Zipaquira and the Catedral del Sal

After hiking to Piedra del Colgada we drove to Zipaquira to go to the Catedral del Sal, or Cathedral of Salt.  We'd been there before in 2009 and wowsers! It's changed a ton since then.  The main cathedral is still mostly the same, but they've added a ton of gift shops and other areas for art galleries, a little museum section and movie theater, bathrooms, etc. 

The dome room is still my favorite part of the main cathedral. 

They have the lights changing colors, it's pretty cool. 

I like the angel statues too. 

Down in the main cathedral.  They have mass there several times a week. 

The ceiling looks cools. 

This was one of the sculptures in the art gallery part. 

And a little section about miners.

This is the baptistry.  Really, you can't get a feel for the size without being there. 

But this is the salt crystal that is behind the baptistry.  It's massive.

They have this little section that represents the straight and narrow path leading to heaven.  I like that part too.

This is sculpted on the floor.

These are from different countries and places in Colombia.

And the gift shops and restaurants which are entirely new.  So yeah, ice cream at 590 feet underground. 

They had really pretty emerald jewelry and nativity crèches, many carved from salt and of course, all the typical Colombian souvenirs.

Up close of the wall per my kids' request.

This was a section depicting the indigenous people pre-Columbus who also mined salt here.

These were just random.  

They remind me of LOTR dwarves.    

We kind of rushed through the whole place because it was close to closing.

You can see the main plaza cathedral from the parking lot.

And then when we got to the restaurant to eat, it was almost closing too, and we had fewer choices of meat.  So sad.  So Elena and Sebastian tried chigüiro, otherwise known as capybara.  It was really good actually.  I like it better than pork.  It was La Catedral Llanera that we ate at.  It's very touristy and not as great as all that--out of different meats, overcooked/undercooked, etc--(I ate there three times while in Colombia) but their limonada de coco is to die for.  So good.  It's worth it just for that, and it's half the price as the place across the street that is rated much better. 

And then after dinner we went to the main plaza to see the Christmas lights.

One of our kids immediately climbed a tree.  Can you see Efraim?

Jefferson drove us,  and Alex came with him.  I don't remember if they came into the Salt Cathedral but they did have dinner with us.

The kids held races across the plaza in front of the cathedral.

I love the massive doors!

The whole square was so pretty!  But this doesn't really capture it.

And then we headed home.
 

Piedra del Colgada

When Leo got home from work, we spent a day going to Piedra del Colgada, where I had read there was a hike and this cool overhanging rock.  It was fun driving through the countryside, it's really such a beautiful country.  And above just seemed so quintessential Colombian with the ruanas and hats.  At least Colombianos from Boyacá or Cundinamarca. 

It was a GORGEOUS day. 

We had hired Jefferson to drive us there and Alex came too, but then he didn't want to drive on anymore dirt roads and parked about a mile away from the place.  I actually was grateful afterwards because the "hike" along the cliff was short and so by hiking to and from the car, we actually felt like we went on a hike.  And it was so nice a day and I just loved soaking in everything.

The kids were all in a good mood too. Miracle!

Funky plant I like.

Potato fields.  

The beer bottle decor really added to the aesthetic.

I did like this tire parrot though.

And this tire chairs were pretty ingenious. 

I love how you can see the old construction technique in this decrepit building.  Everything in Colombia now is mostly made of concrete blocks.

If you really *look* at this cliff you can see a ladder and a bicycle.  

The photos I had seen online had no harness or anything.  But by the time we went, they made you wear a harness and be cabled into a bolt.

And yes here comes every one of us on the rock in the same pose.  Redundancy you are my muse.

I loved the view!

Plants on plants on plants.

I kind of wondered if the cows ever got too close to the edge of the cliff.

I LOVE this photo!

The weird pill plant.

This plant was cute.

And another weird flower.

More potato fields.  It's kind of wild, because the weather is always consistent for the most part, you had fields at all stages of growth.  Some just tilled, some with new plants starting like above, and some full grown, and some being harvested.  

And dairy farms.  There were SOO many dairy farms.  We saw the old metal milk cans on the side of the road waiting to be picked up and a guy riding a motorcycle carrying four metal milk cans-one in each hand--and two strapped on the back.  I wish I had taken a photo. 

Okay, I know there's 80 billion photos in this post.  But it's just so lovely.  It was a fun day too. 

And a group of people picking peas by hand.  That's a lot of work.  And a lot of peas. Made my back hurt watching them.  Once we had made it back to the car (accompanied by a random dog along the way) we had sandwiches and apples and then drove to Zipaquira.