I’ve been a bit remiss in keeping up-to-date here on my wonder-blog – my main excuse is going to be the inconsistency of our Internet here (that and our water supply).
After my last entry in Colombia, I still had some more time on my hands so went on another short trip to the country-side near Bogota. Near a town called ‘Zipa’ was the impressive and cool ‘Catedral de Sal’. A real, working salt mine since at least the 1500’s, an old portion of which has been made into a giant underground cathedral (crazy Catholics!) – twice actually; the first one got unstable, so they closed it and started over again (bigger and better this time). There are 12 stations (or is it 13?) that correspond to the twelve ‘parts’ of the crucifixion story – each with its own look and feel. There is also a tour where you walk around in the actual salt mines and get a feel what it is like to mine down there – pretty cool – there is even a part where they let you light a fuse and pretend it blows shit up! Despite the saying about back to the salt mines, they admit that the work in the coal mines just down the way is a lot tougher and more dangerous…
Next up was a couple of days touring around the well preserved colonial towns of Villa de Leyva and Tunja – lots of churches and nice architecture and pleasant weather.
After that, my new passport finally arrived, and I was once more off to the Big Apple! As luck would have it, the Thai visa would take 2 days to obtain, so after a couple hours of debriefing/briefing and a visa application at the MSF offices in Manhattan I was set free for a couple of days of looking around NYC. Finally took in MoMA (Museum of Modern Art) – a huge place worth at least a whole day and one of the coolest museum buildings architecturally I’ve been in. Also saw a show – decided my first should be a musical since that is what is most famous on Broadway – Guys and Dolls – highly recommended by the touts at the ½ price booth; I enjoyed it as promised. Also wandered around lower Manhattan and checked out the Body Exhibition – where they have injected real cadavers with polymers and then cut them into pieces – cool! The weather then turned, as it is apt to do in spring, and my plans to go up in a tall building a look around was scuttled along with the plan to take a boat tour – maybe when I come back in June/July…
More pics at: http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLanding.action?c=56h73xft.77mil31l&x=0&y=-ww1cuf&localeid=en_US
Get there soon as they are threatening to remove my photos if I don’t buy something…
Stayed tuned next time for – The Closer – Thailand Chronicles.
rick
