Colombia Feb 15-20 2025
COLOMBIA – ANDES NORTHEAST (Bogota, Villavicencio, Bucaramanga, Cucuta, Tunja)
Flight. Fri Feb 14 Viva Airbus AIFA – BOG 19:00-00:30+1
ON Lancaster House Suites. Jack Goldstein owns this hotel and invited me to stay for a few days. Jack is #1 in Colombia.
Day 1 Sun Feb 16
Jack and I sat around for about 5 hours shooting the bull.
In the afternoon, I went for a walk to get a SIM card (Claro 7.5GB for 20 days 21,000 COP) and saw these two sites
Mormon Temple. A grand white square building with a tower and a gold Moroni on top.
Usaquén Flea Market. Usual flea markets are people selling second-hand stuff but this is several blocks of small vendors selling jewelry, food, handicrafts and much more. I talked to three guys in outfits with capes (covered in many badges) who belonged to a university singing and musical group.
ON Lancaster House Suites for the second night.
Day 2 Mon Feb 17
I went for a walkabout to see several sites. The distances between them were large, usually about 2+ kilometres. I took 2 Ubers
Click Clack Hotel. In the NM Architectural Delights series, this modern 9-story hotel has “jutting out” bits and a metal lattice facade. The restaurant downstairs has a green wall.
Centro Comercial Andino. A modern 3-story shopping mall with two large atriums covered with a glass roof.
Andres Carne de Res Restaurant is famous for its stellar empanadas as its all-night, alcohol-fueled benders and dancing. Founded by Andrés Jaramillo as a roadside grill spot in 1982, It has 500 staff, three dance floors, a 25-foot rock-climbing wall and a huge coal-fired kitchen, roving bands of performers and a menu that includes every major dish of Colombia. There are hammocks for drunk patrons to pass out and sleep it off.
Restaurante Las Margaritas. Opened in 1901, this small one-story restaurant serves traditional Colombian food.
Jorge Eliecer Gaitan Museum. (1903-1948) was a Colombian jurist, writer, professor, orator, politician, and member and leader of the Colombian Liberal Party He is considered one of the most influential politicians in Colombia in the first half of the 20th century and one of the most important figures in the country’s history. He was a professor of Criminal Law from 1931 until his death. During his last years of life, he was the sole leader of liberalism.
He served as mayor of Bogotá in 1936, held two ministries in the government and was a congressman for several periods between 1929 and 1948. He was a dissident presidential candidate of the Liberal Party in the 1946 elections. His assassination produced enormous popular protests intensifying a bloody period known as La Violencia. The hypotheses about Gaitán’s murder have mutated over the years; from the theory of a lone assassin to that it was the product of an international conspiracy to prevent the rise of socialism to power in Colombia.
This is a small 2-story white house that he lived in and contains his memoirs. 6000COP
National Geological Museum José Royo y Gómez. Lots of rocks with many gems, crystals and minerals. Free
University City of Bogotá (27/09/2012) Tentative WHS. Created in 1936 on inexpensive land on the edge of Bogota creating road systems and a general layout with an oval design, a central space and four quadrants with an academic area, the service area and the sports area arranged independently and linked by pathways and roads. in La Ciudad Blanca, all buildings were painted white, with simple architecture.
Also on the property are the Agustin Codazzi Geographical Institute IGAC, IPARM School, the Colombian Institute for Technical Standards ICONTEC, and the Colombian Institute of Geology and Mining INGEOMINAS.
Besides being an outstanding urban and architectural group within the Latin American context, the University City of Bogotá is an area of great environmental value, as it is near Simon Bolivar Metropolitan Park.
Monumento a los Heroes is a monument dedicated to the memory of the soldiers of the different armies that participated in the independence of the Bolivarian countries. Two large black marble walls with many figures incised on their surfaces.
Museum of Graphic Arts exhibits the history of printing and graphic arts in Colombia with antique machinery, printing tools, historical documents, books, and posters. Free
Simón Bolívar Metropolitan Park (Urban Legends). This massive urban park has lots of grass and trees with several lakes and walking paths.
After a long day with several 2+ km walks between sites, I then took an Uber back to my hotel. Jack and I went to a very good Italian restaurant in Bogota.
ON Lancaster Suites for the third night.
Day 3 Tues Feb 18
A second walkabout day. I took an Uber to these first sites.
Centro de Comercio Internacional (International Trade Center or Davivienda Tower (formerly known as the Center of the Americas and as the Bancafé Tower) is a skyscraper located in the International Center in downtown Bogotá. It was built in 1974-77 and was the tallest building in Colombia and also in Latin America until 1979.
With 49 floors, it was surpassed by the BD Bacata, Ario Towers
With its 49 floors, it was the tallest building in Colombia and the first in that country to be the tallest in Latin America until 1979, when it was surpassed by the Torre Colpatria.
It currently houses offices of the International Trade Centre, the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, Bancoldex, ProColombia (formerly Proexport) and the National Copyright Directorate.
It is 192 m high and has 17 elevators. Its facades are defined by continuous windows. reinforced concrete columns, of which the lateral ones form the diagonal screens that give the structure its silhouette. The tower rests on these four columns and on a central structural core.
Las Torres del Parque (Architectural Delights). A 9-story apartment building, all brick with a broken facade intensified by the balconies of each apartment.
It is a residential complex that consists of three brick buildings designed by Colombian architect Rogelio Salmona in 1970. The complex surrounds the Santamaría Bullring, whose circular shape is the reason for its curved design. Its silhouette also evokes the hills of the city. The towers that make up the complex are, from north to south, C, A and B. The tallest, A, has 37 floors. With its 117 m and thanks to its elevated location at the foot of the Monserrate hill, three-quarters of the available land was allocated to gardens, paths and squares. According to the architect Salmona, the intention was “to create the building through open space, as a generator of covered space.” The common areas of the buildings constitute in effect a continuum with the Parque de la Independencia, constituting a large public green area that extends to Carrera Séptima. The Calle de las Brick is used as the main material of the work responds to social, economic and aesthetic reasons. In effect, explains the architect, brick “is made with mud and gives work to many people, it is a material that is used generously by the bricklayers of Bogota, its colour is variable, according to the light and creates very beautiful flashes of light and shadows, and brick architecture is related to the vegetation of Bogota; it is one of the traditions of the city, to use its vegetation appropriately.”
The jury of the Alvar Aalto Prize took this characteristic of his work into account when awarding him the prize in 2003: “Salmona became a master in his own right for his use of authentic materials, brick and wood, and has a totalizing approach to architecture that incorporates landscape design and urban planning.”
Planetarium of Bogotá. Excellent series of photographs (usually a compilation from several different telescopes) with good descriptions. The show was only in Spanish and I skipped it and was let in free.
Torre Colpatria. With 50 floors, it is the third tallest building in the city and one of its icons. It was completed in 1978 and has a height of 196 m. It houses the offices of various companies, among which are the companies of the Colpatria Group, owner of the tower. On its roof is a viewing point to appreciate a large part of the city. In 2012, LED lights were placed on the façade. The observatory open to the public is at a height of 192 meters, and the helipad is 4 meters above it.
Located on land with expansive clays, its construction required innovative earthquake-resistant techniques: a 50-meter excavation to anchor the building with 24 foundation pits resting on a platform that required more than 6,000 m³ of concrete.
The base of the tower is square and has thirteen lifts. All four facades have concrete pillars and vertical glass strips, which run uninterrupted from the ground floor to the roof to provide ventilation and natural light to the offices. A smaller ten-story block has several banking and commercial premises.
It is the third tallest in Bogotá and was completed in 1978. The lighting system projects rays of light onto the white pillars in colours that change a few times a minute, reminiscent of moving waves or shutters that open or close. In 1979, it surpassed the International Trade Center as the tallest building in Latin America. It was surpassed in 1982 by the Pemex Executive Tower in Mexico City, which was then surpassed in 1983 by the Parque Central Towers in Caracas . Over the past decade, several taller buildings have been built in different Latin American countries. In South America, it ranks eighth, and in Latin America, it ranks 49th, after buildings located in Mexico City, Panama, Caracas, and Santiago, Chile. In 2015, the BD Bacatá surpassed it in height. The Colpatria Tower was for 37 years the tallest building in Colombia.
Since December 8, 2005, the Colpatria Tower Climb Race has been held, where participants, in groups of ten competitors every half minute, climb the nine hundred and eighty steps. Since 2010, this race has been part of the Towerrunning World Cup, an annual circuit on a global scale that brings together more than 160 climbing races in the tallest buildings in the world. The competition is the final stop of the circuit and the place where the final awards ceremony of the contest takes place.
Old Town Bogota has many walking streets.
BD Bacatá (Bogotá Downtown Bacatá) is used for housing, offices, a hotel, a shopping center and parking in two towers: the tallest has 67 floors with the Hotel Bacatá (216 meters), and the second, 56 floors and 167 meters.
Construction began in 2011 and 60% in operation in 2021, Two pedestrian bridges were built on the 14th and 25th floors of both towers.
The office section in the north tower has glass facades, and the residential section has floor-to-ceiling windows and balconies manufactured in Galicia, Spain. Each panel was made of two 6 mm thick tempered glass panes designed to withstand winds of up to 100 km/h. It includes a water control and management system that prevents the waste of rainwater, implementing a three-cycle system of reuse of grey water.
Emerald Museum. A great museum with actual blocks of rock from 4 mines showing the formation of emeralds in veins (usually accompanied by pyrite and quartz crystals). There are two types of emeralds – one formed in high temperatures (of lesser quality and the majority of emeralds in the world) and one formed in low temperatures (the best quality, more green, bright, good crystalization). Real emeralds must have inclusions of bubbles or minerals to differentiate them from fake emeralds (usually produced from obsidian). After the mines, see a gallery of all kinds of emeralds. The gift shop has many types of jewelry – I asked the price of one ring with a moderate-sized emerald (US$54,000), more expensive than diamonds.
Produce your passport, have your photo taken and a guide escorts you up to the 23rd floor. The museum was seen with a guide and I was alone. 6000P, 12,000P if you wanted a beer after.
Iglesia de San Francisco was built between 1557 and 1566, extended between 1586 and 1611 and in 1623 the main altarpiece was built. After an earthquake in 1794, a second nave was added. It is currently the oldest church preserved in Bogota and has one of the best Mudejar altarpieces in New Granada. The side chapels are gilt Baroque, the ceiling great wood beams the W of the Cross, and wood sculptures.
Palacio de San Francisco. Next door Is this church is this grand 3-story cream stone building with columns on the second floor.
Hotel Regina. Established in 1921, this 7-story hotel has a terrace on the top. The facade is a red mosaic. The lobby is small, unimposing, and next to the small lobby.
San Victorino Market. An outdoor market under temporary white awnings, this market is on a small square and extends for a block along the adjoining streets. Mostly clothes are sold.
Palacio Liévano. Built in 1901-1905 as the municipal government office, it is a 2-story limestone building.
Santa Clara Museum. This consists of the ancient Santa Clara church, a single-nave Baroque beauty with a gilt altar (folkloric-looking saints) and a ceiling of gold medallions and blue motifs. It is full of religious art. 45,000P!!!, free reduced
Independence Museum – Casa del Florero. Next to the cathedral in a 1797 stone house, this small museum has a timeline, an exhibit on hats and more (first independence in 1810 and second in 1817) but only in Spanish. 3000P, 2000 reduced.
Catedral Primada de Colombia is a neoclassical-style building located in front of the Plaza de Bolívar and built between 1807 and 1823 on the same site where three temples were previously built, which successively served as cathedrals for the city (1538, 1562 and 1590 with 3 naves and side chapels.
La Puerta Falsa Restaurant (Hospitality Legends) is a tiny restaurant dating from 1816. It has only about 12 two-person tables, half on a raised area. The menu includes traditional Colombian food like tamales, huevos of all kinds and Ajiaco.
Regional Costumes Museum (Museo Traje) has a wonderful collection of traditional garments well labelled in English, hats, bags, prehistoric textiles, formal wear, a small chapel, a loom, and crochet. The most interesting was the Amcara people who wore a 35 cm long band of bark around their trunk. 4000P, 3000 reduced.
Museum of Colonial Art. A very well done museum with exhibits on crossing the Atlantic, the slave trade, religious art, cities, wood carving, painting, metal, and paste varnish. Free
Teatro Colón is the national theatre of Colombia built in neoclassical and its facade is in the Tuscan Doric order, in carved stone and opened in 1892. It has a capacity of approximately 900 spectators. The main hall has 785 seats. The foyer is on the second level and has ornamental pillars, doors and windows, and fresco paintings on the ceiling and has a capacity of 120 people. Gatti’s Curtain is a work of art.
Military Museum of Colombia has all the usual with a lot of weapons, uniforms, and models. Free
Diocesan Museum (Coin and Bill Museum of Colombia) is a mint that was founded in the 17th century and is home to the numismatic and art collection of the Banco de la República. See a wide range of coins and bills and art pieces, providing a comprehensive view of the country’s cultural and economic history. Free
The architectural legacy of Rogelio Salmona. Tentative WHS. The Rincon is a huge apartment complex covering three separate city blocks. With an all-brick facade, the 4-story buildings have nonfunctional metal bar “balconies” and round cutouts in the stairwells. The buildings step up the slope.
See Torres del Parque above, also designed by Salmona.
I took a motorcycle taxi back 18 km to the hotel – it was very fast in the awful Bogota traffic. 37,000P
ON Lancaster Suites for the fourth night.
Day 4 Wed Feb 19
I took an Uber back to the cable car and then the mirador.
Montserrate is a 3,152 meters (10,341 ft) mountain that overlooks the city center of Bogotá, A church (built in the 17th century) with a shrine, devoted to El Señor Caído (“The Fallen Lord”) is on top.
The Mountain is a pilgrim destination, as well as a major tourist attraction. In addition to the church, there are restaurants, cafeteria, souvenir shops and many smaller tourist facilities. Monserrate is accessed by aerial tramway (a cable car known as the teleférico) or by climbing, the preferred way of pilgrims. Watch the sunset over the city.
Monserrate and its neighbor Guadalupe Hill are icons of Bogota’s cityscape. The hiking path is 2.4 km (1.5 mi) and 600 m (2,000 ft). The average grade of steepness is 25 percent. The hike has been considered dangerous in the past, but now is patrolled by police and is much safer.
The cable car was 27,000P return but I walked down in about 45 minutes.
I then took an Uber motorcycle to Guadalupe. It was so underpowered (100cc) that he could barely make it up the hill and eventually overheated.
Our Lady of Guadalupe (Virgen de Guadalupe) is a religious monument of a huge white virgin on top of a small sanctuary that was closed. It was a 240 m.walk up the hill from the parking.
He then took me back to the Lancaster hotel where I checked out late, said goodbye to Jack and took an Uber to the airport.
Flight. Latam BOG-LET @18:00-20:05.
COLOMBIA – AMAZON (Leticia, Florencia, San José del Guaviare, Puerto Asis)
LETICIA
I arrived at Leticia airport and walked the 1.7 km to the hotel (a taxi driver wanted to charge 50,000P).
ON Jandada Hostel. 50,000P Very good for the price in a dorm room. Breakfast was included.
Day 5 Thur Feb 20
I found out the details about the ferries from Santa Rosa Peru to Iquitos. The fast ferry leaves on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday but arrives at 01:30 am and I did not want to be arriving that late at night. The slow ferry takes 3 days and leaves daily at 16:00 (check in at 3 pm and pay on the boat. I had 4 days before I had to be in Cusco for my tour to Manu NP so to give me some buffer so I decided to leave today.
I took a motorcycle out to the airport to get my exit visa for Colombia. I cancelled my second night in the hostel.
Ethnography Museum. This small museum occupies only one room but has good exhibits on indigenous people (the blowdart guns and poison explanation was good). Free
I then walked over to Tapatinga Brazil (Brazil – Amazonas North and Southwest). One can only cross on the road in the north side of Leticia. No visa or checkpoint is required. I walked around for a while and was caught in a typical heavy downpour. I waited it out for an hour and it showed no sign of letting up. I found a cardboard box and walked back with it over my head for 1.7 km!! arriving only half-soaked from both sweating and the rain.
I had wanted to leave for the boat across the river to Santa Rosa at one pm but it was raining just as hard as ever and finally left at 2.
LETICIA, COLUMBIA TO IQUITOS, PERU BY BOAT
There is very little information on these ferries and all I could find was quite dated.
Currency: Official rates: 1 US$ = 4,120 COP = 3.7 PEN
LETICIA
Immigration. The only place to get an exit stamp for Colombia is at the airport (I took a moto taxi (10,000 COP) there and got the stamp in 2 minutes).
Money. There is no money exchange in Santa Rosa – ensure that you have PEN as that is the only way to pay for the ferry and purchase anything on board.
I took a tuk-tuk to the port in Leticia and exchanged money and bought a few supplies on the way.
There are many long-tail boats to take you from Leticia port to Santa Rosa, 10 minutes across the Amazon.
SANTA ROSA PERU
Immigration Peru. Take a tuk-tuk to the immigration office in town and then to the ferry on a muddy narrow track.
FERRIES Santa Rosa to Iquitos
It is not possible to reserve a space on the ferries and there is minimal online information.
Buy tickets on the ferry. The Amazon for the entire length is still a huge river, a few km across and with brown muddy water. Because it was the rainy season, the river was high and the boat travelled right next to the shore. It occasionally takes narrow channels around islands. We saw a small pod of pink dolphins.
In 2022, I took a ferry from Santarem to Manaus Brazil taking 3 days. The river is probably 5 km wide, infrequently went near the shore and had few stops but was a much more sophisticated boat compared to this ferry.
1. Fast ferry. This information may be incorrect as it is difficult to find the exact details but this was my understanding. It leaves Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday at 13:30 arriving on Iquitos 12 hours later at 01:30 in the morning. Cost?
I would take this only if I had time constraints as it zooms down the middle of the Amazon and you see nothing. The slow ferry is a much better experience. I also preferred to not arrive in Iquitos in the middle of the night.
2. Slow ferry. Leaves daily at 16:00 and takes “3 days”. It left at 16:15 and took 44 hours arriving at noon after two nights. 80 PEN including 3 meals/day. Arrive by 3 pm.
I purchased a hammock on the ferry (15 PEN)
The slow ferry is the “Amazon” of the Amazon servicing every small village on the way. We had about 20 stops all on about the first half on the south side of the river. It is a great experience seeing village life and the loading and unloading of cargo and people in every village. The cattle and pig loading was quite inhumane. Some stops were as short as 2 minutes and as long as an hour. At one larger village in the middle of the first night, several “inspectors” came on board, shined flashlights everywhere and as I was awake asked to see my Peru entry stamp.
The foreigners on the boat were 4 Chinese men, a couple from Tokyo, a young woman from San Francisco and amazingly, a traveller from Darfu, Sudan. He must be quite the traveller as he got off 3 hours before Iquitos and got a local speed boat to wherever he was going.
Sleeping. At the end of the ferry ride in Iquitos, there were about 25 hammocks and at least 12 people sleeping on the floor. The hammocks are strung about 2 metres at the ends and hang in a marked curve. I am a stomach sleeper and was unable to get any rest so I laid my sleeping pad (Nemo) and my sleeping bag (Western Mountaineering Mity-Lite, the best travel bag) and slept well with the constant massage from the engines of the boat.
Food. A bun and milk tea was the first dinner so I purchased an excellent meal of rice, fried plantains and fried chicken (15 PEN). The 2 breakfasts were a bun and milk tea, the one lunch and two dinners were rice, a small amount of pasta or slaw, beans and a small piece of chicken. Much better meals (rice, plantain, a big piece of fried chicken or fried eggs or fried sausage) could also be bought along with soft drinks, water, snacks and beer.
I brought my own instant coffee, sugar and hot water was free.
WIFI. Starlink on the boat, free and very fast.
Power. There are many charge points to charge your devices.
Toilet. The toilet was quite menial and had an equally menial shower. A sink had water and soap – all used silty Amazon water.
GO TO Peru – Peruvian Amazon (Loreto, San Martin)
Chiribiquete National Park WHS – “The Maloca of the Jaguar” is on the western-most edge of the Guiana Shield at the confluence point of four biogeographical provinces: Amazon, Andes, Orinoco and Guyana and guarantees the connectivity and preservation of the biodiversity of these provinces. Tepees (table-top mountains), sheer-sided sandstone plateaux dramatic scenery.
The drainage basins of the Mesay, Cuñare, San Jorge and Amú Rivers, are tributaries of the Caquetá River, which is in turn a tributary of the Amazon River. Many of the rivers are called blackwater rivers.
Over 75,000 figures in 60 rock shelters from 20,000 BCE – hunting scenes, battles, dances and ceremonies, fauna and flora, with a particular the worship of the jaguar, a symbol of power and fertility. The indigenous communities, which are not directly present on the site, consider Chiribiquete as a sacred place that cannot be visited and Some 75,000 rock pictographs have been listed on the walls of 60 rock shelters at the foot of tepuis. The portrayals are interpreted as scenes of hunting, battles, dances and ceremonies, all of which are linked to a purported cult of the jaguar, seen as a symbol of power and fertility.
Chiribiquete is home to many iconic species including Jaguar, Puma, Lowland Tapir, Giant Otter, Howler Monkey, and Brown Woolly Monkey. A high level of endemism occurs in the property and the number of endemic species is likely to rise substantially once new research programmes are implemented.
Can’t be visited because of uncontacted tribes. Fly over possible.
