Zipaquirá and Sopo
Trip Start
Jul 22, 2008
1
4
26
Trip End
Jun 20, 2009
Bogotá,
Colombia
Friday, July 25, 2008
The salt cathedral
Went to the famous Salt Cathedral today. It's about 30 miles outside the city in the village of Zipaquirá. As you can imagine, it does what it says on the tin...a huge underground cathedral made out of rock salt (and German licked the wall to prove that it really was salt!). The whole place has a really eerie feel to it, maybe because it's underground, but it would also be a pretty neat place to go to a concert at, which apparently they do, in between shuttling tourists in and out and holding mass.
The salt cathedral
Met some fellow travelers, Marcel and Sophie, there, and gave them a lift back to Bogota with us. They're two teachers who've taken time off to travel extensively round Central and South America, and have been on the road for almost 11 months now. Now that's dedication to exploration! they're heading up to the coast in the next couple of weeks so hopefully we'll be able to meet up again. 
The salt cathedral
Also went to the Gomez family country retreat in the village of Sopo, which is absolutely beautiful, and right up my dad's property abroad alley, if only he thought to buy in Colombia! The house itself is undergoing extensive re-modeling, but the beautiful gardens have a fruit and vegetable patch, a decent sized trout pond and some land for cattle grazing. When it's finished it'll be fantastic! Wonder if they'll let me stay there next time I'm passing through?!
Country retreat under construction
