good talk

Back to Bogata and then over to the Portal del Norte bus station, a really nice and nice-looking girl was a big help to me in getting there, in my Travels I often depend on the Kindness of Strangers.  Bus to Zipaquira, which like Sesquile, is 35 mi. N. of Bogata, to see the "Salt Cathedral of Zipaquira."  Got in about l1 P.M. and found a nice flop, got their last room.  In the morning, Sunday, I went to the Salt Cathedral.  Not that well-known, the Salt Cathedral is considered to be a Jewel of Modern Architecture and even you Non-Catholics should see it before you Buy the Farm.  The Salt Cathedral Complex is Magnificent.  Cut from an active Halite (Rock Salt) Mine which has been mined since 500 B.C. beginning with the Muisca and which has 500 years of Salt left, the Salt Cathedral is 200 Meters Underground.  The Salt Cathedral was built from 1954 to 1995, in addition to the Cathedral there's the equally impressive Stations of the Cross Icons and the Rosary Chapel, where I went to Mass (In the Salt Cathedral there's only Mass on Christmas and Easter).  I was there all day.  You can also do the Mine Tour, you know me, I have to do everything. You put on a Miner's Helmet with head-lamp and you and the others go single-file in total darkness (head-lamp not allowed on yet) feeling the back of the one in front of you, and you're bent-over as the tunnel isn't high.  You come to an area and turn on your Lamp, there the Guide tells you about Salt Mining.  And also everyone is encouraged to swing a Pick and knock-out some Halite from the Walls.  I was easily the oldest-one, it was mostly men and women in their early 20's.  The Boys' Effort dislodging the Rock Salt was very Feeble but my short, compact, swing was knocking-off Chunks, I heard Murmurs.  I was the only one on the Tour from a Baseball-Playing Country, the Pick is like a Heavy Bat.  The Girls' Effort, and one was 6'1", was so poor that I wondered if they scratched the Wall, I'm sorry to say but if we were relying on them our Shakers would be empty.