Gunga-Being over 60 rocks!

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Can you believe it- another huge rain storm this afterrnoon! We waited as long as we could under the eaves of a building but with our newly shined shoes ( a tribute to Victor the shoeshine boy) getting wetter and wetter, our pants soaked from the waves thrown up by passing cars, and our jackets damp and cold we tried to hail a taxi. One wouldn´t take us to our hotel. Others wouldn´t stop at all and several got taken from us by aggressive ´gentlemen. We decided to walk home. Hopefully, we´ll get one totally dry day before we leave Bogota.

I´m not sure I explained why we went to Zipaquira yesterday. It was to go to the salt mines. They date back 135 million years to when they were formed. We rented an audio guide in English and tried to follow it through the cavernous halls in the semi darkness. There is a central church which you end up in after following the stations of the cross- all carved out of huge chunks of salt. It is pretty impressive. The best part was a 3-movie explaining the formation of the salt mines and how they have been mined. This was all explained by a transformer like figure ( white, of course, as he was Mr. Salt). It was all in Spanish with English subtitles -extremely entertaining. And the best part was that because Val and I are over 60 we got in for a reduced price. Woohoo! The second best part was seeing the light at the end of the tunnel as we walked slowly, very slowly, back up the mine shaft into the , yep, rain.

Today we decided to go to the Museo del Oro ( Gold Museum). Better than winning at Bingo was the sign that if you are over 60 years you get in free. Double woohoo!! We weren´t sure we were going to go to another Gold Museum having been to them in Costa Rica, Peru, and Ecuador. But we were in the neighborhood and since it was free we gave it a try. Let me tell you if you want to go to a great museum you should make this one a ´must see´. First of all the physical layout is beautiful with lots of benches to sit on when your feet are tired. The displays are possibly the most aestetically (sp?) pleasing I´ve ever seen. Well lit and well marked in both Spanish and English ( thank you), creatively displayed with varied styles and varied lighting. Several short videos interspersed amongst the displays, a room to look through books about the museum, a room to look at computer exhibits, and my personal favorite the 360° dark room. This turned out to be a multisensory experience of sound and light. Once in the darkened room the wircular displays of gold were illuminated by lightning like streaks and flashes all the while accompanied by ominous Darth Vader like music. The displays, when illuminated, were thousands of gold pieces arranged to form different designs- arrows, circles, patterns made up of hundreds of like pieces in the shape of butterflies, birds, and animals. In the center of the floor was a circular shape ( about 4 feet in diameter). When it was lit it revealed several circular levels, all going down into the 'earth', each level filled with gold objects. I guess it was to remind us that gold came from inside the earth. With one spectacular crash of light and noise the doors opened and we walked ( in the and tdark) back out into the hallway. Whew! Never seen anything like it before. The museum was founded and is funded by a bank. There are over 34,000 pieces of gold on display from all the major pre- Hispanic cultures in Colombia.

Just wanted to share this special day with you.
Carolyn

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