The city is located in the centre of Colombia, on a high plateau known as the Bogotá savanna, part of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense located in the Eastern Cordillera of the Andes.
Bogotá is the third-highest capital in South America and in the world after Quito and La Paz, at an average of 2,640 meters (8,660 ft) above sea level. Subdivided into 20 localities, Bogotá has an area of 1,587 square kilometres (613 square miles) and a cool climate that is constant through the year. Population: 11.6 million. Video: Travel Guide
Key - locations visited - activities:
- Plaza de Bolivar Bolivar Square
Located in the heart of La Candelaria in Bogota, Colombia, Plaza de Bolivar remains the beating heart of the city and is a great springboard for seeing sites in the surrounding area.
Plaza de Bolivar is named after statue of Simon Bolivar in the centre of it. Simon Bolivar remains a key figure of historical importance in South America, and particularly in the northern countries of Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador. Nicknamed El Libertador (the Liberator), Bolivar led the modern day nations of Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Panama, Bolivia and Peru to independence from the Spanish Empire: almost all these countries have major cities with Plaza de Bolivars in them in recognition of this fact.
- Chorro de Quevedo Plaza
It is believed that Bogotá was founded in Chorro de Quevedo Plaza on August 6, 1538. This open space in the neighbourhood of La Candelaria, where you will find a doctrinal chapel, can be reached by an old narrow, cobblestone street called Calle del Embudo (Funnel Street). The square is popular with street performers and a meeting place for college students.
- National Museum of Colombia
The National Museum of Colombia has built a collection of more than 20,000 objects that are symbols of national history and heritage. The collections include remains of the first inhabitants and material culture of prehispanic societies, objects from current indigenous and afrocolombian ethnography, evidence of different periods of the nation's history, and works of art that range from the colonial period through the works of 'the first modern' artists: Fernando Botero, Alejandro Obregón, Guillermo Wiedemann, Juan Antonio Roda, Eduardo Ramírez Villamizar, Edgar Negret and Enrique Grau.
Parque de Los Periodistas (Journalist Park)
Parque de los Periodistas is a park in Bogotá, located between 13th and 17th streets and between 3rd and 4th streets, in the Las Nieves neighborhood, in the town of Santa Fe. Since 2014, it has been renamed Gabriel García Márquez Journalists' Park by the writer Gabriel García Márquez.
- Monserrate
Monserrate provides an overview of Bogota. This site can be reached via a scenic cable car ride to the top of the mountain. There are exceptional city views, and insights into local life, and the Catholicism's significance in Colombia. The cultural adventure also includes a visit to the Shrine of the Fallen Lord of Monserrate.
- Museo del Oro (Gold Museum)
Learnt about a collection of gold pieces and their history in Colombia and the relationship with the Muisca culture that also give rise to the legend of El Dorado.
- Museo Botero - Casa de la Moneda (Botero Museum)
In 2000, the artist Fernando Botero donated an art collection of 208 works to the Banco de la República, 123 of his own authorship and 85 by international artists. With this collection, the Issuer founded the Botero Museum, located in the La Candelaria neighborhood, in the historic center of Bogotá, in a colonial mansion that functioned until 1955 as the Archbishopric of the city, and which was restored and adapted as a museum by the Bank of the Republic, under the precepts and curatorship of the master Botero himself.
Video: Renowned Colombian painter Fernando Botero
Los Puentes
Local graffiti artists and hundreds of neighbours have turned one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Colombia’s capital Bogota into arguably the most colourful “barrio” in the country.
The Ink Crew, a street art collective from the capital, moved to “Los Puentes,” an impoverished ghetto in the south of Bogota, and called in the help of community to fix up the grim neighbourhood.
Video of Bogotá street art: Changing the world one graffiti at a time.
