Something great about Colombia is that there are many day trips that are possible from the major cities. I ended up taking one day trip out of Bogotá and one out of Medellín, both of which were great! My first day trip was to Zipaquirá, a town 1.5-2 hours outside of Bogotá. It is known primarily for its cathedral within a salt mine. I was thinking about skipping Zipaquirá since it is a long day trip from Bogotá, but it came highly recommended by my friend Luisa’s cousin Luis, so I decided to go. It was worth it!
The trip took me almost 2 hours each way from where I was staying in La Candelaria in Bogotá. I took the TransMileno, Bogota’s city bus system, to the Portal Norte bus station at the north end of the city. I passed through many of the higher-end neighborhoods in Bogotá, which looked quite nice. The bus ride to Zipaquirá was quite pretty as it passed through the region of the Colombian countryside known as La Sabana de Bogotá (Bogota Savanna). I was expecting a very small village or remote area with the salt mine and cathedral, but I arrived to a cute town/small city of 130,000. Upon arrival, I didn’t know exactly where to go to get to the salt cathedral, but there were many friendly local high school students with maps who helped give me directions. As I walked through town, I noticed many historic and colorfully painted buildings. This was my first taste of how beautiful and colorful Colombian towns are.
After walking through town, I finally arrived at the entrance to the salt cathedral. It turns out that there are a couple of museums on the site, in addition to the cathedral, so I bought the ticket that included those. The ticket also included an audio guide, which allowed me to learn a lot about the cathedral and the mines. The mine was excavated in three levels during different eras, going deeper each time. In the early days of the mine, it served as a major source of money to finance the independence wars against Spain, which I saw reference to in the Netflix series on Simon Bolivar. The first church in the mine was built in the early 1900s by the miners as a safe refuge, both physically and spiritually. Something that struck me is the faith of the miners and how important it was for them to build a church down there. Over time, as the miners excavated deeper and deeper, the structural integrity of the first church became questionable. In the 1990s, a new church was built by the miners that was specially designed and financed, rather than just incorporated into the mine. Now it is a major tourist site that is especially popular among Colombian tourists and increasingly among international tourists.
Upon entering, the path into the mine first went through an area with the Stations of the Cross carved out of stone and/or rock salt. Each cross was different and had a symbolic meaning to represent each station. Some were illuminated in unique ways, some were empty spaces carved out of the rock, and others were solid. There were also cavernous areas where one could stare into the abyss of the mine, often times right behind the crosses. After descending far into the mine, I encountered the main chapel and side chapels, which were spectacular! The main chapel houses a 200 ft tall cross carved out of rock salt. There were also beautifully decorated altars and fountains. I spent some time reveling in the beauty of the church before proceeding through a small museum on emeralds. Apparently, Colombia is one of the world’s primary producers of emeralds and they love to showcase that.
Afterwards, I went back to the surface and did the quick tour of the brine museum, where I learned about how the mining is done nowadays. Miners used to use explosives and haul out the rock salt, but these days, most of the salt is extracted by injecting water into bored holes, allowing it to turn into brine, extracting the brine, evaporating the water, and purifying the salt. Some of the salt is used for food uses, but most of the salt is used for industrial purposes. It was interesting learning about the miners and the salt mining while simultaneously being able to visit the cathedral. I ended up getting lunch before visiting the archeological museum. While the archeological museum was small, it had an amazing collection of ceramics from the various pre-Columbian cultures of the interior region of Colombia! The intricacy of the pottery was up there with the Peruvian pottery I saw, and some of the different items/designs were unique. I enjoyed the short time I had in the museum before I head to get going. My last stop in town was to get some baked goods that would serve as my dinner. I ended up buying a buñuelo (fried cheese bread), some sort of fritter stuffed with meat, and another cheesy bread. All ended up being delicious but quite greasy, as is typical with Colombian food. I would have enjoyed more time to explore the Zipaquirá and leisurely enjoy the museums but ultimately had to leave in a hurry to try to make it back to Bogotá before dark. Overall, I thought it was a great destination and a worthwhile day trip!
The other day trip I took was out of Medellín to a rock with a view called El Peñol and then to the town of Guatape. Just the bus ride there was great, as I got to pass through the beautiful Colombian countryside. Upon arrive, I saw a huge rock that reminded me of Beacon Rock in the Columbia River Gorge with a path going up it. I got off the bus and was offered a ride in a little mototaxi but decided to walk to the base of the rock. Along the way, I got chatting with a group of Canadians and joined them. Two of them work in the financial industry in Toronto and another was from Vancouver and traveling solo but ended up joining with the other two. We hiked to the top together and arrived to a viewpoint complete with restaurants and gift shops. The view of the reservoir, created by a hydroelectric dam, the small islands with a backdrop of Colombian countryside was quite pleasant. After soaking in the view, I headed down to the town of Guatape with the Canadians and walked around. It was yet another beautiful, colorful Colombian small town. There were many shops and restaurants aimed at tourists, but it appeared that more of the tourists were Colombian rather than international. After taking a stroll, we had lunch, and I ordered a Bandeja Paisa, the typical meal of the region. It consists of fried pork, two types of sausage (chorizo and blood sausage), ground beef, rice, a fried egg, and beans. A delicious and filling meal! We then decided to head back to Medellín. Overall, I would say that Guatape was a pleasant excursion from Medellín.
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