Outside of the Salt Cathedral in Zipaquirá, there are a few interesting sights in town. You’ll find a couple of nice plazas with colonial buildings as well as an archaeological museum.
The town of Nemocón is fairly small but beautiful. It’s worth wandering through town after visiting the Nemocón Salt Mine.
Not too far outside of Bogotá is Tequendama Falls (Salto del Tequendama). It’s a popular tourist attraction and an important part of Muisca mythology.
One of the best extreme sports destinations in Colombia is located a short drive north of Bogotá in the small town of Suesca. Although we didn’t visit Suesca specifically for that purpose (it was a great place to break up our drive to Boyacá), we took a couple hours in the morning to check out what outdoor activities are available.
The small town of Guaduas, about two hours from Bogotá, was the birthplace of one of Colombia’s revolutionary heroes, Policarpa Salavarrieta. It’s also one of Colombia’s prestigious Heritage Towns (Pueblos Patrimonio), filled with small colonial buildings.
Just outside of Bogotá in the town of Chía, there’s a great place to go have an enjoyable dinner – the famous Colombian steakhouse Andrés Carne de Res. With odd decorations on every inch of the walls and ceilings, an enthusiastic and fun staff, and loud music and dancing, this place is a spectacle in itself.
Zipaquirá is where most tourists head to see the famous Salt Cathedral, but in the nearby town of Nemocón, it’s possible to get a much more in-depth look at the salt mining industry.
Much to the dismay of the conquistadors, the Legend of El Dorado and its huge city made of gold was not true. Instead, they stumbled across another valuable resource – salt.
For over 2000 years, the native Muisca people performed a ritual in a small circular mountain lake located north of what is now Bogotá. In this ritual, the newly crowned Muisca tribal chief covered himself in gold dust and took a raft to the center of Lake Guatavita (Laguna de Guatavita). He then offered treasures made of gold to the gods by dumping them into the lake.