We move through the three knaves and are finally in front of the cross and she asks if we wanted to reconsider our guesses. 20 tons goes to 30 tons and 30 tons escalates to 40! It’s huge and quite impressive.

Zero! She says. It does not weigh anything! What? Impossible!

Upon closer examination and further explanation, we discover it is carved into the stone wall! It appears to be standing in front of the wall of stone and yet it is carved into the stone wall before us. An optical illusion! The lighting and workmanship makes it appear to have tremendous weight and size. Truly an impressive sight to see.

Although it is extremely difficult to take pictures in the lighting 1,000 feet under the ground, I have attached some pictures in the gallery to give you an idea of its grandeur. You will end up spending much more time there than you originally anticipated, giving you just one more reason to explore on your own rather than a tour that will only give you a certain amount of time.

From there we made a small side trip to another lesser known salt mine. Not as impressive as the salt cathedral with respect to the carvings and stone depictions, but extremely interesting as well. As the two of us wander through the caverns with our private guide, who only speaks Spanish (lucky that I have Betty to translate), we discover that here is where much of the film “The 33” was filmed. You remember the one about the 33 miners trapped in a Chilean mine for 69 days? The one starring Antonio Banderas. Here you can see where most of the underground filming took place. The autographed helmets of the miners hang here as well as the documentation of the collapse of the mine and ultimate rescue of the miners. There is also a replica of the capsule with which they brought the miners to the surface. Very entertaining and something that you will probably not get to see if you are only on a regular guided tour.

We stopped for a little site seeing and shopping in the town of Zipaquirá. There is a beautiful church and central plaza to visit here and we have a coffee (Betty loves coffee) before heading back to Bogota. We need to get ready for our trip to Cartagena tomorrow. We have an early flight.