Catedral de Sal & Cartagena

One of the Stations of the Cross

For our second day in Colombia, we decided to visit the Catedral de Sal (Salt Cathedral) about 50 km outside of Bogota.  After analyzing all of our transport options we decided to go by taxi.  However this proved more difficult than we expected.  The first taxi that we found was not allowed to leave the city limits.  He offered to call another for us but couldn't get through.  The second taxi was willing to take us but wanted to charge $170,000 COP which was the same as the private car that the hotel could arrange.  The third offered to take us to the boat for $100,000 COP but you can't get to there by boat so we weren't sure what he meant.  Finally, on our fourth try we found a driver to take us for $75,000 COP round trip including 30 minutes of wait time.  However, as soon as we got in the taxi the rate changed to $85,000 COP plus an additional $15,000 COP for each additional hour over the 30 minutes.  Before he could change the rate again, Lisa insisted that he write the price down for us which he did not like but agreed.  This of course did not stop him for trying to charge us more to return us to Candelaria as opposed to our hotel in the North (we mentioned where we wanted to be returned to during our initial negotiations).  He finally agreed to take us because he did not want us to think badly of Colombians.  When it came time to pay, he wanted an additional $10,000 COP because he waited for a long time.  We reminded him that we got 30 minutes included and were gone an additional 60 minutes - but he said it was much longer.  We refused to give in and paid him the $85,000 + $15,000 COP that we agreed to and got out.

One of the larger chapels in Catedral de Sal

 The Catedral itself was very nice.  It was carved out of salt in an underground salt mine.  You walk through the cave visiting small alcoves - one for each station of the cross.  I was expecting each alcove to have a carving of sculpture depicting the station for which it was built but instead everyone had a cross and a couple of stone kneelers.  After the stations you go futher down in the cave and there are a couple of large chapples with wooden pews.  They were somewhat plane in decor but given that they were carved out of salt 150 meters undergroung added a sense of awe.

After the catedral, we decided to visit Museo Botero.  If you are not familiar with Botero, he is famous for painting rather fat people, fat animals, even fat fruit.  What it lacks in seriousness it makes up for in humor.  Besides, who doesn't love a painting of a fat man on a fat horse. 

We decided to dine in the Zona Rosa neighborhood in the north part of Bogota at the Bogota Beer Company.  We knew we picked a good spot when we saw a line of bogotanos waiting to get in.  After a delicious burger and a beer we headed out to explore.  Zona Rosa is definitely where the young and good looking bogotanos hang out.  Every restaurant and bar was packed.  After drinking a mojito while listening to a live band we called it a night.

 In the morning we headed back to the airport to catch a flight to Cartagena.  The moment we stepped off the plane we were sticky from the heat and humidity.  And we continued to be sticky as we walked from our hotel to old town (it was much further and hotter than we expected), explored the old city, had drinks and ate dinner.  We went to Cafe del Mar, a club on top of the wall bordering old town, to watch the sun go down while with a glass of their finest vino tinto.  While we were enjoying the sunset and trying not to stick to the table my neighbor from the flight to Bogota came up.  He was traveling with his two brothers and we joined them for another drink and then dinner.  Our original plan we to return to the hotel and wash the sticky off before dining but they talked us in to just staying for dinner.  It turned out to be a lot of fun, if perhaps too much wine.

Cafe del Mar, Cartagena



Puerto de Reloj, Cartagena