Bogotá – the last days

I have arrived in Houston safe and sound, well safe because to tell the truth I am a bit (a lot?) tired. Yesterday I left for the airport in Bogotá at a little before 5am – flew to Panama at 7 am, Panama to Houston at 10am, arriving here at 2:30, made it through passport control and customs by 3:45 and taking the super shuttle - arriving at my daughter’s right at 5pm. Long two weeks, long weekend of the first communion, long final day of travel, bad food on all the planes, no sleep and well TIRED.

There are two more, final, major places we saw in Bogotá that I wanted to show you. There are many small places, impressions, experiences that I could share but I have moved on and I can’t tell you everything. YOU have to go there then we can compare.

Last Friday we went to the Parque de la Sal. (park of the salt) This place is unbelievable. Outside of Bogotá about 1 hour drive is a large, underground salt dome that for the past 300 years or so the Columbians, first the Indians, then the Spanish and now the modern Columbians, have been harvesting salt for cooking and industrial purposes. They continue to extract salt on a massive scale and estimate that there is another 500 years’ supply. When they had completely removed the salt from one section they created a church, almost 1000 ft underground – I will just show photos – it is so awesome. All the carvings, the crosses, and the pillars are of salt.

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On the way back to Bogotá we stopped at the second wonder – It was a very good restaurant but utilizing old Spanish settlement. The restaurant was very good but the buildings and the donkey race were the best. Yes a donkey race. I am not sure how the riders were chosen but they were fellow diners. Again photos for the story.

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My Spanish is even weaker than my Portuguese but I think El Portico is ‘The Patio’ (a space between two buildings?) We enjoyed ourselves totally during this trip to Panama and Columbia and would recommend both these countries as a vacation destination.

Next – Houston and Painting the town RED.