Bogota Colombia

Description: Bogotá officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá during the Spanish Colonial period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital and largest city of Colombia, and one of the largest cities in the world. The city is administered as the Capital District, as well as the capital of, though not part of, the surrounding department of Cundinamarca. Bogotá is a territorial entity of the first order, with the same administrative status as the departments of Colombia. It is the main political, economic, administrative, industrial, cultural, airport, technological, scientific, healthcare and educational center of the country and northern South America.

Population: 7,412,566

Demographics: The ethnic composition of the city’s population includes minorities of Afro-Colombian people (0.9%), and Indigenous Amerindians (0.3%); 98.8% of the population has no ethnic affiliation, but are Whites and Mestizos.

History: The area of modern Bogotá was first populated by groups of indigenous people who migrated south based on the relation with the other Chibcha languages; the Bogotá savanna was the southernmost Chibcha-speaking group that exists from Nicaragua to the Andes in Colombia. The first populations inhabiting the present-day Metropolitan Area of Bogotá were hunter-gatherers in the late Pleistocene. Dating to around 12,500 BC, the oldest evidence of human activity was discovered in El Abra, north of Zipaquirá. From 1533, a belief persisted that the Río Grande de la Magdalena was the trail to the South Sea, to Perú, legendary El Dorado. Such was the target of Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, the Granadanian conquistador who left Santa Marta on 6 April 1536 with 800 soldiers, heading towards the interior of current Colombia. The official founding only occurred about eight months later, on 27 April 1539, in a site close to one of the recreational lands of the zipa, called Theusa or Theusaquillo. The village obtained the title of City by way of a decree from Charles V on 27 July 1540, which changed the name of the city from Our Lady of Hope to Santa Fe (Holy Faith), after the name of a town nearby Granada where Jiménez de Quesada grew up. Formed by Europeans, mestizos, indigenous people, and slaves, from the second half of the 16th century, the population began to grow rapidly. The 1789 census recorded 18,161 inhabitants, and by 1819 the city population reached 30,000 inhabitants distributed in 195 blocks. In 1967, there were 2,679 urban buses in Bogotá that transported, on average, 1,630,000 passengers per day. The city had about 1 million inhabitants and 80 km2 of area, the service was relatively reasonable. But as the city grew and reached more than five million and an area greater than 300 km2, not only did the car fleet increase substantially to more than 20,000 vehicles, but traffic complexity increased, as well as pollution and the inefficiency of the only existing transportation system. As for 2019, the city’s distribution is composed of nine main business centers (Av. El Dorado Business Corridor, Centro Internacional, Parque de la 93, El Lago, North Point, Calle 100, Santa Barbara Business Center, Zona Industrial Montevideo & Parque Industrial Zona Franca). Grittier sides sit south and southwest, where working-class barrios continue to battle their reputations for drugs and crime. In the ritzier north you’ll find boutique hotels, corporate offices and well-heeled locals piling into chic entertainment districts such as the Zona Rosa and Zona G.

Elevation: 2625 m

Climate: Subtropical highland climate. Average annual temperature in Bogota is 13 C (55 F), the average for July is 15 C (58 F), the average for January is 12 C (54 F).

Attractions: Gold Museum, Mount Monserrate, Barrio La Candelaria, Parque 93, Plaza De Bolivar De Bogota, National Museum Of Colombia, Ciclovia De Bogota

Airports: El Dorado International Airport BOG

Distance To City Centre: 15 km

Commute Length: 25 min

Average Transportation Cost: 25 USD

Traffic Hours: 6 am – 9 am, 4 pm – 8 pm