June 14, 2018 – June 15, 2018

Zipaquira is famous for a church that has been carved out of an old salt mine. Its well reviewed and it seemed like a cool thing to go and see. We paid our admission, got our audio guides, and headed underground.

After a long, down sloping entrance tunnel we came to more tunnels where they have carved out crosses depicting the different “Stations of the Cross”, which are, as our guide book states, “incidents that occurred on Jesus’ path thorugh the streets of Jerusalem to his crucifixion”. Each one was a little different and would have some abstract feature that represented a feature of the different station. The audio guide would tell us things like, the particular cross we were looking at had a fissure in it to represent Jesus falling for the first time, (I don’t actually remember what each cross had carved in it to represent the different stations). But, in the end, to us, it just looked like a bunch of carved crosses.

Eventually the tunnels lead to a couple of large cathedrals carved out of the salt. There was music playing, and coloured lights. And a lot of people. In another section of the mine there was a neon light show that flashed different colours on the ceiling. Then the trail conveniently took you past a huge line of shops selling all things Catholic made out of carved salt stone and large quantities of other religious/touristy knick knacks.

The underground cathedral.

It all felt pretty Las Vegas like, but without the free cocktails, sushi buffets and dancing girls. Although the mining/rocks and caves were kind of cool, It was the first thing we have visited on this trip that really disappointed us at the price we paid. (I think it was $25 each). And no, we didn’t try licking the walls!

Inside the tunnels.

The town had a lovely plaza with an old church and palm trees.