Before I go to the breakfast lounge at the hotel, I stop at
the reception desk to obtain more information on how to get to Zipaquira to
visit the Salt Cathedral near Bogota. Lucky day for me, since a bright young
woman at the desk, understands what I need. She doesn’t push for the organized
tour or taxi, instead quickly understands that I want to connect with her real
people. She gives me step by step information on how to get there by public
transportation.
First impressive church from Zipaquira where Salt Cathedral draws scores of visitors
Fruit juice carts are all over Bogota a bag of it may be as low as $1
Half of the table at which the opening ceremony panelists were sitting, the woman in white jacket is the force of nature, Isabel
One of the buses that one may take to Zipaquira, they are not bad at all..
One of town squares on the way to Salt Cathedral with a Spanish feel
The walls of the entrance tunnel at the Salt Cathedral is covered with this salt accumulation
Along the lengthy tunnel leading to the cathedral there are several of these crosses with a variety of relationship with the floor, the ceiling, and the surrounding walls representing Christ's falls and resurrection in the process of crucifixion
The entrance fee is 55,000 COP, which includes either an
audio or in person guide. I choose the audio guide to complete my tour at my own
pace. If one wants hands to be free, they tell the visitors at the auido
counter to use their own headset! Otherwise, one would have to carry the audio
device like a phone adjacent to the ear for 1.5-2 hours, which is what I will
have to do. There are 21 points of interest in the mountain along the tunnels
and within the cathedral itself and audio has to be dropped off at the 22nd
and last station. The entrance is impressive with cauliflower shaped surface on
the tunnel walls as a result of the seeping water and deposited salt.
The major cathedral hall made very impressive with lighting and choral music
Adam and God's connection on a sculpture on the floor of the main Cathedral Hall
Once, I have all the information I need, I can peacefully
have another wonderful breakfast with two eggs, sunny side up “huevos de
blanco”, savory bread, fruit, and fruit juice. Fruits and fruit juices in
Bogota are to die for and I savor as much of them as possible. I recall, when
my Colombian friends including Isabelle and Miguel had come to Iowa City for a
conference I had organized, especially the young physicians in the group were
horrified with the price of a small fresh squeezed orange juice at the hotel.
In Bogota, fresh squeezed juga de fruta is not only all over the place but also
cheaper than dirt!
The opening ceremony is delightful. Isabel brought together
all key players of the country, who either do significant work on child abuse,
or who must be doing so and are hoped to be encouraged to take more actions by
attending this panel! Good plan, I can read Isabel’s mind sometimes… Some of
the governmental representatives certainly give a brief spiel about all the
good things they are doing by listing a series of numbers. Whom I appreciate
the most is the president of the pediatric association, who tells the audience
“Yes, we are doing good things for children in Colombia, but not enough!
Children are still dying because of child abuse…” and starts telling us cases
that have recently died in Colombia due to abuse. That is true leadership…
What is most impressive about the opening ceremony is that
the art component consists of a mini chamber music concert with a pianist and a
tenor singing arias…There is a reason why I am in love with Colombia. I haven’t
seen any conference that I have attended in my 30 plus years of academic career
that started with classical music as the keynote art piece. That is Colombia
for you. If you like intellectual endeavors, arts, and culture, come to Bogota!
At some point, I tell Isabel about my plan for Zipaquira. She orders me “Don’t
talk to anybody on the buses”, I don’t know why… She probably thinks, because I
don’t know the subtle cultural ques in the country yet, I might miss warning
signs of danger. She has a warm and caring heart, too. I promise to her, I
won’t…
The first step of my travel starts right across from the BH
Bicentenarium Hotel, where there is a Transmilenio bus stop. I will take the bus
B74, which will take me to and from Portal de Nord (North Bus Terminal). In order to do that I will have to buy a 3000
COP worth a card, load 5000 COP on it for a round trip. Then I will catch a
Flota Zipa Bus to Zipaquira, which will cost me 5400 COP one way. Then I will
take a mini bus to the cathedral in Zipaquira. Instead I will choose to walk
the steep 1 mile distance, which will open up my lungs to the crisp air of this
lovely town.
Transmilenio is a phenomenal innovation, which in fact is
an over-the-ground subway system with a dedicated lane on all roads for these buses.
The following week, I will see a similar system, albeit much more sparse routes
than I will see in Bogota. The only slowing factor is the intersection stop
lights. Otherwise, the traffic doesn’t affect the speed of travel. My Colombian
friends will tell me, the city had to tear up all the roads to remake them to
accommodate the Transmilenio system. I applaud their innovation and am glad to
hear that other countries have started modeling after this system in Bogota. However, one must pay attention to what stop they got on the
bus for a return trip. I will fail to do so and not knowing the number of the
bus stop I got on, I will orient myself to my surroundings by looking at when Montserrat
appears in my view, since the hill that carries it is right across the hotel. Little do I know that from majority of Bogota
Montserrat is visible! After getting off the bus, I will walk over a dozen
blocks, still not coming to a familiar site, I will end up taking a taxi back
to the hotel to barely catch my group before going to dinner. All in all, I
will be 25 blocks off in my estimation.
When I get to Portal de Nord, I am trying to figure out
where to catch the bus to Zipaquira. Young men and women, especially those with
glasses are the best to ask. In case I can’t make myself understood in my
broken Spanish, they are the most likely people, who might speak English at
least as much as my Spanish. I approach a young woman and tell her “Quire ir a
Zipaquira”, simple statement: “I want to go to Zipaquira”. She doesn’t even
speak first just points to the end of the platform. I am not sure if she
understood me. I tell her about my salt cathedral plan. She then tells me
something that I interpret as she is also going to Zipaquira.
Great, I start following her within the crowd and yes indeed
a green Flota Zipa Bus approaches the platform and we all get on it. We are to
pay the 5400 COP on the bus, no ticket is required at this point. The young
woman asks me to sit by her, I am happy to do so. Thus, we start chatting. Her
name is Angie and she lives in Zipaquira studying environmental engineering at a
university half way between Bogota and Zipaquira. She was in Bogota this
morning, taking the 4th level English test in order to complete 5
levels of English classes in order to graduate from college. After today’s
written exam, tomorrow she will take the spoken test.
We make a plan, I want to practice Spanish and she wants to
practice English. I speak to her in Spanish and she responds to me in English,
then we correct each other’s mistakes, win win! She tells me when I ask, she has
two younger brothers just like I. I explain to her the concept of “abla” in
Turkish. It signifies that a sister is older than the other siblings. Our able
status connects us in a different way, I feel and I can tell from the sparks in
her eyes, she does, too. She gets off the bus one stop before mine, but only
after showing me where I will turn toward the cathedral park, figuring out I
can walk that distance. Salt Cathedral is embedded in a salt mine, which produces
significant amount of salt that is consumed in Colombia. Walter, my Cuban
American colleague told me yesterday that in fact as far as the history knew
it, the miners of the old would create religious statues within the mountain
here and there as their artistic expression. Recently in this millennium, the
government decided to create a true cathedral as a touristic attraction. Thus,
the park that now surrounds the entire hill is very nicely landscaped. From the
bottom of the hill, there is a white line that leads the visitors all the way
to the ticket booth across hundreds of steps.
The major cathedral hall made very impressive with lighting and choral music
As I am led deeper into the mountain, there are numerous
crosses embedded into the walls of the mountain in one way or another
representing multiple phases of Christ’s crucifixion. Since I am not a
theologian, I found that part a bit boring. However, upon arrival in the
Cathedral, everything is transformed. Constant choral music playing engulfs
every visitor. The lights surrounding specifically the Cross at the altar act
like a time machine, all of a sudden, I am beyond this world. I can now
understand why one of my friends Mark, who travels a lot was telling me I had
to see the Salt Cathedral. On the ground is a sculpture of Adam and God, my audio tells
me this sculpture represents the four elements: Earth, water, fire and air, from
Ancient Greek Culture. Adam’s knee is broken in reference to man’s
imperfection. God in fact is represented only with a large hand and arm
touching Adam. Beautiful art piece for sure. Time to meditate, there could be
no better place than this to do exactly that. I find a relatively quiet corner,
where I can hear the choral music, sense the light breeze, and close my eyes to
see everything with the eye of my heart and mind.
In my loving kindness meditation, first I “pray” for myself
compassionately to be free of infliction, conflict, fear, frustration,
judgment, sadness, othering, and anger, among other negative feelings and experiences. I wish to be at peace and at ease, to
be well and happy, to be held with loving kindness in loving presence, and to
find love and joy in life. Then I turn my compassion to a loved one, to an
acquaintance, to a neutral person, to a person that might have hurt me, to a
person that I see as adversary, and finally to all beings on earth. I “pray” in
the same manner and hope all that touched my life and those that I never met
are free of difficulties that may apply to their lives and find all the
positive in life that we all hope to.
My dear friend Jeannie and I are meditating daily on two different parts of Americas this week, she in Canada I in Colombia
As Pema Chodron teaches, in doing so, I am trying to “take a
leap that involves a commitment to ourselves, to all fellow human beings, and
to earth itself – making a commitment to let go of old grudges, to not avoid
people and situations and emotions that make us feel uneasy, to not cling to
our fears, our closedmindedness, our hard heartedness, our hesitations.” Pema
also recommends, “Now is the time to develop trust in our basic goodness…a time
to develop confidence in our ability to drop our old ways of staying stuck…”
Work in progress, but I trust myself and the good in all beings on earth… On my
way back to Bogota, this meditative spirit will continue with fond memories of
Angie, wishing her best of luck in her exam tomorrow.
May I never forget the fact that all human beings have inherent goodness, and only by touching that very essence, we can help everybody be the best that they can, perhaps better than they hope to...
Good people of Americas and Europe will teach tomorrow to some 700 young Colombian colleagues on how to improve child protection systems in Colombia... Tomorrow I will write about them.
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