The salt cathedral, Cristina's birthday, and journey to cartagena.
Monday, August 21st - we checked out of the hotel and Alejandro, the driver who had originally picked me up from the airport (a friend of cousin Anthony), took us to the town of Zipaquira about forty minutes north of Bogota. Outside of Bogota the road median seemed to be jungle but on either side it was relatively small plot cow pastures and lots of rural buildings, and then the town of Chia took up half the distance, and then we were in Zipaquira, which was actually a really cute town with lots of narrow streets and old colonial style buildings.
Our destination here was the "Salt Cathedral" in some old salt mines. Alejandro dropped us off at the entrance on the side of the hill overlooking the town. I think admission was 100,000 a person, everything seems to be 100,000. We got audio tour audio players. The English one it took me a moment to pin the accent but i realized what it was was someone with a thick Irish accent who was trying really hard not to sound like they had an Irish accent.
Anyway we descended into the mine along a tunnel at only a very shallow grade. Once we were 80m or so underground there were "sculptures" of the stations of the cross, but every single one practically seemed to just be a single large stone cross and the commentary explained in a different manner how some indiscernable detail of this specific cross fit that specific station of the cross. I was feeling a bit annoyed that the commentary watched entirely about interpreting these nearly identical crosses and explaining these contrived interpretations rather than actually talking about salt mining which i was far more interested in. Finally though we came to some vast cavernous chambers that were there cathedral itself and these were a lot more impressive and interesting.
After the cathedral chambers we came to an area where there were shops in every alcove, which, with their neon signs i thought was kind of a funny gaudy contrast to the cathedral section. Cristina bought a rocksalt Virgin Mary.
There was also this cool reflecting pool.
And there was an Egyptian exhibit which seemed a bit strange but i suppose the replica Egyptian iconography looked as impressive in the stone surroundings as the catholic stuff.
And there was a movie theater that played a short film explaining the history of the site and the salt extraction. It seems there's native people had collected the salty water from the local springs and boiled away the water to get salt they then traded to neighboring tribes and were relatively rich due to this resource. Then the Spaniards arrived and set the local native people to mining in effectively slave like conditions. Over the years physical mining progressed with better machinery but most recently they're rather back to the original original method, pumping water into the ground and pumping out the brine, then distilling away the water. The movie had some well-made parts and then for some reason this transformer-like rock monster narrator would address the audience between segments.
Took a "train" out, actually just a motorized vehicle with normal tires pulling three passengers carriages, though i did kind of wonder what the base for their "locomotive" had been as no motor vehicle i know of is driven from the back like that.
Just beside where the train let us out the city tour bus was about to leave, our admission had included this city tour so it took us down and through and among the cute narrow streets of town. After maybe half an hour it returned us to the mine entrance.
Cristina then called Alejandro, and the way she gasped and habla-ed with him with emphatic concern i thought he'd been robbed. Being as all our luggage was with him i was extremely alarmed about this. As it turns out it wasn't that, it was that someone had bumped his car, nothing terribly serious but he's now got a dent in the side and unsightly scratches. I asked if he could get compensation from the other driver or insurance but Cristina said no it was just his bad luck.
Since Alejandro was dealing with that and we were hungry (it was just after five now and we'd never had lunch) but town was a bit further down the mountain than we quite felt like walking we got on the city tour bus again to ride it down, expecting to go with the normal tour but the driver volunteered to just drive us directly to this good restaurant and so he did.
The restaurant had a nice atmosphere, on the corner of a block and open along the two street facing sides. The waiter casually asked where we were from and then brought a little flag holder to the table with an Australian, Colombian, and Venezuelan flag in it, we thought that was really cute.
I had pork loin with passionfruit sauce and it was delicious. Cristina had a mixed grill platter. Alejandro was presently able to park on the street just beside us and joined us. I offered to buy him dinner but he'd already eaten so he just had a beer. Total i think came out to like 100,000 like everything else.
Then we visited some of the picturesque plazas in town to take some photos and then headed back to Bogota. We'd have to get up at 3am for our flight to cartagena, so we'd stay at Cristina's cousins place this night and Alejandro would drive us in the morning.
It was as always fun to see the cousins again. It was Cristina's 34th birthday this day (she was 28 when we met! It's crazy that since then this is the third time we've been able to spend time together, so many missed years 😢).
Yineska had made Cristina a birthday cake. Alejandro, recall, his a good friend of Anthony's so he joined us for our little birthday party. Carlota (9) had made a cute card for Cristina and gifted her some sort of hamster sized little plush toy thing. In an apparent Colombian tradition Cristina had to take a bite from the whole uncut cake before it was cut and distributed. And Carlota made simple pinata by somehow getting candy into a balloon and inflating it, and then Cristina popped it after the cake.
We had a good evening sitting around talking, some beers were had. I only had one and am a bit concerned the glands on my neck feel swollen which usually means I'm getting sick. So i thought I'd consult a doctor. And now not only has she declared i have the flu but she won't kiss me!
It wasn't till after midnight we got to bed (Cristina and i in Carlota's room, she with her mother which is apparently a common habit of hers anyway)
Tuesday, August 22nd - we got up at 3:00 after three hours of sleep. Alejandro came to get us at 3:30 (we paid him 169,000 for yesterday and 49,000 today for a total of $50.47us) check in at the airport went quickly and we found ourselves at the gate by four thirty thinking hey we could have slept another hour and a half. Flight was uneventful. Arrived in cartagena to find it very tropical. Raining but the air warm and humid.
DiDi doesn't seem to work here. Looked up taxi fare to hotel, should be 14,800 ($3.59). Took a taxi. He insisted on charging us 30,000. But on the bright side it made me smile to hear Cristina tell the driver i was her "esposo" (husband) at the beginning of the journey.
Okay so after getting three hours of sleep and feeling slightly unwell and all that we could surely use a nice relaxing nap right? Yeah well checked in to the hotel and they won't have a room available till three (and we arrived around nine!). So until then we're condemned to the hotel lobby couch.
As of now it's 11:37 and we're still in this hotel lobby purgatory. Altogether not the best start to our time in cartagena.
[Will be adding pictures]
Our destination here was the "Salt Cathedral" in some old salt mines. Alejandro dropped us off at the entrance on the side of the hill overlooking the town. I think admission was 100,000 a person, everything seems to be 100,000. We got audio tour audio players. The English one it took me a moment to pin the accent but i realized what it was was someone with a thick Irish accent who was trying really hard not to sound like they had an Irish accent.
Anyway we descended into the mine along a tunnel at only a very shallow grade. Once we were 80m or so underground there were "sculptures" of the stations of the cross, but every single one practically seemed to just be a single large stone cross and the commentary explained in a different manner how some indiscernable detail of this specific cross fit that specific station of the cross. I was feeling a bit annoyed that the commentary watched entirely about interpreting these nearly identical crosses and explaining these contrived interpretations rather than actually talking about salt mining which i was far more interested in. Finally though we came to some vast cavernous chambers that were there cathedral itself and these were a lot more impressive and interesting.
After the cathedral chambers we came to an area where there were shops in every alcove, which, with their neon signs i thought was kind of a funny gaudy contrast to the cathedral section. Cristina bought a rocksalt Virgin Mary.
There was also this cool reflecting pool.
And there was an Egyptian exhibit which seemed a bit strange but i suppose the replica Egyptian iconography looked as impressive in the stone surroundings as the catholic stuff.
And there was a movie theater that played a short film explaining the history of the site and the salt extraction. It seems there's native people had collected the salty water from the local springs and boiled away the water to get salt they then traded to neighboring tribes and were relatively rich due to this resource. Then the Spaniards arrived and set the local native people to mining in effectively slave like conditions. Over the years physical mining progressed with better machinery but most recently they're rather back to the original original method, pumping water into the ground and pumping out the brine, then distilling away the water. The movie had some well-made parts and then for some reason this transformer-like rock monster narrator would address the audience between segments.
Took a "train" out, actually just a motorized vehicle with normal tires pulling three passengers carriages, though i did kind of wonder what the base for their "locomotive" had been as no motor vehicle i know of is driven from the back like that.
Just beside where the train let us out the city tour bus was about to leave, our admission had included this city tour so it took us down and through and among the cute narrow streets of town. After maybe half an hour it returned us to the mine entrance.
Cristina then called Alejandro, and the way she gasped and habla-ed with him with emphatic concern i thought he'd been robbed. Being as all our luggage was with him i was extremely alarmed about this. As it turns out it wasn't that, it was that someone had bumped his car, nothing terribly serious but he's now got a dent in the side and unsightly scratches. I asked if he could get compensation from the other driver or insurance but Cristina said no it was just his bad luck.
Since Alejandro was dealing with that and we were hungry (it was just after five now and we'd never had lunch) but town was a bit further down the mountain than we quite felt like walking we got on the city tour bus again to ride it down, expecting to go with the normal tour but the driver volunteered to just drive us directly to this good restaurant and so he did.
The restaurant had a nice atmosphere, on the corner of a block and open along the two street facing sides. The waiter casually asked where we were from and then brought a little flag holder to the table with an Australian, Colombian, and Venezuelan flag in it, we thought that was really cute.
I had pork loin with passionfruit sauce and it was delicious. Cristina had a mixed grill platter. Alejandro was presently able to park on the street just beside us and joined us. I offered to buy him dinner but he'd already eaten so he just had a beer. Total i think came out to like 100,000 like everything else.
Then we visited some of the picturesque plazas in town to take some photos and then headed back to Bogota. We'd have to get up at 3am for our flight to cartagena, so we'd stay at Cristina's cousins place this night and Alejandro would drive us in the morning.
It was as always fun to see the cousins again. It was Cristina's 34th birthday this day (she was 28 when we met! It's crazy that since then this is the third time we've been able to spend time together, so many missed years 😢).
Yineska had made Cristina a birthday cake. Alejandro, recall, his a good friend of Anthony's so he joined us for our little birthday party. Carlota (9) had made a cute card for Cristina and gifted her some sort of hamster sized little plush toy thing. In an apparent Colombian tradition Cristina had to take a bite from the whole uncut cake before it was cut and distributed. And Carlota made simple pinata by somehow getting candy into a balloon and inflating it, and then Cristina popped it after the cake.
We had a good evening sitting around talking, some beers were had. I only had one and am a bit concerned the glands on my neck feel swollen which usually means I'm getting sick. So i thought I'd consult a doctor. And now not only has she declared i have the flu but she won't kiss me!
It wasn't till after midnight we got to bed (Cristina and i in Carlota's room, she with her mother which is apparently a common habit of hers anyway)
Tuesday, August 22nd - we got up at 3:00 after three hours of sleep. Alejandro came to get us at 3:30 (we paid him 169,000 for yesterday and 49,000 today for a total of $50.47us) check in at the airport went quickly and we found ourselves at the gate by four thirty thinking hey we could have slept another hour and a half. Flight was uneventful. Arrived in cartagena to find it very tropical. Raining but the air warm and humid.
DiDi doesn't seem to work here. Looked up taxi fare to hotel, should be 14,800 ($3.59). Took a taxi. He insisted on charging us 30,000. But on the bright side it made me smile to hear Cristina tell the driver i was her "esposo" (husband) at the beginning of the journey.
Okay so after getting three hours of sleep and feeling slightly unwell and all that we could surely use a nice relaxing nap right? Yeah well checked in to the hotel and they won't have a room available till three (and we arrived around nine!). So until then we're condemned to the hotel lobby couch.
As of now it's 11:37 and we're still in this hotel lobby purgatory. Altogether not the best start to our time in cartagena.
[Will be adding pictures]