Zipaquira Salt Katedral

Dansk: Idag bestemte vi os får at tage en dagstur ud og se en berømt salt katedral. Den lå en i en anden by, Zipaquira, som er en times kørsel fra Bogotá. Vi har set masser af ture tilbudt til katedralen, men vi bestemte os for at gøre det selv istedet. Det betød så, at vi skulle med to bybusser ud til den busterminal, som bussen til Zipaquira kørte fra. Heldigvis da vi kom derud stod der en dame og råbte både navnet på byen og salt katedralen, så det var nemt. Vi blev bare sendt ind i bussen uden at betale, så vi måtte bare observere, hvad de andre gjorde. Man betalte åbenbart til chaufføren når man steg ud af bussen. Turen tog en time ca og vi fik set lidt af det colombianske landskab, der ikke bare var by. Da vi kom til Zipaquira kørte vi med helt til endestationen og så sagde chaufføren, vi skulle gå det sidste stykke for at komme til katedralen. Det viste sig at være nemt for det var bare “ligeud, ligeud, ligeud, ligeud”, ligesom en dame sagde, da vi spurgte hende om vej. Katedralen er bygget inde i en salt mine, og næsten alt er skåret ud af saltet. Indgangen til minen lå på toppen af en bakke/bjerg (det var nok mere en bakke, men med vores fitness niveau og højderne føltes det mere som at bestige et bjerg). På toppen købte vi billetter og fik givet en audioguide, så vi kunne lære lidt om katedralen. Den var bygget af minerne så de havde en kirke at gå til inde i minen. De havde bygget 14 stationer, der alle fortalte noget om Jesus sidste timer og død. Det var ret vildt for vi kom 180 meter ned under jorden, hvor de havde bygget forskellige kapeller, der faktisk blev holdt gudstjenester i om søndagen. Da vi havde set selve kirkedelen, ændrede minen sig til noget der mere mindede om er storcenter, hvor man kunne købe souvenirs, komme i spa og en cafe, som vi var nødt til at købe en kop kaffe og kakao hos for, hvornår kan man ellers drikke en kop kaffe/kakao 180 meter under jorden?
Efter et par timer under jorden kom vi ud i lyset igen og fandt vores vej tilbage til Bogota efter en spændende og mærkelig dag.

English: Today we had decided to do a day trip to see a famous salt cathedral. The cathedral was in another town called Zipaquira, which was about an hours drive from Bogotá. We have seen a lot of tours going to the cathedral but we decided to just go on our own. That meant two city buses to the bus station from where we could take a bus too Zipaquira. Luckily, when we got to the bus terminal there was a lady yelling both Zipaquira and about the salt cathedral, so it was very easy to find the bus. She just put us in the bus without us paying, so we were a little confused on how and when to pay. Once on the road, we saw the other passengers just payed the driver himself when they got off the bus. Simon thought it reminded him a lot of a South African taxi. We got driven to the end station in Zipaquira and then told to walk the last bit to get to the cathedral. It was very easy as it was just “straight, straight, straight, straight”, like a lady said when we asked her for directions. The cathedral itself is built inside a mine by the miners so the had somewhere to pray when they were inside the mines. To get to the entrance of the mine though, we had to climb a hill/mountain (it was probably more a hill but with our fitness level and the altitude it felt more like climbing a mountain). Once at the top we could buy tickets and we also got an audio guide, so we could learn more about the cathedral. They had built 14 stations that all told something about the last hours of Jesus life before he died. It was pretty wild because we went 180 metres underground and here they had also built different chapels that actually did do service every Sunday. After we had seen the church part the mine kind of transformed into more of a mall than a church. All of the sudden we could buy souvenirs, go to a spa and there was even a cafe. We ended up getting a cup of coffee and hot chocolate at the cafe, because when else can you drink coffee/chocolate 180 metres underground?
After a couple of hours underground we went back out into the light and made our way back to Bogotá after an interesting and kind of weird day.Read more