“Bogotá, 19,685 ft closer to the stars”, says a popular Colombian saying. In addition to a sky dotted with lights, those who arrive at the El Dorado airport on a clear night are also greeted by a cold breeze. Nestled in the Eastern Andes, but close to the Equator, Bogotá has temperate days and cold evenings, with average temperatures of 57 ºF.

Bogotá is very delightful, clean and organized, a place where one feels safe and calm. This recent transformation is the result of not only repressive measures but also the combination of urban, educational, cultural and sport interventions. At the 2006 Venice Architecture Biennial, the Colombian capital received the Gold Lion for its urban revitalization efforts.   

The most visible of these interventions is an immense express bus corridor known as TransMillenium. Based on the famous model developed by Brazilian city Curitiba, the Bogotá system has changed the concept of bus transport.
Since 2000, Bogotá has been implementing an integrated system, that uses red articulated buses that operate on exclusive bus lanes and stop in modern stations equipped with electronic turnstiles. The Transmillenium’s main differential is its investment in comfort and safety.

Pavements were expanded and footbridges were built. In poorer neighborhoods, parks, public lighting, libraries g fand schools emerged as well as a series of projects to get youths off the street and reduce social tensions.  Everything according to the motto that the city belongs to people and not cars.
In addition, a bicycle lane network, totaling over 187 miles, was also built. Since 1976, cars are not allowed on the streets on Sundays and holidays, from 7 am to 2 pm, in 18 out of 20 neighborhoods.  Every week, up to 2 million people take advantage of this space with their bikes, skates or even on foot. There are public bathrooms, information points and community agents looking after the safety in the crossroads. 

Santa Fé de Bogotá is right in the center of the country. In the past, Colombia’s largest city was also the capital of the Viceroyalty of New Granada and a stopover for conquerors on their quest for the mysterious Land of El Dorado. One of them, Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, founded the city in 1538. According to the language spoken by the muisca Indians, “bacatá” means “edge of the cultivated land”.

From the Spanish, the city inherited a regular urban plan that divides the space into calles and transversal roads, the carreras, just like a chess board.

The Plaza Bolívar is the heart of old Bogotá. Families stroll on sunny Sundays, feeding pigeons and buying ice cream from one of the many carts. The square is overlooked by monumental buildings. In the East, the classic cathedral and the adjacent Del Sagrario Chapel reign supreme.

In the North, the solid concrete pillars of the Palace of Justice serve as a reminder of 1985, the year when the building was invaded by guerilla fighters, destroyed in a battle and then rebuilt. This huge building dwarfs the National Capitol, which was built based on the American White House, located across the square.

If the Plaza Bolívar is the heart, its surrounding neighborhood, La Candelária is the soul of Bogotá. Its picturesque alleys invite visitors to go on a journey to the past. This is where one will find that “colonial charm”, which placed Bogotá in 21st place out of the 50 unmissable places of 2008, according to the New York Times.

At the Candelária, there are churches from the most diverse Catholic orders, taverns that cater to all culinary tastes, seven theatres, libraries and museums. The Archeological Museum houses Colombias’s main indigenous ceramics collection. The Donacíon Botéro Museum displays works by the artist who became internationally famous for his representations of obese figures. Botéro donated to the city a collection filled with works by him and illustrious colleagues like Picasso, Chagall, Gustav Klimt, Fernand Léger, Francis Bacon, De Chirico, Toulouse-Lautrec, Max Ernst, George Grosz, Henry Moore and Alberto Giacometti.

There are more than 60 museums in Bogotá. In the g famazing Gold Museum, the Colombian Central Bank houses the most important pre-Colombian collection of jewellery in the world. In order to ensure peace of mind, in this dazzling celebration of the gold myth, just a small number of visitors can go through the doors of this strong box.

The visit reaches its climax in the Golden Room. The doors have barely closed and the lights, which are lit to the sound of ceremonial music, make hundreds of golden suns, animals, plants and other fetishes, sparkle.

Outside the museum, surrounded by three ancient churches, the small and pleasant Santander Park, at Carrera 7, is probably the most visited park in Bogotá.

The city also offers more modern temples in areas like La Cabrera and Zona Rosa, the fashionable quarter between Carreras 15 and 11 and Calles 82 and 80, with restaurants, bars, stores and shopping malls like the Andino and the Atlantis Plaza, which are bustling with people until the early hours during the weekend. In the Bogotá surroundings, the Salt Cathedral, built in honor of the Virgin of the Rosary of Guasa, the patron saint of Colombian miners, is located in the town of Zipaquirá.

There are those who prefer a more traditional pilgrimage site, which is served by a convenient chairlift. At the top of the Montserrat mountain, the highest point of the city, there is a small white church, from where visitors have the most spectacular view of urban Bogotá. After all, you are 19,685 ft. closer to the stars.

Country of Roses
There is more to Colombia than coffee. Nowadays, flowers are one of the country's main exports. Colombia is the second largest flower exporter in the world, after Holland. This business generates around 2 billion reais per year.
Out of all the flowers, exported mainly to the United States, roses deserve a special mention. In the 1970s, when the production of flowers moved to the Southern Hemisphere, it was noted that the fertile plain that surrounds Bogotá was perfect for the cultivation of certain species. There, Colombian roses are planted at 85307 ft. above sea level, near the Equator, under constant spring-like weather. Bright sun rays intensify the color of the corolla and clear Andean nights delay the flowering.  In a small amount of time, the buttons double in size and last for up to three weeks. You can admire some of these beautiful flowers at the site one of the flower farms. (www.benildaflowers.com).