Bogotá Daily Photo

November Rain

2011-11-17T06:59:00.000-08:00

Altough climate change has altered rain patterns, the rains of november always come. Sometimes with hail like in this picture taken from my window.

Viejos Balcones

2011-10-10T22:33:00.000-07:00

Los viejos barrios de Bogotá como el de esta imagen, llamado La Candelaria, dan testimonio de que en algun tiempo los balcones eran una constante en la arquitectura y tal vez eran utilizados. Sin embargo, las construciones que llegaron despues los eliminaron por completo. Es tal vez por esa idiosincracia Bogotana de estar de puertas adentro, la que muchos explican por el clima frio.

Arreglos para toda ocasión

2011-10-09T09:49:00.000-07:00

Las flores, una de nuestras principales exportaciones. se producen en los alrededores de la ciudad, aunque con un impacto ambiental importante para la Sabana de Bogotá.

Bolivar's silhouette

2010-10-25T07:33:00.000-07:00

Cell phone towers at its height

2010-10-05T16:52:00.000-07:00

With the explosion of cell phone service, operators are planting this awful towers along the city (and along the world). Although ugly, we love them when we have good signal on the phone's screen. But, how much they affect us? No body knows.

Jimenez Avenue

2010-09-29T15:09:00.000-07:00

The Jimenez avenue makes part of the historic dowtown of Bogota. Its name comes from the founder of the city: Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada. At present this avenue is known as the environmental axis of the city and only it's permited the transit of the bus system known as Transmilenium. In the past the San Francisco River flowed along the space now occupied by the avenue. The river was channeled in 1930's decade.

Malls at El Dorado Ave

2010-09-10T12:07:00.001-07:00

This is EL Dorado Avenue, showing the development of new malls. This avenue gives the welcome to people arriving to Bogotá by plain. By the way, sadly our airport will change its name soon, but I can ask to my visitors, how they feel when arriving to a country the plain's captain say: We are reaching to El Dorado. Nice? Well I have to get an urgent picture of the control tower where the EL Dorado name is written with big golden letters before they throw them away.

Celebrating Bicentenary

2010-09-02T09:13:00.000-07:00

Recent celebration of our independence bicentenary in Bogotá

Surrounded by Mountains

2010-07-10T11:24:00.000-07:00

Bogotá is located over a big plateau surrounded by mountains, that are more evident at eastern side of the city were the the downtown is located.

Archiepiscopal Palace View

2010-06-29T09:21:00.000-07:00

This buiding is located in southeastern corner of the Plaza de Bolivar (Bolivar square) It's the home and office of the archbishops.

Virgilio Barco Public Library

2010-06-28T14:28:00.000-07:00

One of the largest public libraries in the city, the VB Public Library openned its doors in 2001 and it's part of a big net of libraries along the city. The design was made by Rogelio Salmona, one of the more renowned architects of the country.

Simon Bolivar Central Park

2010-06-18T08:21:00.000-07:00

Bogotá citizens just take a rest every weekend in the largest park of the city. With more than 100 hectares this park was open officially to the public in 1991 after planting more than 3.300 native trees. In 1995 was recovered a 11 hectares lake. Inside the park there's a place for events like concerts with a capacity for nearly 80.000 people. The last concert there was Aerosmith, last month. This park is just one part of a bigger complex of parks in the area know as the Simon Bolivar Metropolitan Park, covering a total area of nearly 400 hectares.

A National Amulet

2010-06-15T10:25:00.000-07:00

Innocently I took this picture of a sunset in Bogota with out knowing a history behind it. I got interested on the image of the church at the right, because I didn’t know the name of the church that appeared in the picture. I finally found the name of this church which is the Minor Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (Basilica Menor del Sagrado Corazón de Jesus) but is more popularly know as the National Vote Church. The history behind this church has to deal with part of the history of the country. It was constructed as a request from an archbishop to the politics of the early twenty century. The construction of the church was considered as a kind of amulet to finish a stupid war in Colombia, known as the War of the One Thousand Days (1899-1902). As all the wars it was a useless conflict between the two principal parties of the country in the struggle for the power. One of the consequences of that war was that Colombia lost Panama and the possibility of constructing the interoceanic canal.

Blue Sunset

2009-07-11T22:12:00.001-07:00

I just took this one while driving. It was not my intention but the light effects seem interesting for me.

Warhol Mr. America

2009-07-10T19:00:00.001-07:00

The exposition Andy Warhol Mr. America will be in Bogotá until September 21, then it will be in Buenos Aires and finally in Sao Paulo.

Waiting

2009-07-04T19:31:00.000-07:00

No comments.

T Zone

2009-07-03T13:15:00.000-07:00

The T Zone in the north of the city. Well, many people like to go there Friday nights. Lots of restaurants and bars. I recommend you to bring some money.

Massive Public transport

2009-07-02T08:52:00.000-07:00

We don't have a metro, just this bus system. This is the Caracas avenue.

Any street, any day

2009-07-01T14:58:00.000-07:00

In the past the traditional view of the city was that of a cold and rainy place, now people say the city is becoming warmer.If it's true or false, I don't know, but I love the sunny days in my loved city.

Soccer's temple

2009-06-26T13:52:00.000-07:00

Colombia's more popular sport is the football soccer. However, Bogota's most traditional teams Independiente Santa Fe and Club Los Millonarios, which play in the Campin stadium (show in the picture) were champions of the country for the last time in 1975 and 1987. Some new teams from the city appearing in the last years had been more successful than the traditional ones.

Eating the forest

2009-06-24T13:36:00.001-07:00

Bogota is lucky for being surrounded by forested hills. However legal and illegal urbanization has been eating the remaining forests around the city. In any case the native forest is almost absent from the city. The picture shows a popular neighborhood at the southeast of the city.

On the park

2009-06-17T07:06:00.000-07:00

Maybe one of the more interesting things of Bogotá is that there are a lot of things to do in your free time. Between them are the parks where you can practice sports or simply take a rest in the grass or get fun in entertainment attractions like the panoramic wheel in the back.

Security begins at home

2009-06-12T14:54:00.000-07:00

The government’s house (Casa de Nariño) at left and the closed street in front, just for security reasons. In recent years Colombian government has invested millions and millions of dollars in security for the country, and it begins at home. Foreigners are coming back and people feels safe, but I feel that we need to invest more in education than in security.

Weaved elements

2009-06-11T05:59:00.000-07:00

I love all those elements weaved in the eastern limits of the city.

Blocks every where

2009-06-10T05:16:00.000-07:00

In recent times Bogotá is being filled with blocks of buildings everywhere. Houses are part of the past. You rarely can find a project offering new houses and when you find it they are constructed in lot of no more than 45 square meters. So you have no more option than to decide for an apartment. And blocks of apartments traditionally of no more than six floors now are higher, as the ones in the center of this picture. Of course, the city needs to accommodate something like 7 million people, and growing, an although Bogotá lies over a vast plateau, it also has its limits.

A typical neighborhood

2009-05-31T19:35:00.000-07:00

This is a typical view of a mid class neighborhood of Bogota. These houses were probably constructed in the 60’s or 70’s, the same epoch of the old Land Rover in this view. I love that car!

Tropical, any way

2009-05-30T20:04:00.000-07:00

Bogotá is characterized by a cold climate with temperatures oscillating between -5°C – 26°C. However as shown in this picture tropic is evident every where, from the colorful umbrella of a street vendor to the slender palm tree standing out, over the houses at left.

The Park Towers

2009-05-28T09:54:00.000-07:00

The renowned architect and artist Rogelio Salmona designed these buildings in the early 70s. He was able to harmonize the buildings with their physical and social environment. This is the reason why these buildings are considered as one of the most emblematic constructions of the city.

Icon of the city

2009-05-27T08:59:00.000-07:00

One of the most representative icons of the city is the Monserrate Hill. Along with Guadalupe hill (past post) is used to represent the city. People can ascend to the top of this hill and visit the sanctuary using a cable rail way or a funicular, or more frequently using a stone road which many penitent use to pay promises to the Monserrate Lord.

Green areas

2009-05-26T11:45:00.000-07:00

Although in some sectors the city is treeless, Bogota has a lot of Parks and green areas. Here we can see the Independence Park at the left and in the back the Guadalupe hill (behind the building), with the Guadalupe Sanctuary in its top. There is a road that reach that place.

Old Bogotá

2009-05-25T10:18:00.001-07:00

This is a typical house from the colonial epoch of Bogotá. Those houses are now protected as historical patrimony of the city, so their facades can not be modified.

Transportation system

2009-05-24T07:58:00.000-07:00

Although Bogota has changed a lot during the last ten years when the mayors tried to transform the city in to a more human place, thinking more in the persons, we still have a bad transportation system, based mainly in old and insecure buses. There’s a new system called Transmilenio of big articulated buses and stations similar to those of a metro, but this is not enough and a metro for Bogotá, a city of nearly eight million people, is still far from reality. Any way, if you visit Bogota you will have several alternatives and even traveling in a traditional bus will be something like an exotic experience.

Botanical Garden

2009-05-23T07:41:00.001-07:00

The Botanical Garden of Bogota is one of the most important scientific institutions of the country. It was created in 1955 and named in honor of the Spaniard astronomer Jose Celestino Mutis, a botanist who was the first scientific in making deep studies on the Colombian flora by the year 1783 when he began the Real Botanical Expedition along Colombia.

Juggling the city

2009-05-19T13:42:00.000-07:00

While the traffic light turns green an improvised juggler plays with some skittles with the hope of receiving some coins from the drivers. It seems a hard work, but people in the red light don’t pay too much attention to those urban artists that like thousands of people in the city live their lives like a juggling act.

Bolivar Square

2009-05-17T21:31:00.000-07:00

Named in honor of the liberator of Colombia, the Bolivar square took its name since 1846 when the Colombian congress set a statue of Simon Bolivar in its center. Before that date the square was used in many ways but particularly as the principal market of the city. Today is a wide flat space rounded by public buildings (catholic and official) including the National Capitol (1847-1926; right), where the Colombian congress meets.

Planetarium

2009-05-14T14:04:00.001-07:00

This is one of the interesting places to visit in Bogota: The planetarium inaugurated in 1969. It employs a Zeiss Power Dome projector based on a set of computers joined by a high velocity network that generates astronomic images and sounds. People who visit the planetarium can find additional activities like art expositions, seminars and courses, and can visit the Museum of Bogota located in the same building.

Downtown of Bogotá

2009-05-13T08:58:00.001-07:00

With 42 floors, by the date of its construction the Avianca building was the tallest building of all South America. I was built between 1967 and 1970. It was partially burned in 1973 but it was reconstructed later. Located in the downtown of Bogotá, still today it’s one of the largest buildings of the city. In reality Bogotá has few skyscrapers, instead the city had expanded widely along an extensive plateau. At the left of the picture there is the San Francisco Church from 1611 and at the right there are the headquarters of the central banking of Colombia (Banco de la Republica).

Bogotá under construction

2009-05-11T13:36:00.000-07:00

Bogota is changing every day. Citizens are making its part like leaving their cars at home two working days of the week. For many people this is bad for the economy, for others it's a necessary measure. We won't really know how bad or how good it could be, but we hope the city will be better in the future.