Bogota relaxes and tourists return

Bogota, Colombia was off many tourists wishlists for many years due to safety concerns, but the city and the country around it are starting to see more curious tourists come in and explore the rich cultural heritage and natural beauty Colombia has to offer. In Bogota, La Candelaria is one of its oldest neighbourhoods, where both artists, poets and politicians called home, a bohemian utopia of sorts.

But until recent times, even many locals considered the area too dangerous to spend an evening in, and in 2002, to protest the election of President Alvaro Uribe, a guerilla group voiced its displeasure by igniting car bombs and blowing mortars into the walls of La Candelaria.

The hard times appear to be over, and the opening of the Centro Cultural Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a good indicator that much faith is being put into the neighbourhood, especially to attach the name of the country’s most famous writer to the centre.

A local council member Luis Fernando Garzon comments on the transformation by saying, “Of all the neighborhoods in Bogotá, La Candelaria is the most cosmopolitan. There is a wonderful mix of people here, the students, the working people, the intellectuals, the wealthy. All kinds.”