26 - Outside Bogota

The Catedral de Sal (Salt Cathedral) is located about an hour north of Bogotá and is an underground Catholic church built within the tunnels of a salt mine 200 meters underground. The salt mines have been exploited for a long time, and the church was later constructed as a place where miners could pray before starting the days work.

This is the entrance to the underground salt tunnels.

I tasted the walls.... salty.

Here I am in the main part of the church. Everything all around me was made out of salt. Most of the salt in the mine was black because it only turns white from humidity.

One day I drove with my friend Alexander to Raquira, another town about two hours outside of Bogotá.

It was a little town but really cool because all the buildings were painted in beautiful colors.

We also drove to a small colonial town called Villa de Leyva. The town was really beautiful with cobblestone streets, white washed buildings, churches and monasteries, and a really nice central plaza.

Cute dog in the Plaza Mayor (main square)

Alexander and me in front of the main church.

Plaza Mayor

Villa de Leyva is surrounded by mountains, and unfortunately at the time we were there there were really bad foreset fires.






One of Kendra´s best friends from Baker School, Cristina, lives on a farm outside of Bogotá. She invited me to spend a few days on her farm with her husband Andres and her daughter Michelle.

They had a beautiful house with cows and chickens and goats and horses.

One day we went horseback riding which was tons of fun because the only horseback riding I've ever done was with big groups where we just ride really slow in a single file line. This time I got to run and go as I (or the horse) pleased. It was great, but I definitely need more practice because I was bouncing up and down on the horse like a pogo stick. By the way check out my cool cowgirl boots. I ride in style.

One day I went to the Fernando Botero museum. Fernando Botero is one of Colombia´s most famous artists and he´s known for his paintings and sculptures of fat people and fat horses and fat birds and fat fruit and all sorts of fat things. Throughout my time in Colombia I´ve seen so much of Botero´s work that fat people don´t even look fat anymore.

One thing that was really special for me was that I got to go to the orphanage that my brother was adopted from. I got a personal tour and saw all the rooms and the kids eating lunch. All the kids looked really happy, which was really nice to see. My favorite thing was that all the walls in the building were covered with photos of happy families with their adopted children.

Here´s a photo of the kids eating lunch. Most of the kids don´t live in the orphanage, but are only in a day program and go home to their families at night.

Well that´s what I´ve been up to for the past week. Today is my last day in Colombia, and tomorrow I´m off for Lima, Peru. Colombia has been a great experience and I´m very thankful to everyone that made it so great. Thank you to the Bello/Alverez family for taking such good care of me and making me feel at home, to Cristina, Andres, and Michelle for the horseback ride and all the food and fun, and to Alexander for driving me all over the place and being such a great friend. I will certainly miss Colombia and all the friends I´ve made along the way.