Colombia - Salt of the Earth

January 3

Hello everyone!

Last time out I talked about one of Colombia’s historically important resources: gold. This blog will focus on another mineral which is the focus of the ‘First Wonder’ of the country. Imagine if they added pepper…

Zipaquirá Salt Cathedral

To build it, 250 thousand tons of rock salt had to be extracted

About 50 km north of the capital, Bogotá, is the small town of Zipaquirá. This town is arguably the most popular day trip from the big smoke. I visited on a larger day trip, having spent the morning at Lake Guatavita. Having lunch before entering the main attraction allowed me to try one of Colombia’s national dishes: bandeja paisa. Imagine that you needed to use up everything in the kitchen and cooked it up before tossing it all on one plate. Huge meal.

Colombia is massive!

Plantain, chorizo, blood sausage, beans,
egg, rice, pork rind, meat, avocado...

Allowing myself to digress slightly, the food has been generally wonderful. The fruit is juicy and fresh, the sweets are…very sweet. I found a possible new favourite random food at a restaurant in Bogotá. In El Salvador, I often buy crisps called patacones - plantain slices which are double fried. Imagine that…but a crisp the size of a large pizza. Then imagine that with a ton of toppings. San Salvador needs this restaurant!

Fresh mango - big mango - less than $1

Looks amazing...until you try to eat it!

The food didn’t need salt. If it did, I could have easily brought some from Zipaquirá. That’s my terrible segue back to the main point of this blog. Zipaquirá has a cathedral. No biggie, a lot of places have big churches. We even passed one on the way, in a beautiful town called Sesquilé.

The Cathedral in Bogotá

Sesquilé is a charming little town where
we stopped on the way to Lake Guatavita

Zipaquirá Cathedral is different for two reasons. Firstly, it is underground. About 200 metres underground, actually. Secondly, incredibly…it is made of salt.

The old temple was the world’s first underground cathedral

The most recent cathedral was created and opened in 1995

That’s why it’s such a popular place to visit. I have been to an underground salt cathedral, near the Polish city of Krakow. There aren’t many, though!

It was declared the First Wonder of Colombia on February 4, 2007

This mine was temporarily closed in 1975 and 1992 for safety reasons

Like the Polish version, Zipaquirá started out life as a mine. The indigenous Muiscas were able to use basic techniques to extract salt, before colonists later used more modern technology to mine more of the mineral. 

Zipaquirá became one of Colombia’s biggest cities due to the salt trade

There have been four levels of extraction thus far

Entering the mine, you head steadily down to about 180 metres below the entrance. On the way, you pass under a fun set of lights which illuminate the flags of different countries.

Vamos Argentina!

The passageway is 386 metres

Before entering the main halls of the cathedral, you walk through the 14 Stations of the Cross. Many of these are made by creating rock-hewn structures and images.

An example of one of the stations

Station 14 took 2.5 years to finish due to polishing

After seeing the final station, you pass under a large dome before heading through a small labyrinth. At the end of this, about 200 metres below the ground, are the three main chambers of the cathedral.

The dome is 11m in diameter, built by 7 miners

It’s not a ‘working’ cathedral, as it has no bishop

At this stage, most of the cathedral looks more rock than salt. There are elements here which are made of marble and granite; however, the vast majority is salt rock known as halite.

This is Pope Francis, who visited in 2017

Some sculptures like this angel are made of sandstone - you can’t put that much detail on salt due to impurities

The eye-catching part of the main chamber is the cross. It is the largest underground cross in the world, with a height of 16 metres and a span of 10 metres. The changing, colourful lights around it add to a mysterious aura.

The cross

The largest cross in the world is in Spain,
and is ten times larger at 150m tall

The cathedral’s main chamber had a light show - more like a shadow show - to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Also underground, there is a 3D cinema which charts the history of the mine and cathedral.

I wonder if they do shows like this throughout the year

The film featured a slightly scary robot made of rocks

As I said earlier, it is a popular visit and pilgrimage site. This is reflected in the number of shops at the bottom of the mine - it looked like a garish bazaar.

There are also two museums and a 'hand spa'

I bought this, and I'll be amazed if it makes
it back to El Salvador in one piece

Apparently over 13 million people have visited the Zipaquirá Salt Cathedral. Constantly reminding yourself of the difficult and intricacy of its construction makes you realise how special this place is.

The world's largest underground cross

Amazing place

Love you all,

Matt