Thursday 20th December

Had a good night’s sleep but woke up & pulled up the blanket, a first in Colombia.

Had breakfast at a cafe round the corner & then took our bags down the road to wait for a bus at the agreed spot. We were virtually hijacked into a 12 seater min bus & at 9.00, off we went southwards towards Zipaquirá on the way to Bogota. The bus climbed for some way & passed through hills before coming to rolling country with a mixture of European dairy cattle on small farms. It was here that we started to see masses of eucalypts & the air coming in through the windows became quite cool. The bus was full & the knee room was extremely limited although the seats were quite comfortable but one poor kid was sick a couple of times. We felt very sorry for him but his older brother coped with it well. Further on we passed a big lake & then looked down into a valley with quite a few brickworks spewing black smoke from their chimneys.

At just past midday we drew up in a scruffy industrial area & the driver said it was Zipaquirá, which surprised us as they normally go to bus terminals. Out we got & were left wondering as it was a very strange area. Luckily a taxi came past & took us about 4k to the hotel, passing the terminal in the process. The hotel is very smart & seems empty, so we went to get food in a square in the old part of the town. After eating we looked for the tourist bureau way down at the old disused railway station & here found out about the Salt Cathedral in the local salt mine. We took the fake tourist train up to the mine site & visited the cathedral. This is a somewhat bizarre experience, particularly when our guide charged along at such a rate that Jenny couldn’t translate more than a fraction. It is set in a vast set of tunnels & drives into the hillside into rock salt, which has been mined since well before the arrival of the Spaniards in the 1500s, leaving large spaces now filled with the Stations of the Cross, a couple of large chapels, a big church & a shopping arcade & cafe, all in the bowels of the earth.

We left at about 5.30 & took the train back into the town before changing into warmer clothes & setting out for dinner. Our 2nd big mistake, as most locals eat their main meal at lunch time & most of the cafe’s & restaurants.

At the square we passed the cathedral & saw the door was open: it was a real surprise. The exterior, with its 2 towers was fairly standard except that its upper half didn’t appear to be faced with stone, as was the lower half. Even more surprising was the interior, which looked somewhat like an unfinished shell, with the pillars a mix of bricks & stone but totally unfinished. When we returned to the hotel we read Dick’s grandfather comments re the church & he also commented on its tatty state, in 1904.

Leaving the cathedral, we walked past all the places open at lunchtime & found that we could have chicken or chicken, much to our disgust. Eventually we settled for pizza & a hamburger all though it wasn’t our first choice.

Friday 11th December

After an excellent breakfast we decided to hire a cab to go to see Pacho a town about 40k north-west of Zipaquirá, which Grandpa Gerard had described as the most disgusting place he had visited.

The ride turned out to be more interesting than the town as we climbed out of Zipaquirá & the views were magnificent looking out over miles of mountains & valleys disappearing into the mist. Because of the bends & the state of the road in places it took 1.5 hours to get there. Its main claims to fame are that it was the home of one of the drug lords & it was the first place in Colombia where steel was made. It is certainly past its prime now although the centre is reasonably quaint. It was known for its coal which we glimpsed on a building site where the foundations had been cut into a thick coal seam.

Returning to Zipaquirá we had lunch & went to look for the bus station to leave the town tomorrow. On the way we found the town museum set in an old house formerly owned by a famous writer. We had a conducted tour of the place but in reality it was all rather sad as it is in a very rundown state & could do with some judicious expenditure.

As all the restaurants close early we had a good meal at 5pm & after a frustrating set of attempts to beat 3 ATMs went home with our winnings.