We rolled into Bogotá not sure if we were ready to swap the peace of the coffee
area for what we expected to be a large and stressful city. After our rather
negative impression of Quito, the
last capital city we visited, we didn’t have high hopes for Bogotá. But life is full of surprises,
and the Colombian capital was one of them. The hostel recommended to us by
friends volunteering in the old part of town turned out to be great – our room
was huge and clean with an incredibly comfortable bed, the staff were friendly
and a yummy breakfast was included in the price! On top of that, it was just
around the corner from where our friends were working, so we always had someone
to catch up with for dinner/drinks in the evening. J The
old part of town, La Candelaria,
offered a wealth of great, super-cheap eateries and small watering holes
peppered throughout its maze of cobblestone streets, and we had great fun
exploring the countless tiny squares and alleys. And despite the presence of a
few druggie-looking beggars, we didn’t feel the area had earned its bad
reputation – we never felt unsafe, even at night.
On our second day in the city we made use
of the great public transport system and hopped on the TransMilenio (very crowded but super-efficient system of buses
which run on special lanes throughout the city and thus bypass the perpetual
traffic jams) to head to famous Catedral
de Sal in Zipaquirá. The efficiency
of public transport in so many places we have visited down here never ceases to
amaze me – even though it may seem completely chaotic and nothing is centrally
organised, it always works perfectly – and this was once again the case on our
trip to the salt mines; no sooner had we got off the bus at the last stop on
the TransMilenio line than we were
ushered into a waiting bus which would take us directly to Zipaquirá. An hour later we were there, and after a short walk up a
steep hill (our altitude adaption is a thing of the past it seems!), we were at
the gaping mouth of the 180m deep salt mine. Even just waiting to go in was an
experience, standing there, staring into the absolute darkness of the entrance,
feeling the cool, moist air drifting out towards us. The slightly creepy
feeling was exacerbated by the fact that someone had positioned a dummy just
inside the entrance, and one of its arms had broken and was hanging down from
its shoulder in a grotesque way, making it look eerily like an injured miner
staggering towards the light… (I don’t think this was intentional, but it was certainly
effective!)
Our sense of expectation was not
disappointed when we entered the mine – walking down, down, down on the
slightly slippery compacted salt, surrounded on all sides by dark walls (I
expected white, due to the salt, but apparently the salt is mixed with
impurities and is thus quite dark in colour), with the knowledge that hundreds
of tonnes of earth and salt are pressing down on you from above. And in
addition to the already quite surreal atmosphere of the mine, it has been illuminated
with a dreamlike array of colourful lighting, making you feel like you are entering
a completely different universe. The first section of the tunnel system leading
towards the main chamber contains a series of side halls housing crosses and
abstract salt-carvings representing the Stations of the Cross (Jesus on his way
to be crucified). Although these side chambers were fascinating in themselves,
they were nothing compared to the enormous main chamber housing the cathedral itself;
75m long and 18m high, dominated by a 15m high cross, the yawning cavern seems to swallow all who
enter. Standing between the pews and looking up, we felt about as big as ants.
We are not church people at all, and maybe it was just the lighting, or the
knowledge that we were separated from the real world by more than 180 of earth,
but this place was simply awe-inspiring (the kind of place that makes you whisper
and tip-toe). After soaking up the atmosphere in the main chamber, we then
spent ages exploring the maze of tunnels and chambers which contain everything
from smaller chapels and spookily still salt pools to cafés and gift shops: There
is a whole little village down there! We even stumbled into a huge room with a
roof full of LEDs – we sat down and were treated to a very psychedelic light
& music show – almost like being at a rave underground. After several hours
in the mine, we stumbled out into the light, blinking and slightly dazed,
feeling as if we were waking from a crazy dream. The Catedral de Sal has to be the weirdest, and at the same time, most
wonderful church we have ever seen.
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| One of the many smaller chambers on the way to the main cathedral - this one had a polished marble floor which reflected the lighted cross |
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The colossal main chamber - 18m high and with an enormous cross - we wondered how such a massive structure could be suspended like that, then, upon getting closer, realised it was actually carved into the back wall of the chamber
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| The optical illusion is revealed! |
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| Interesting replica of the famous Sistine Chapel painting - in a recess in the floor of the cathedeal |
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| A coffee shop 180m underground - that is a first! |
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| Crazy light show in a side chamber |
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| A small side tunnel in the massive main chamber, lighted in away that makes you want to explore.. |
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| In some places where water seeps in, you are reminded that you are actually in a massive salt mine |
On our third and final day in the Colombian
capital, we visited the city’s pride and joy – the famous Gold Museum. An
amazingly well thought out and presented museum full of the most amazing gold
work dating from long before the arrival of the Spanish colonists. It was fascinating
to read about the sophisticated gold-smith methods the pre-Hispanic peoples of
Colombia developed – including my favourite, the ‘lost wax method’, which involved making
very detailed wax models, encasing them in clay, then pouring liquid gold in
through a small tube so that it melted and replaced the wax mould inside. Break
open the clay, and ta-da!, you have a perfect gold replicate of whatever you
had formed out of wax. Interestingly, when the Spanish conquistadors arrived and saw some figures and jewellery made in
this way with fingerprints on them, they were convinced that the Colombians had
magical powers and were able to handle and shape gold with their bare hands J (the fingerprints were in fact left on the wax models with which
the gold items were made). In addition to being incredibly beautiful, the more
than 34,000 gold objects displayed in the Museo
del Oro also gave us a fascinating insight into the cultural and spiritual
traditions of pre-Hispanic Colombian society, including everything from the jewellery
of past kings to ritual decorations worn by ancient shamans. And best of all,
our wander through the museum came to an end with a spectacular light and music
show designed to highlight the spiritual importance of gold in Colombia’s past.
We were starting to understand that Bogotá was a city obsessed with the
inventive use of light – and our final destination in the city confirmed our
suspicions (see below).
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| What I fist took to be an alien skull turned out to be a shell covered with gold leaves |
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| A king's golden helmet |
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| A slightly scary ceremonial mask |
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| One of the museum's prize pieces - a tiny golden flying fish |
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| Some of the work is amazingly fine and detailed - like these filigree earrings |
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| The golden outfit of a past king |
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| Another of the museum's famous pieces - a female figure in her ceremonial splendor |
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| Some of the masks were astonishingly life-life |
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| The mesmerising final light show |
After emerging from the glimmering world of
gold, we were treated to a personal tour of inner-city Bogotá by a lovely
Austrian girl we had met in the coffee area and who was completing an
internship in the capital. She and her friendly Colombian workmate took us
through the pigeon-flooded governmental quarter, showing us the presidential
residence, the congress and the judicial building which had to be completely
rebuilt following a bombing attack by the FARC in the 90s. They also led us
through the Botero Museum (free!!),
a wonderful collection of Botero’s own works, as well as many paintings and
sculptures by dozens of other artists including Picasso, Miró and Monet. And
last but not least they took us up the city’s tallest building, the Colpatria Tower (incredible security
measures, including mug-shots and fingerprints!), which, as well as offering an
amazing view over the city, also displays one of the most elaborate moving LED-shows
we have ever seen – it seems Bogotá is striving to overtake Paris as the new ‘city
of light’ J
As we were leaving the city the next
morning, we both agreed it had been one of the nicest capitals we have visited
on this trip so far – it might not be quite as beautiful as Buenos Aires or as
happening as Santiago, but Bogotá is welcoming, friendly and somehow cool and
funky in a very unique way.
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| So many pigeons on Plaza de Bolívar! |
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| Wandering through the cool and peaceful halls of the Botero Museum |
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| The city of light - the view from the 48th floor of the Colpatria Tower |
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| Photos don't do justice to the light show wrapped around the Colpatria Tower |
