Our original plan of spending 3 days in the Colombian capital of Bogota was scuppered by ongoing protests in the city. To be honest it was probably safe enough to visit but we figured that it would be more relaxing to simply not take the risk.

Instead, we passed through Bogota’s main bus terminal and headed for the small town of Zipaquirá – 50km to the North.

We were shattered when we arrived in Zipa as the three buses from Buenavista had taken nearly 14 hours! We were extremely grateful for and early check in and very welcoming hosts (one of whom was a Liverpool supporting Venezuelan who counted watching repeats of 2005 as a hobby!)

Abi’s Rating: 7/10 – Clean and comforting (was doing a sudoku when asked)

Mike’s Rating: 7/10 – Good location, very nice breakfast, friendly staff…good pick Michael.

We were only in Zipa for a couple of days but it was enough to enjoy the quiet and laid back town that housed a remarkable underground Salt Cathedral.

The original Cathedral was built in 1954 within the tunnels of a salt mine. However in 1992 it was closed due to safety concerns.

The new structure was built 200 meters below the existing one and was officially opened in 1995. An estimated 250,000 tonnes of rock were shifted in the building process and is considered the crown jewel of Colombian architecture.

While the pictures do not do it justice, the walk down to the main part of the Cathedral is illustrated by the stations of the cross…expertly carved into the salt in a number of innovative designs.

There is a large dome that symbolises the imperfection of earth in the bottom half and the perfection of heaven on the ceiling while the largest underground cross in the world is the centrepiece of the main cathedral.

The only downside was a row of oddly placed craft shops and what seemed like an underground conference centre!

Abi lost her Bolivian scrunchy so we had to traipse around Zipa looking for it. We did not find it…shock. On the plus side we did manage to locate a wonderful little eatery and I thoroughly enjoyed the pork.

Other than some cool views over the town, some squares with flags (love flags me) and a cool mural of Zipa’s most famous son and tour de france winner Egan Bernal, there was not an awful lot more to see so we were on our way towards San Gil.

Another bumper journey lay in store and it began by cramming ourselves onto a bus back to Bogota. It is never easy trying to manoeuvre oneself onto crowded public buses with large backpacks and this was no exception. Luckily Colombian buses retain the services of conductors and they are usually athletic young chaps who deal with such difficulties with great aplomb.

Within a few hours we were back in Bogota (going back to go forward due to the lack of sense in the Colombian transport network). A bus ticket to San Gil was negotiated (with the reputable Berlinas) and we were on our way.

Twenty minutes later and we had broken down. To be honest we have actually done extremely well with transportation up until now and this was our first stoppage. Fortunately we had not gone to far but it still took well over an hour to source a replacement and continue on our way.

The purported journey time was around 6 hours but it was closer to 9 by the time we reached San Gil. In addition to our break down…a 40 minute police stop (they love doing this and checking everyone’s documents – a few Colombians always kick off about being parted with their ID so they march off with the police to oversee proceedings) and a dinner stop – this was welcome – caused the delay.

Our accommodation for the next few days was Guernika hostel:

Abi’s Rating: 3/10- Scorcher of a room, rock solid bed, even hotter in bathroom. Fan saved us. Good location…oh wait it was on that disgusting street.

Mike’s Rating: 5/10 – Well located, very cheap…fan was a blessing. No breaky and bathroom was baking. Wifi in room was not good.

San Gil is known as the adventure capital of Colombia but we had already done our paragliding so we took it as an opportunity to relax.

We visited a lovely little waterfall and spent an afternoon lounging and swimming in the small natural pool.

We also took a trip to Gringo Mike’s for a bit of Western food indulgence. The burgers were top drawer but the cookie dough and vanilla milkshake were the real highlights. I was delighted!

The Christmas lights in the main square were what I would call over the top but Abi thought they were nice. Did a pano to get them all in!

Besides frequenting a number of cafes, we had a fantastic day out at Chicamocha National Park- situated about an hour by bus from San Gil (actually we got kicked off the bus and put in a taxi for the last part of the journey…classic south america).

Now I had not read too much about this place before visiting but it was a real treat. We started by taking one of the longest cable cars in the world (at just under 4 miles) across the impressive canyon that is only surmounted in depth by the Colca.

It was a long but enjoyable ride and we were struck by how few tourists were around (marvellous).

Our second activity was a short but gruelling walk up to the mirador. It was seriously hot and we were sweating buckets by the time we reached the top! No prizes for the sculptures…all a bit odd to be honest.

Lunch was served in a small cafe and it was quite tasty. Talk over lunch was in anticipation of our afternoon visit to the small water park across the road.

I love waterparks. We always used to go to them in Spain when we were younger and I still got that excited feeling as we made our way down to the park.

There weren’t too many slides but Abi and I loved our couple of hours on the pair in the shot and a very long lazy river. The clouds did start to appear, and it was a couple of degrees shy of perfection, but it was still a wonderful end to one of my favourite days in Colombia!

There was just enough time for another cookie dough and milkshake at Gringo Mike’s before we caught the bus to Bucaramanga.

Here we spent a few hours wandering around a large, upmarket and very busy mall as we killed some time before catching an overnight bus to Santa Marta and more importantly…la costa caribe!