Day 14: Train to the Salt Cathedral

Got up just before 6am, so I would not be late for my train ride. Today is a holiday, I was not sure if there are any Uber available, I may have to find a taxi if not. Luckily, there were some in the neighborhood. So far, it seems Uber is more available in Bogota than in Medellin. I got to the train station at 7:10am, at first I thought I might be one of the few who were doing this since when I tried to book online a few days ago, it looked like as if there were many seats available. However, people started coming one by one, group by group. I took some pictures at the station, had some café con leche and un empanada, then it was just waiting to board the train. It is good that I was just sitting near the actual train waiting, there were no announcement or anything, people just causally boarded the train around 8:15am or so, I followed and we left the station around 8:25am. 

 

The train ride was very pleasant and yet another different thing I have done in Colombia. I do have some fascination with trains. When I traveled Ecuador a couple years ago, as the usual me would do, I ventured to some tiny tiny little town where there was not a soul who understood what I was saying, and that is where I took La Trochita - the devil's nose train - up on the Andes, it was one of the coolest things I did. Truistren in Colombia, in comparison, was mostly running within the city and followed by just some farm fields up north, not much else, no big mountain, no big gouge, or anything like that. In fact, the town Zipaquirá where we are going is really only 26 miles (or 43 km) north of Bogota. With one extra stop we made, it took us like 1.5 hours. In a sense, that train was extremely slow. It is still good, something different, I have enjoyed the experience, and I was alone to look at the real daily life of people living in Bogota whether it was some poorer neighborhood where people were sleeping on the street not far from people burning trashes, or some nicer residential neighborhood where people just live their lives not much different than those in the US. We have lot of homeless problems in the US too, but we are very good ignoring it. It is a government problem that the officials need to deal with, no ours. But it is when you are in a foreign country, the homeless problem you see on the streets are 10 times, 100 times worse than those in the US, that is when your heart may ache a little. One thing I notice, this train must not be run very often, many people waved at the train, and shot videos of train coming back.   

 

Anyway, I believe I may be the only one who did not speak Spanish on the train, and they had so many things they tried to sell me, including the travel package to the salt cathedral, which I did want to get. For that, I do need to know the details, where to take the bus, what time we are coming back..etc. I relied heavily on simple phrase and single words… like for “what time do we come back?”, I would say “a que horas… regreso?” with a hand movement and on. When they say too many things at the same time in their reply, and I am totally lost, I would be just trying to get the information I need. I would try to just confirm the key information, I asked the girl “regreso, a las tres y media?” She said, “Tres y cuarto” (3:15pm). Great! Got it. And the bus to the salt cathedral is to the left after we get off the train. 

Train to Zipaquira Videos: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 

All other photos from Day 14 on and off the train are here.    

Redeeming ticket at the entrance of salt cathedral was another blind man walking into a shopping mall experience. It is a very touristy place, I was holding that pass, so at least people may point me to the right direction. I tended to choose to take to those people who looks like a guide, so they may have experience dealing with these blinded tourists like myself. I finally was able to talk to girl who spoke English, she gave me this self-guide audio player and pointed me to the entrance to the salt mine. She told me I could go in after the tour group in front of me went in. So I did. 

 

 

Choir Singing inside the Salt Cathedral Videos: 1, 2, 3 

At first, when this place was recommended to me, I had some reservation, the colorful lights shining on the cross, it sounded kind of cheesy. But actually when I started walking into the salt mine, underneath the sugar coating with the multi-color lighting, there was a very interesting story with this cathedral built inside a salt mine by the miners. I first walked past 14 stages of cross, the different presentations of the cross depicted the different stages Jesus carrying the cross in the bible story, how he fell 3 times, and different people he met along the way. What hit me the most was stage 4, where Jesus met his mother Mary. It was very peaceful presentation. I waited for all the people left and I stayed there to look at it for a while. Today is my mom’s birthday. Of all my siblings, I am the only one who always remember my mother’s birthday and would call and say Happy Birthday to her. I would remind my sister and brother to do so as well. Since she passed away last year, aside from the first two weeks, I did not really think too much of her until now. I touched the cross and said to Happy Birthday to her and wished her in peace. I could feel my heart trembled a little, emotion started coming up to the throat, so I better run. I did not need to make a scene.

 

 

Continued down to the salt mine, it was really deep and wide, I ended up in a dome which looks like a planetarium almost, and soon I arrived at the underground chapel, which was amazing, with the huge cross in the middle. Said to be the biggest underground. There were choir singing, potentially it was a mass, because it was around noon, and today is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. There were some people talking around me, so the sounds may not be as good. But I can imagine if it was quiet. The gospel singing would have been a religious experience down here. And back to the commercial chamber, further down the mine, there were so many emerald shops, gift shops, café, and theater to sell you stuff. So overall, I would say, this place is an half and half, some part of it was truly amazing and worth seeing, the other half was really quite cheesy and commercial. I am glad I came anyway and have enjoyed my visit.       

All other photos from Day 14 in the salt cathedral are here.     

 

 

Before catching the train back. I walked around this cutesy little town Zipaquirá, and have the best pork sandwiches and fries in this restaurant Labriego Zipaquirá, I forgot to take a picture of my foods, how dare I. Made it back to the train station just before 3pm and we were back to Bogota around 5:30pm, it started to get dark, and because it was a holiday, many shops were closed. As I walked back to the commercial area from the train stop, I was in my superfast pace, because I did not feel particularly safe. I made it and found my Uber back to Airbnb though. Two more days to go in this country!

All other photos from Day 14 in Zipaquirá are here.