Bogota

The day after we got back to Bogota from Cartagena, we had a museum day.

First we went to the Museo del Oro, the Gold museum. Entry is only about US$1.00. There are about 40 000 pieces in the museum and some of them are on show as you walk around.

The rest are kept in room that opens to allow a certain number of people in for four minutes at a time. The pieces are displayed in a diorama dipicting the movement of the sun through the day. Tara and I were so impressed with this display that we had to go back in for a second look.

Next was the Military museum, which was free. There were a lot of model airplanes and boats on display, as well as uniforms through the ages. There were rooms of racks filled with guns from every country since the beggining of ... gunness... outside, the only place we could take photos, there were cannons and real tanks, planes and helicopters. A boy´s dream museum.

The next stop was the Gallery of Colonial Art. Rather boring with walls and walls of portraits of fat priests and ugly women. Not to mention the religious ones. But there were some very interesting pieces, and it only cost us about US$1.50.

The next day Tara and I went with Young Rob, Andy and John to the Salt Catherdral in ZipaQuira. We managed to walk all the way up a hill, which was nowhere near the catherdral, and had to go all the way back down again to get to it.

We found it eventually and walked to the entrance, only to find we had to walk all the way back to where the shops were to buy our tickets. We were certainly getting a lot of exercise.

It was all well worth it though. The catherdral was carved into the existing arms of the salt mine and you can taste the salt on the walls.

Along the way to the main knave of the cathedral, you walk past the many arms, each one representing one of the stations of the cross.

Eventually, just when you are all crossed-out, you come to the cathedral proper, and it takes your breath away. You view it first from above, and then you walk down into it.

In the cathedral is a carved slab, a copy of Michelangelo´s ´Creation of Adam´.

The next day we had a few hours to kill before we had to catch our plane, so we went by cable car to the top of the hill where the church of Monteratte stands, with Stew, John and James.

In between all this sightseeing, we did manage to meet some great people, drinks cheap Colombian beers and eat some fantastic, and cheap, food.