What a nice city. Santa Fé De Bogotá was founded by Gonzalo Jimínez de Quesada in 1528. He, like many other Spaniards of the time, was searching for El Dorado. The original name of the town was Santa Fé. "De Bogotá" was soon added to the name after 'Bacata', the name that the Chibcha Indians of the region gave to the area. Colombia was then known as Nueva Granada. In 1819 the name became just Bogotá, but then in 1991 the name was officially changed back to Santa Fé De Bogotá. It is Colombia's capital, and is located close to the middle of the country. The elevation is 2650 meters (8660 feet) on a high mountain plateau. Since it is only a little more than four degrees north of the equator the weather is a pretty spring like year-round.
The hotel was just a couple of kilometers from the university so it was close enough to walk to work in the mornings. The path wandered through several nice neighborhoods.
The city is on a mountain rimmed plateau high in the Cordillera Oriental of the Andes Mountains. The name change in 1819 was the result of the city being captured away from the Spaniards by The Great Liberator Simón Bolívar. It was made the capital of the independent nation of Grand Colombia which included today's Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, and Venezuela. Grand Colombia was quickly broken up into roughly the countries that now exist and Bogotá became the capital of the Republic of New Granada as Colombia was then known. At the beginning of the 20th century the population was about 100,000. Today the population is about 6,000,000 people.
Across the street from the university was Rico's. Great food.
How come Carlos got his food and we didn't?
Downtown. Pretty.
I doubt that the whole city had them, but the university had a small army of maids to take care of the falling leaves. Actually they were the ladies that took care of the rest of the buildings too.
2018-03-05