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Republic of Columbia

Republic of Columbia

Continent

South America

Best States to Visit

  • Cali
  • Bogotá
  • Cartagena

Best Cities to Visit

  • Medellin
  • Bogota
  • Cartagena
  • Cali
  • Barranquilla

Size

1,141,748 KM2

Population

50,372,424

GDP

$2,713,469,000

Spending Budget

$700 - $1,200

Famous For

  • Flower Exports
  • Specialty Coffee
  • Culture and Food

Best Time to Visit

  • January
  • February
  • March
  • December

History

Colombia has been inhabited by various indigenous peoples since at least 12,000 BCE, including the Muisca, Quimbaya, and the Tairona. The Spanish landed first in La Guajira in 1499 and by the mid-16th century colonized parts of the region, establishing the New Kingdom of Granada, with Santafé de Bogotá as its capital. Independence from the Spanish Empire was achieved in 1819, with what is now Colombia emerging as the United Provinces of New Granada. The new nation experimented with federalism as the Granadine Confederation (1858), and then the United States of Colombia (1863), before the Republic of Colombia was finally declared in 1886.

Present Day

Colombia is composed of 32 departments and the Capital District of Bogotá, the country's largest city. It covers an area of 1,141,748 square kilometres, with a population of 50 million. Colombia's rich cultural heritage reflects influences by various Amerindian civilizations, European settlement, African slaves, and immigration from Europe and the Middle East. Spanish is the nation's official language, besides which over 70 languages are spoken. Colombia is one of the world's seventeen megadiverse countries, and has the second-highest level of biodiversity in the world. Its territory encompasses Amazon rainforest, highlands, grasslands, and deserts, and it is the only country in South America with coastlines and islands along both Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Future

The first stage of the government’s concerted campaign to rebrand Colombia as a technology center involved drawing in IT services with tax incentives and professional training programs. A $6.8 billion industry has taken strong root as a result, with 1,800 software development and IT service companies registered in the country. Looking forward, the hope is that IT, and the investments that went into promoting it, can diversify into a broader innovation ecosystem. With that in mind, the government has spurred a number of public initiatives to address the lack of venture capital in Colombia, currently the biggest ceiling on startup growth.
Must Visit Places ------------

Cartagena

Founded in 1533, the city's strategic location between the Magdalena and Sinú Rivers gave it easy access to the interior of New Granada and made it a main port for trade between Spain and its overseas empire. The urban area of Cartagena is the sixth-largest urban area in the country, after Bucaramanga. Economic activities include the maritime and petrochemical industries, as well as tourism. It is a center of political, ecclesiastical, and economic activity. In 1984, Cartagena's colonial walled city and fortress were designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Tayrona National Park

The Tayrona National Natural Park is a protected area in the Colombian northern Caribbean region and within the jurisdiction of the city of Santa Marta, 34 kilometres from the city centre. The park presents a biodiversity endemic to the area of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta mountain range, featuring a variety of climates and geography that ranges from arid sea level to 900 meters above sea level. The park covers approximately 30 square kilometres of maritime area in the Caribbean sea and approximately 150 square kilometres of land. It was the second most visited national park in Colombia.

Ciudad Perdida

Ciudad Perdida is the archaeological site of an ancient city in Colombia's Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. It is believed to have been founded about 800 CE, some 650 years earlier than Machu Picchu. This location is also known as "Teyuna" and "Buritaca 200". Ciudad Perdida consists of a series of 169 terraces carved into the mountainside, a net of tiled roads and several small circular plazas. The entrance can only be accessed by a climb up some 1,200 stone steps through dense jungle.

Salento

Salento is a town and municipality in the north-east of the department of Quindío, Colombia. It has retained more of its traditional colonial architecture than almost any other town in the eje cafetero, along with a quiet and relaxed way of life, and as a result the town and nearby Cocora valley are among the most popular tourist destinations in Colombia. The historic center of town was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List as part of the "Coffee Cultural Landscape" in 2011.

Cocora Valley

The valley is part of the Los Nevados National Natural Park, incorporated into the existing national park by the Colombian government in 1985. It is the main location where the national tree of Colombia, the Quindío wax palm (Ceroxylon quindiuense) can be found, as well as a wide variety of other flora and fauna (some endangered), all of which are protected under the park's national status. "Cocora" was the name of a Quimbayan princess, daughter of the local chief Acaime, and means "star of water".

Bogota

Bogota is the capital and largest city of Colombia. It is the financial and commercial heart of Colombia, with the most business activity of any city in the country. The capital hosts the main financial market in Colombia and the Andean natural region, and is the leading destination for new foreign direct investment projects coming into Latin America and Colombia. Bogotá is home to the largest number of universities and research centers in the country, and is an important cultural center, with many theaters, libraries and museums.

Cali

As the only major Colombian city with access to the Pacific Coast, Cali is the main urban and economic center in the south of the country, and has one of Colombia's fastest-growing economies. Cali is also a center for sports in Colombia, and was the first and only Colombian city to have hosted the Pan American Games for 56 years until Barranquilla was chosen to host the Pan American Games in 2027. It hosted the 1992 World Wrestling Championships, the ninth edition of the World Games in 2013, the UCI Track Cycling World Championships in 2014 and the World Youth Championships in Athletics in 2015. It’s also known as the salsa capital of the world.

Popayan

The town is well known for its colonial architecture and its contributions to Colombian cultural and political life. It is also known as the "white city" due to the color of most of the colonial buildings in the city center, where several churches are located. Much of the city's original splendor was destroyed on 31 March 1983, when an earthquake toppled many buildings. Though many were rebuilt and repaired, the heart of the city still has ruins and empty lots. In 2005, Popayán was declared by UNESCO as the first city of gastronomy because of its variety. The culinary history of the Cauca Department was chosen because it maintains traditional food preparation methods that have been passed down orally for generations.

Tatacoa Desert

The Tatacoa Desert is the second largest arid zone in Colombia. It is renowned as a rich deposit of fossils and a tourist destination. The Tatacoa Desert has two distinctive colors: ocher in the area of Cuzco and gray in the Los Hoyos area. The Tatacoa, or the Valley of Sorrows, as it was called in 1538 by the conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada, is not just a desert, but a tropical dry forest. The name "Tatacoa" also given by the Spanish, refers to its rattlesnakes. During the Tertiary Period, it was wetter, with thousands of flowers and trees, but has been gradually drying up to become a desert.

San Agustin Archaelogical Park

The San Agustín Archaeological Park is a large archaeological area located near the town of San Agustín in Huila Department in Colombia. The park contains the largest collection of religious monuments and megalithic sculptures in Latin America and is considered the world's largest necropolis. Belonging to San Agustin culture, it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995. The dates of the statues are uncertain, but they are believed to have been carved between 5–400 AD. The origin of the carvers remains a mystery, as the site is largely unexcavated.

San Gil

San Gil is a town municipality in the Department of Santander in northeastern Colombia, located roughly 300 km from Bogotá and 95 km from the department's capital, Bucaramanga. As of 2020, San Gil had a population of roughly 46,000 people within the total municipal area, making it the third largest urban area in the department, after Bucaramanga and Barrancabermeja. Founded in 1689, San Gil is over 300 years old. It was officially named the tourist capital of the region in 2004, thanks to its outdoor activity opportunities such as rafting, caving, kayaking and hiking.

Providencia Island

The island was the site of an English Puritan colony established in 1629 by the Providence Island Company, and was taken by Spain in 1641. The pirate Henry Morgan used Providencia as a base for raiding the Spanish empire, and rumors suggest that much of his treasure remains hidden on the island. Many parts of the island are named after Morgan. Forts and cannons dating back hundreds of years can be found scattered all over Santa Catalina Island.

Medellin

Medellín is the capital of Colombia’s mountainous Antioquia province. Nicknamed the “City of Eternal Spring” for its temperate weather, it hosts a famous annual Flower Festival. Modern metrocables link the city to surrounding barrios and offer views of the Aburrá Valley below. Sculptures by Fernando Botero decorate downtown's Botero Plaza, while the Museo de Antioquia displays more of the Colombian artist’s work.

Guatape

Guatapé is an Andean resort town in northwest Colombia, east of Medellín. It’s known for its houses decorated with colorful bas-reliefs. It sits by the vast, man-made Peñol-Guatapé Reservoir, a busy water-sports center. Piedra del Peñol, a giant granite rock southwest of town, has hundreds of steps to the top, where there are sweeping views. The nearby Marial Stone is a giant rock with an overhang.

Chingaza National Natural Park

Chingaza National Natural Park is located in the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes. La Calera River tributary, and Teusacá, Siecha, Bogotá, and Tominé rivers drain. Chingaza has about 40 natural glacial lakes. The largest lake is Lake Chingaza, located in the southwestern part of the park at an altitude of 3,250 metres. The large number of endemic species makes the Eastern Ranges one of the most important geographic regions for wildlife in Colombia.

Barranquilla

Barranquilla, the capital of Colombia’s Atlántico Department, is a bustling seaport flanked by the Magdalena River. The city is known for its enormous Carnival, which brings together flamboyantly costumed performers, elaborate floats and cumbia music. In the chic neighborhood of El Prado, the Museo Romántico showcases artifacts from past festivals and exhibits on famous Colombians, like writer Gabriel García Márquez.

Tierradentro

Tierradentro is one of the ancient Pre-Columbian cultures of Colombia. It started to flourish around 200 BC in the mountains of southwest Colombia, and continued into the 17th century. The Tierradentro culture is particularly well known for its dense collection of elaborate pre-Columbian hypogea. The typical Tierradentro hypogeum has an entry oriented towards the west, a spiral staircase and a main chamber, usually 5 to 8 meters below the surface, with several lesser chambers around, each one containing a corpse. The walls are painted with geometric, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic patterns in red, black and white.

Manizales

Manizales is a city in the mountainous coffee-growing region of western Colombia. It’s known for its cultural events, steep streets and views of the nearby Nevado del Ruiz volcano. Central Bolívar Square has a man-condor sculpture honoring revolutionary leader Simón Bolívar. The city's neo-Gothic Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of the Rosary has a rooftop viewpoint. The neo-colonial Governor’s Palace is nearby.

Punta Gallinas

Punta Gallinas is a headland in northern Colombia. It is the northernmost point on the mainland of South America, and one of the extreme points of South America. The area has been populated by the indigenous Wayuu people for a long time. The headland is also the location of the northernmost lighthouse in South America, the 18 m high Faro de Punta Gallinas, which opened in 1989.

Minca

Minca is a small village inhabited by 800 people at an elevation of 650m in the Sierra Nevada above Santa Marta. It is famous for its organic coffee and has a much cooler temperature than the sweltering Santa Marta. The village is charming, and has in the past few years grown as a traveler and birdwatching destination after the conclusion of the armed conflict. It attracts mostly backpackers who want a week or two off from the beaten track and indulge in tranquility. It's a great base for hiking, mountain-biking, bird-watching and other outdoor activities, offering fresh mountain breeze, over 300 bird species nearby and spectacular views.

Zona Cafetera

The Colombian coffee Region, also known as the Coffee Triangle is a part of the Colombian Paisa region in the rural area of Colombia. It is famous for growing and producing the majority of Colombian coffee. There are four departments in the area: Caldas, Quindío, Risaralda and Tolima.

Santa Cruz de Mompox

Mompox or Mompós, officially Santa Cruz de Mompox, is a town and municipality in northern Colombia, in the Bolívar Department, which has preserved its colonial character. Mompox depends upon tourism, fishing, and some commerce generated by the local cattle raising. It has about 30,000 inhabitants, and is adjacent to the municipalities of Pinillos and San Fernando. The historic center of Mompox was made a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995, owing to its preserved colonial architecture and mixture of architectural styles.

Villa de Leyva

Villa de Leyva is a Colombian town northeast of Bogotá. It’s known for its whitewashed colonial buildings, cobbled lanes and vast Plaza Mayor. On that square are the early 17th-century Our Lady of the Rosary church and the House of the First Congress of the United Provinces, where new laws were drafted after independence in 1812. Southwest of the plaza is the Antonio Nariño House Museum, where this war hero died.

Gold Museum

The Museum of Gold is a museum located in Bogotá, Colombia. It is one of the most visited tourist highlights in the country. The museum receives around 500,000 tourists per year. The museum displays a selection of pre-Columbian gold and other metal alloys, such as Tumbaga, and contains the largest collection of gold artifacts in the world in its exhibition rooms on the second and third floors. Together with pottery, stone, shell, wood and textile objects, these items, made of a– to indigenous cultures – sacred metal, testify to the life and thought of the different societies which lived in present-day Colombia before the Spanish conquest of the Americas.

Parque Nacional del Chicamocha

Chicamocha National Park, also known as Panachi, is a Colombian national level natural park along the Chicamocha Canyon located 50 km from the city of Bucaramanga, Santander. The site is a tourist attraction due to its spectacular landscape and the variety of outdoor activities that it offers such as paragliding, spelunking, bushwalking, camping, fishing, kayaking, rafting, mountain climbing, etc. The park is located on the highway between Bucaramanga and San Gil, 54 Kilometers from Santander's largest and capital city Bucaramanga.