Day 124 - Stop the bus!

Bogota

M had spent ages the night before trying unsuccessfully to buy bus tickets for Pereira over the internet, so this morning we walked through the streets of Bogota (not a gringo in sight anywhere!) to the bus company office to buy them in person.

We then headed by bus to the town of Zipaquirá just north of Bogota to visit the Salt Cathedral. The place seemed quiet when we arrived until we started walking to the entrance where there were heaps of people lined up to enter, many of them dressed up in their "Sunday best".

It isn't officially a cathedral (there is no bishop), but is a very large salt mine that has been turned into a tourist attraction with chapels, reception areas (all the dressed up people were there for a university graduation), a cinema, popcorn stalls, museums, multiple shops, restaurants and more. We thought the entry fee was quite expensive (for South America) at $20, to get into what was a combination of church and glorified amusement park. They have made clever use of the old part of the mine but there wan't much salt to see as it had been extracted already. The salt mining is still happening nearby, but using modern extraction techniques involving high pressure water.

After that we walked back to the main road in to get a bus back to the Trans-Millenia (Bogotá's bus transport that has its own lane so moves at a good speed) terminal. We were told the bus was going to Portal Norte, but it actually just stopped briefly across the road before heading off in a different direction to where we wanted to go. We ended up getting stuck in some pretty bad traffic (caused by a couple of breakdowns) before finding ourselves at a bus terminal about half an hour away from where we were staying. Taxis are cheap and plentiful though so we just caught one back from there, and at least we got to see a different part of Bogota!

We liked Bogotá and could have stayed longer but the apartment was booked to someone else the next day so it was time to move on. Plus we are still chasing warmth, here we are so close to the equator but it's still a bit cool and rainy.