Day 4 in lovely Bogota, COLOMBIA was an out-of-towner. We went to a city north of Bogota called Zipaquira to see the salt cathedral. Since my camera doesn't do well in dark areas i only took some video on the vid cam. So to get a sense of it visit the Wikipedia page.
excerpt below....
The Salt Cathedral of Zipaquirá (Spanish: Catedral de Sal de Zipaquirá) is an underground Roman Catholic church built within the tunnels of a salt mine 200 meters underground in a Halite mountain near the town of Zipaquirá, in Cundinamarca, Colombia. It is a very popular tourist destination and place of pilgrimage in the country.[2] The name "Salt Cathedral" is mostly to attract tourists - while a functioning church that receives as many as 3,000 visitors on Sundays, it has no bishop and therefore no official status as a cathedral in Catholicism.
The temple at the bottom has three sections, representing the birth, life, and death of Jesus. The icons, ornaments and architectural details are hand carved in the halite rock. Some marble sculptures are included.
The Salt Cathedral is considered one of the most notable achievements of Colombian architecture.[3] Also it has been denominated as "Jewel of Modern Architecture".[4] The cathedral represents for the Colombian people a valuable cultural, environmental and religiouspatrimony.[5]
The cathedral is part of a larger complex including "Parque de la Sal" (Salt Park),[6] and a Museum of mining, mineralogy, Geology andnatural resources.
We got there a little late and had to go to the lowest parking lot. That meant a lot of stairs up. Got my cardiovascular workout that day!
Places to rest and eat on the way.
Luzelena wearing one of the shirts designed by her mom.
We're getting closer!
Just a tunnel to get to the top!
We made it! What a strange structure.
This guy symbolizes all the work that went into the site.
That's really the entrance to the salt mine!
That was fun. This is coming out. Maybe some day i can put up the videos to the trip.
This is the city from the park site. Very beautiful area. Colonial architecture with green hills and farmland.
This was back from my hotel. Lots of kodak moments there!
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