Bogotá en foco

El vecino olvidado?


Estatua a la virgen María Inmaculada, de 15 metros de altura.

Nunca en mi vida había tenido la oportunidad, o tomado la desición, de conocer Guadalupe, el cerro que según algunas publicaciones que llegué a leer, era considerado el vecino olvidado de Monserrate. Siempre tuve cierto temor de ir a conocer este sitio, que siempre vi desde lejos. Había escuchado desde pequeño historias acerca de la peligrosidad de este lugar. Historias sobre asaltos y atracos en la via que conduce al santuario construido en la punta del cerro siempre me atemorizaron y por lo tanto nunca consideré seriamente la posibilidad de ir a visitarlo.

Vista del Santuario de Monserrate desde Guadalupe

La historia cambió para mi hace unos pocos dias, cuando tome la desición de subir con mi familia a conocer el santuario. Subir no es para nada complicado, basta con tomar la via circunvalar hacia el sur y desviar a la izquierada después de pasar frente a la sede Vivero de la Universidad Distrital, tomando la via a Choachí. La carretera está en regular estado, pero no es un impedimento para circular. Durante el transecto observé buena presencia de la policía en este corto tramo de carretera, incluso observe un CAI (puesto de policía) en un punto del trayecto de mas o menos seis kilometros, al final de los cuales se observa el aviso que indica tomar a la derecha para ascender el último tramo hacia el santuario. También se observan rutas de colectivos urbanos que suben con cierta frecuencia. Era domingo y cuando nos fuimos aproximando al destino, nos encontramos con decenas de vehículos parqueados a un costado de la carretera, desde muy abajo. Finalmente encontramos un espacio para parquear a unos 200 metros del santuario.

El último tramo a pie se hizo eterno, pero finalmente llegamos al sitio del santuario. Me sorprendió la cantidad de personas que estaban en el sitio, y eso que la misa ya había pasado. Alrededor del santuario hay innumerables puestos de comida, con mesas y carpas. Ya en la parte mas alta observamos de cerca la estatua de 15 metros que habiamos visto a lo lejos durante toda la vida, aunque ignoraba que tuviera un pararrayos en la cabeza. Esta estatua elaborada en ferrocemento, fue realizada por el escultor Gustavo Arcila Uribe, en 1946, hace casi 70 años.

Vista del centro de Bogotá desde el cerro de Guadalupe. Al fondo la Ciudad Universitaria.

Aunque la escultura es enorme, la hermita que la acompaña es en realidad muy pequeña. Aproveché entonces para hacer algunas fotos del sitio y de la vista de la ciudad y regresar satisfecho pudiendo decir que estuve en Guadalupe, un sitio para nada olvidado y del que en la actualidad la Alcadía de Bogotá está promoviendo su visita.

Natural and human made structures

During a recent visit to Bogota's botanical garden at the west of the city, I took several pictures from which I want to share a sample in this blog. The first one is this view that combines vertical structures made by man with those natural made represented by the palm trees. Altough palm trees are related with hot tropical climates, the ones showed here grow at 2650 m, in a cold climate, but they are still tropical.

Leaving at sunset

November Rain

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

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

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

Cell phone towers at its height

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

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

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

Recent celebration of our independence bicentenary in Bogotá

Surrounded by Mountains

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

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

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

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

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.