ENTRY 1, Week 1 - Bogota

Several people have suggested I keep a blog while I’m in South America, both as a sort of journal and also in case anyone is bored enough to want to see what I’ve been up to!

My first few days in Colombia were spent in Bogota, the capital city, where most of my relatives live. The first day was unsurprisingly a lazy start, considering the 20 hour journey the day before. By late morning I  had hauled myself out of bed, out the door and onto a bus heading into town. Bogota is a fairly modern city, but isn’t going to win any prizes for aesthetics - concrete is most definitely king. I seemed to have brought the bad weather from London with me, as lunch was interrupted by one of the most torrential downpours I’ve ever seen including ballistic hailstones! With no sign of the rain easing we made a short dash to the Gold Museum, which, according to Wikipedia, it displays "the world’s largest collection of pre-hispanic gold work".

We then made a quick detour to the plaza where the Presidential Palace is located, only to find there was a religious celebration going on in the adjacent church - it seems 2 drops of Pope John Paul II’s blood were being brought into this church, which lots of people had gathered to see (Colombia is still a strongly Catholic country, meaning a surprising number of people braved the weather).

Pope action

The second day (Saturday) involved another slog into the centre of the city on the rather complicated bus network. The aim of the afternoon was to go up Monserrate, one of the mountains that hems the city in. The centre of the city is already at an altitude of 2,600m, and Monserrate looms over it, reaching a height of 3,150m. Visitors can ascend on foot, via a cable car or a funicular (if it’s running). The path is stepped for the most part, and pretty steep,, taking us just under an hour to climb.

The top of the mountain was originally a pilgrimage site, but has for the most part given way to tourism. The views over Bogota are spectacular, but are let down somewhat by the fact that so much of what can you see isn’t particularly attractive.

Saturday evening was spent at a family gathering, mostly trying to remember the names of various relatives, and attempting to play a variation of charades in Spanish - a good choice for someone like me whose Spanish isn't completely fluent yet!

Day 3 (Sunday) began with an early morning bus ride which took us to the town of Zipaquirá, about an hour’s drive from Bogota, which still has several Spanish colonial buildings surrounding the main square.

However, the real reason for visiting Zipaquirá lies just outside the town on the slopes of the surrounding hills. One of Colombia’s top tourist attractions is hidden inside the side of the hills, amidst the tunnels of a working salt mine, where workers excavated an incredible cathedral from the rock during the 19th century.

The photos really don’t do it justice, but this was one of the most spectacular sights I can recall seeing, and there are dozens of huge chambers within the mine complex, each hundreds of metres long, and all dramatically lit by an ever-changing progression of colours. Anyone who knows me will be unsurprised to learn that I had the music from the Mines of Moria playing on my ipod for much of the time. 

Of particular note was a “miners’" tour we did within the complex, which involved fumbling through pitch black tunnels in single file in order to get some idea of working conditions in the past. Even more fun was the chance to take up a pickaxe and hack away at some sections of tunnel wall in order to extract salt (although the chunks I gathered crumbled in my jeans pocket). What really struck me was the welcome contrast to the hyper safety culture that dominates European mass tourist sites - I couldn’t think of anywhere else that would allow you to pick up a heavy tool and attack a dusty rock wall, with no more Health and Safety precautions than an ill-fitting helmet. 


Next stop, Cartagena on the Northern coast and the Lost City ("Cuidad Perdida") in the Sierra Nevada. Hopefully my next entry will be a bit less rambling.