Zipaquirá

Feeling normal again, I was excited for our trip to Zipaquirá, home of the famous Salt Cathedral. Cultivation of salt started with the Muisca people, before colonization by the Spanish. Over hundreds of years, the extraction methods and the changing technology have resulted in complex and ever-deepening levels and chambers in the mountain. I think the movie said more than 15 million tons of salt have been extracted to date. (Although I couldn't buy any of it there, which I found strange.) The site is amazing.

 The bus dropped us off here, by the train station. Interestingly, the train arrives once a day and is a much slower journey than the bus.

 Wandering the city with an architect means you can't help but notice fascinating buildings like these, with colonial-era columns and balconies.

A panorama of the town plaza, with the holiday tree and lights in the middle, the Cathedral, and the local government buildings. 

And then you start to climb, out of the city center, up to the site, up the mountain to the entrance.... 

Salt! Extruding from the rock at the entrance. Yes, I tasted it. 

Way too religious for me, the walk through is the story of the twelve (or is it fourteen?) stations of the cross. I may not have an interest in the story, but the workmanship was extraordinary.

This is the dome/nave of the cathedral. Everything is salt. 

How beautiful! 

A little room showing tools of the mining trade. 

Really stunning visually. 

Then we hopped the tourist train back down the mountain. We rode up front with the 'conductor.' 

 Lunch! One fish dish, one meat dish. Both with salad, plantains, yuca and potatoes. Nothing like some starch. Needless to say, we didn't finish it all.

We got off the bus before getting back into town as we were meeting his brother and cousin at his aunt's, at the convent where she lives. (Yes, she's a nun. No, this was a different aunt from yesterday, although she was there too.) There was a dessert place they wanted me to see....

 Called 'La Cabaña', I expected a restaurant. Not exactly. It's a cross between the craziest supermarket/deli with no ticket system and a factory production site. If you can get up to the glass you can see them making the cheese and pastry in the back.

Festive though! We managed to secure a table outside and eat there. I had something with fresh cheese, arequipe, and fruit, and I needed both the guys to help me finish it. Despite having eaten their pastries, they thankfully were game.

After, we dropped off his aunt, then went back to the city and to his cousin's for a drink and chat, and some great laughs playing with her young daughter. They then dropped me back at the hotel. I went for a short walk, then read for a while and crashed. No dinner--once again I wasn't hungry.

In the Salt Cathedral