Wednesday 2nd February 2011
An early start saw us heading to the central bus station to get up to Zipaquira, or 'Zipa' to us locals. The 40km or so would take us nearly 2 hours and give us a fascinating view of buses in the capital. The mentality here is very different to back home. Speed is not important, getting as many people on the bus as possible is. For the first few miles the driver curb crawls while the 'conductor' runs up and down the street trying to chivy everyone onto the bus. Eventually the bus hits 100km/hr only to slam on the breaks for another in the middle of nowhere.
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| The biggest cross in the world? |
Our reason for visiting Zipa was to see the salt mine and more importantly the salt cathedral that it holds. If you've never visited a salt cathedral, we're not surprised. It was a unique and highly memorable experience for us. As with most cathedrals you can hire it for christenings and weddings. It also contains what they claim to be the biggest cross in the world and the salty air is so good for people with asthma, they're looking at setting up a hospital in the mine, or so the guide said.
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| What a lovely town. |
Zipa is a quaint little town, with a beautiful plaza. Lunch was the cheapest yet at less than £2 each for soup, main course and homemade lemonade.
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| Cracking value. |
Tomorrow we wave goodbye to Bogota and head north to a small town called Villa de Leyva. Our adventure continues.
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