Locations

Locations

1^st Article

Bogotá is very big city that is the capital city of Colombia.  It was founded in the year 1538 by the Spaniards named Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada, Sebastian de Belalcazar y Nicolas de Federman.

By the time years and centuries, Bogotá started growing by the surroundings of the Plaza de Bolivar, the place where the city was founding.  But in others places of the Sabana there were founded d so many towns and villages all around the growing city. These ones grew so fast and by some decades they had connected and mixed with Bogotá.  As Bogota was more important, the city actually absorbed the others ones.

At the beginning the city could just be managed by an only major but it grew so big and it was very difficult to be governed by one person.  So, taking in count the old towns that were taking by the city the city government decided to divide the city in some groups of neighborhoods that were called “localidades” or locations. Each locality has one minor mayor that is selected by the principal mayor. That person acts like a mayor in the designed area.

Right now the city is divided into 20 locations. The biggest one is Sumapaz and the smallest is La Candelaria. The locations are divided in the UPZ (Unidades de Planeamiento Zonal) that means zonal planning units that are divided in neighborhoods.

 

2^nd Article

As I live in Usaquen, I will write some about my location. It is a very big location that takes the northeast of the capital city and has some of the best malls and schools. It is a really great place to live because you have shops and supermarkets really close to you.

It has one of the Restaurant Districts named previously, where there are restaurants that have food from world-wide gastronomy. There are museums such as the Chico Museum. It has the Country Club too where you can practice tennis and golf. There are many historical places such as the Hacienda Santa Barbara Mall and the Santa Barbara Church.

As I was explaining in the article Usaquen was one of the growing cities that were absorbed by the city of Santa Fe de Bogota. It used to be an indigenous settlement but then was a town. It is now one of the most important locations of the city.

One important place in this locality is the “Mercado de las Pulgas” or the Flea Market where you can get handcrafts and art for your house or for someone. It is a street full of tents where there is people selling cool stuff and products.

What do you know from your location?

3^rd Article

La Candelaria is the smallest location of the city, but is the most important one. It was the first one to be founded and has the starting plaza been the three Spaniards met and placed Santa Fe de Bogota. It is very important and has many historical buildings and many documents, pictures, paintings and items.

This was the setting of the Cry of Independence in the year 1810 and the place where the Bogotaso happened in the year 1948. The president of the nation and the mayor of the city live there. It has lots of museums and restaurants. This location has one of the most important theaters of Latin-American that is known as the Teatro Colon and it is too old but it is really well conserved with all the luxury and items it ever happened to have.



This location is an obligated attraction for any tourist that is coming to the city. It is so small but too important and full of attractions that it may not be done and visited in only one day, because of every place you might go and attend to the explanation done by a well-prepared guide that will show you every item, aspect or detail you just can see at first sight and its definition or interpretation.

Merry Christmas and the bests wiches from BOGOTA D.C

Monuments History

Monument’s History

1^st Article

     

  As the capital of our country, Bogota is one of the cities with most historical importance in the continent because it was the main setting of the Colony, Independence and of the Bogotaso Movement. There are also many modern-styled sculptures distributed and located all around the city. These events had been represented and commemorated in sculptures, statues and buildings all around our city in places we use to go. But sometimes we don’t realize what piece of our historical puzzle we have under our noses.

The Discovery of the Americas for me is one of the most important events in the world history. That’s why in the street that drives you to the airport there are to statues in one plaza. One of them represents Christopher Columbus and the other one is the queen Elizabeth of Castile.

 

 

In the Candelaria we have one statue representing the city founder, Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada that came here in the year 1538 to the Sabana. In these sectors we also have other colonial monuments such as lots of churches and cathedrals. There are also many haciendas such as the Hacienda Santa Barbara.

From the Independence we have representations, sometimes abstract, of the leaders and characters of our process to get freedom and liberty from the Spain. There are from Simón Bolívar, Francisco de Paula Santander, Camilo Torres, and Policarpa Salavarrieta.

Our history is our city, how it looks and what it has.

2^nd Article

    The independence of the New Granada was a process done by lots of characters that were from many diverse social classes fighting against the big difference on the rights and preferences that Spaniards had over the other social classes.

One of these ones was Simon Bolivar. Who was born in Caracas. The place where Bogota was founded now bears the name Plaza Bolívar. There is an Italian sculpture made in the middle XIX’s that shows this hero stand up. There is also a place called “Templete al Libertador” in the “Parque de los Periodistas”

Other one of those was Francisco de Paula Santander. He was one of the leaders that helped us to get our independence. There is a statue in the Santander Park in the Candelaria commemorating him.

At last but not least, there was one woman whose name was Policarpa Salavarrieta. She was born in the village of Guaduas and she was one of the only women who helped in this movement. There is a monument that shows her tied on a chair when she was murdered in the Spanish reconquest of the New Granada.

There are hundreds of monuments of these characters all around the city. Just take a look and realize what they are and its importance in our history of our city, country, continent or even the whole world.

3^rd Article

Bogota is a city of the twenty one century; it is being furnished and styled with the art and the sculptures that show abstract settings, characters and items. This type of arte is known for being simple, light to the sight, cheap and sometimes colorful. This is known as the school of the Modern Art.

One of the most important representative streets, I would say highway actually, is the Dorado Avenue. It is full of big buildings, banks and there is where the newspaper El Tiempo is edited and printed. All the way down to the airport is full of beautiful iron and steel monuments that show daily life items and activities.

In the 7^th avenue with 100^th street we have a little monument for Mahatma Gandhi because of the way he won the independency for India from the United Kingdom. This way was peaceful and without many dead and murdering.

One campaign the city is doing is to place metal trees all around the city that are painted sometimes randomly or sometimes with a special theme. LOOK FOR’EM!

ENTERTAINMENT IN BOGOTA

Article 1:

Do you know why Bogota is so cool?.......Because its entertainment has no limits!!!

You must come to Bogota to see our entertainment places like our amusement park, Salitre Magico, the funniest place in all Colombia!!!!

It is located at the 63^rd Street with 48^th Avenue, with 30 attractions; 10 of high impact, 15 for kids and 5 for the whole family. It was founded in 1973 with the original name of “Parque el Salitre”.

There are also aquatic attractions, and the park is a neighbor of Cici Acuapark, that is an aquatic park with 500,000 cubic cm of water.

I liked very much going to the park, and I hope I can go again.

In my personal opinion, the Salitre Magico is a very good reason for coming to Bogota, because is the best amusement park in the entire world.

Article 2:

A good entertainment place of Bogota is also the natural reserve, the Botanic Garden!!!!!!!!

The Botanic Garden is a place in which the quantity of different plants is infinite!! It is a beautiful Garden were the people an enjoy a peaceful walk, or it is also the perfect place for the biology lovers, because of the variety of plants, and it is a good place for schools’ excursions, because there you can learn a lot. It is located at the 63^rd Street with 68^th Avenue, and my experience there was good, because I learned of plants and entertained at the same time, and I also saw some plants that were very strange.

In my opinion, the Botanic Garden is a great place for entertainment and learning of plants, and I recommend it to you, because I think that it’s awesome!!!!

Article 3:

Bogota has many funny entertainment places like malls, cinemas, thematic parks, and many other things, and also there are entertaining activities like the Ciclovia, a bike route made the Sundays for some exercise, or you can go walking, and the cars cannot enter in that way.

The great malls like Unicentro, Santafe, Centro Andino and all that are the indicate places for you, because of the shops, the cinemas, the games zones, etc, and I’m sure that you will like it; I like it very much, and I want to go again.

I went to the Bowling of Unicentro, to Divercity (a game zone in Santafe), to the cinemas and the malls and the only thing that I have to say is that Bogota is the funniest city in the world, and will have a greater entertainment than any place of the world.

In my opinion, Bogota has many different places for entertainment, but in all of them you will find a fun without limits. I liked it very much and I recommend it to you.

Thematic Parks

Article 1: Introduction

Ok. Thematic parks first of all, are parks that consist in mechanical attractions, or the great number of the attractions are mechanical, some attractions are like very little parks, that ones that you see that are made in wood, but bigger. Also, the must of the thematic parks are very huge, Bogota's thematic parks are huge, but compared with others like Magic Kingdom and all taht, located in Orlando, well, they are not bad, but, there is no comparition, but Bogota's ones are no so bad.

The must principal thematic parks in Bogota, are two. Both are located in the North part of Bogota. They are called ''Salitre Magico'' and ''Mundo Aventura''. They are the must huge and best parks in Bogota, because their atrtactions and number of people that goes in a day. Generally, the moment in which they are must full are in the weekends. Both have very good attractions and also pretty good service. Salitre Magico has attractions like the Bogota's Bank Rollercoaster or the Castle of Terror.

Mundo Aventura is also pretty cool, it has exciting attractions like the ''Tronquitos'' that is a water attraction, and also the Sky Jump.  Well in Bogota there are also more thematic aprks, but well, must of them are really, really small, and are located inside malls or in another place, and for me, their attractions aren't really exciting, because they are more like for little children.

Article 2: Meu ponto de vista e experiencias pessoais (My Point Of View and Personal Experience)

Well, for me, Mundo Aventura and Salitre Magico are awesome, well as I said before, they can not be compare with U.S.A or Europe ones, it canot be, it canot be! But both are really cool, they are no so bad, I mean, for me they have good attractions with good service, the must of the times, and in restaurants, there are hot dogs or donuts, and drinks and other things. But for me, Salitre Magico is better than Mundo Aventura, I'am not saying Mundo Aventura is bad or stinks, no, is that, for me Salitre has best attractions, it has more rollercoaster, the Castle of Terror is awesome, Th Hammer, Crashing Cars, Apocalypse, I don't know if that is the real name of the attraction but is kind of that, and also the Samsung Wheel, I don't like it very much, bt it is good, and also, they opened a new rollerdcoaster nems Tornado, that is awesome, it doesn't last to much but is is really good. 

What I like the most of Mundo Aventura are like the Tronquitos, Sky Jump, and other attractions that I don't remember their names, but are good. Is that, the difference is that Mundo Aventura has more ecological attractions or somethign like that, I mean they ahve and attraction that is to see some statues of indians, and well, for me that is boring, but Salitre is more extreme, oh, also another excellent attraction of Salitre is the giant cymbal, it is awesome.

Well I haven't had a bad experience in any of them. I have never lost or throw up or clasical accidents that happen in them. Iam not saying, again, that there had been accidents like this last ones in them, unitl I know. But well, I have only small and few critics about my experiences in them, because, if we count the good ones, we will last forever saying them. To Salitre I have only two critics, one is for the Castle. A day I went with a friend we were literally kicked out because we start running in the castle, but we weren't running so fast, and a guard took us out because of that, and well, for me, if they scare you, I think that the first thing a person will do is shout and run, so that is kind of a foolish rule. The other one is for the big crashign cars, the same day, I had to wait 1 hour to play, because the problem was not the people that wanted, but the great number of cars that were damaged, and the worst thing is that each 2 or 3 plays, a car damaged, so it was more sifficult. In Mundo Aventura, I have one, that is that for me it is to infantile, I think that there has to be more adult attractions like more rollercoasters or something like that, because the must epople that go there are like adults or teenagers.

Article 3: Conclusão

Well, in generally, Bogota don't have too much thematic parks, but with the ones it has is really good, I'am not sure, that's why I didn't mentioned this one before, but there is an aquatic park name ''Cici Aquapark'' but Iam not sure if it is a thematic park, any way, I don't like this one, because, for me is too dangerous. I dont' want to metion accidents taht had happened there. It has a children part and a adult part, in the adult there are the most crazy water tobogans of Bogota, and there is a wave pool, in kids there are tobogans really smalls and boring for me.

Also, the small parks, that are located inside the malls, aren't so good, but well, I don't expect them to be the competency of Salitre or Mundo Aventura, because they have small attractions and all that I said before. But they are not so bad, what I like the must of them are the machines in which you can win a toy or something to eat, even if no one ever catch something, is really fun to try.

To conclude, for me Salitre and Mundo Aventura are very good parks in Colombia, but personally the park that I must like in Colombia, is the Coffe Axis park, located in Quindio, because it's huge, very very huge, and it has shows of dancing or something like taht, and something that I am proud of it is that now days you can see people from U.S.A, Europe, or Australia that comes to visit it, and for me that is one justification that shows taht Colombia now is better, but well that is other story. Bogota parks are good, have good attractions, and if they work harder, they can transformed in a very excellent park.

Cinemas

Article 1: Einführung(Introduction)

In Bogota, Colombia there are a lot of cinemas. And the great part of them, or the most known are located and inside a mall.All of them have a place, or not a place, is like a type or feception, in which you buy the tickets, sometimes there are two or three persons that attend you.


Also, until I know, every cinema in Bogota has a food bar, I mean, a place also in the entramce, where there are also like seven or less persons that sell food to you for your movie. You can buy popcorn, nachos, hot dogs, and some drinks, in some cinema shops, you can buy things like chocolate or things like Doritos or something like that.


In Bogota, there are really good cinemas, from the excellent cinema of Unicentro to the giant cinema player located in IMAX, and of you didn't knew, IMAX cinema is the second cinema player in the world, it is giant, and the ebst thing is that sometimes there are movies in 3-D. Well, Bogota cinemas aren't the best ones of the world, but for me, are the best ones of Colombia.,


Article 2: Meine Point Of View und Personal Expirience (My Point of View and Personal Experience)


Well, for me, the cinemas in Bogota are really, really good, I like the food they sell, the service and the huge space they have. A thing that I don't like about them is that they are really fulll, I mean, there is not a single day in which you go to a cinema and it is not full, specially the days when the Cinema projects a movie for the first time, like the actually Harry Potter or Saw 3D, movies like them.


For me, the best cinema in Bogota, is the one of Unicentro, because, even its the must full, is the best one for me, because of their food, service, hours to project a movie, they planed really good the times of each movie. Also I like the one can call from the house to the cinema, and buy the tickest. Thats really cool. One thing I don't like is that the movies that are not Colombian, always came 5 days after the first day after launch, I hate that. 


In the cinemas I have had an excellent experience, but I had also had bad ones. First the good ones. One day, when I was with my mom and my brother finishing the movie, I saw a person that I thinked I knew. And yes, it was a very old friend taht I never saw in a very ling time. Also there was an oportunity in which the cashier, re-filled us the popcorns, because we had to wait a long time for the movie, I liked taht. In bad experiences I have some too. First the clasically, one time I dropped all the food going up-stairs, wel all the food no, My food!. Also when I was seeing a movie, I wanted to go to the bathroom, but I didn't because there were playing the creditsa and an employee told us there was an extra scene, so when we saw the scene, I passed a long time in the bathroom. 

Article 3: Fazit (Conclusions)


Well, as already said before, Bogota doesn't has the best cinemas i the world, but for me, Bogota has them in Colombia. The must of them have a really good service, very good food, and play very good movies. Employees are gentle with me and as I see with all the clients. They have good schedule for the movies, and etc. They know how to bring more people to them, as I know, the giant posters in the parking lots, or inside the cinema call the attetion of a very high number of people that will come to see a movie. 


For me, as already said, Unicentro has the best one, but we do not forget the cinemas of Santa Fe, IMAX, Palatino, well, I don't like too much the cinmea of Palatino, but it is not really bad, all of them are good, but some more than others. it's good to see that Colombia has good cinemas, and it has a good presentation for turists when they come, if they come to see a movie a day, they will be impresionated with the good service and presentation of the Colombian cinemas, and for me, with the Bogota ones. 


To conclude, cinemas are awesome, good space, food, employment, all they hace is good. The only thing I think that cinemas should work on, not all, but the must of them, are the bathrooms, some bathrooms, are horrible, beacuse, they are not clean, they have ``pis`` in the toillets, and other thing. But, taking into account all the benefits that cinemas give to us, its a really good experience to go and see a movie there. And for the people that don't live in Bogota, don't worry, cities like Bucaramanga, Medellin, and Quindio have also excellent cinema with really good service.

Festivals In Bogota

FESTIVALS ARTICLE 1

Some of the most recognized festivals celebrated here in Bogota include the Festival Iberoamericano De Teatro, Festival Internacional del Jazz, Festival: Rock Al Parque.

I had the opportunity to go and watch 2 presentations of the Italian people making the Festival Iberoamericano De Teatro 2010. I went in vacations with my dad, and my brother. Some minutes before the presentation begins, we were still looking for a sit! I was very stressed, but then we could find solution, and when it started, was amazing. It was at the Plaza de Los Toros, and the presentations were at the bottom part, were everybody could see them. At the beginning I was a little scared because there were no lights, but after some minutes lights started to appear with different colors following the artists. There were many activities joined together in 1 presentation. They danced and flied, and even they hanged from a little rope that was joined to a helicopter. I loved it!  Although I was almost crying before the presentation began, I felt much better when the artists began their presentation.

About the Festival Del Jazz. I haven’t been in this festival, but what I found was that it is celebrated in September. It is a musical encounter, were artists and people connect with music, with the jazz power. Bogotan people have been celebrating this festival since 1996, the year when it was created. It is celebrated at Simon Bolivar Park, Parque Nacional, Parque de la Independencia, Parque del Renacimiento, La Media Torta, and Parque de los Novios. It has been a good tourists-attraction. Seems good. I expect some day I could watch it by myself.

About the Festival del Rock: It was born in 1995, and in 2009 its 15^th editions arrives. Since 2005 Rock al Parque Festival counts with its own space to the production of rock, known as “Carpa Distrito Rock”. Its main pourpose is to bring many rock artists, it is a festival concert. But this festival has brought many problems; when people gets inside there, they become crazy, drugging, kicking, hitting, fighting, dancing, destroying, they become uncontrollable.

FESTIVALS ARTICLE 2

Bogota also counts with other festivals such as hip hop al parque, salsa al parque, and festivals that celebrate colombian dance like the cumbia, el joropo, la puya, etc. Colombia has not lose its culture, because almost all festiavals represent colombia's history, personallity.

Festival salsa al paque is sometimes celebrated in the simon bolivar park, and it brings and gathers salsa singers and groups, like, fania all stars, marc anthony, la india, and more.

Festival hip hop al parque gathers hip hop artists like eminem, fifty cent(dont know how to write it), etc. Theres everything"al parque" you can hear at pop al parque, jazz al parque, and classical music if you want to. Colombia, and bogota has many festivals to offer you to enjoy.

Festivals article 3

Colombian festivals intension is to retake Colombia’s ancient culture, traditions, and customs. Some of those include old classical dances, and songs, with presentations. For example, Festival De Las Flores do not just include showing beautiful and wear flowers to the public, it gathers the typical dances of the region where it is celebrated, and it includes using dresses of dances like “The Cumbia” and the “Mapalé”.

There is also Festival de la Comida. In this festival, food from different places is collected and showed to people. People can eat everything typical from Colombia…any type of desserts, lunch, cookies, juices, etc.

And we cannot forget about Black and White people Festival. It is celebrated in honor to the Castañeda family; they were the ones who inaugurated this festival. The festival’s purpose is to show the world there is no discrimination from white people to white people and viceversal. During the festival people use to paint their faces with black or white painting, and some chose to use both colors.

By: Margarita Rey 8a

Malls

Malls

Malls

Article 1: Intro

In Bogota, there are a lot of malls, much of them are big, and are located in different parts of the city, as to get clients, and as to make people not have to go so far to arrive a mall. As already said, Bogota has a lot of malls, from ''Centro Comercial Gran Estacion'' to ''Centro Comercial Santa Fe''. These two are known because each one is located in the other part of the city. But in the city, if we go deeper we can find Unicentro that has the best parking lot of all the malls in Bogota, because its security and etc, anyway it is always full.

Theres also ''Centro Comercial Palatino'' that is known because it is just besides a place known as the ''La Calle Rosa'', it's a place where there are bars, and other delicious places to eat. But in generally, as already said, again, there are a lot of malls, there are: Atlantis, San Rafael, Ciudad Tunal, Hacienda Santa Barbara, Metropolis, Portal 80 P.H, Portoalegre, Salitre Plaza, San Martin, Santa Ana, The Andino and others, but this ones are the most important. Something interested is that Chia also has one, it is called Centro Chia.

In the malls people can find a lot of things, from clothes to technology, and kids can find from millions of toys to bed cars but in really expensive shops. There are some malls that have specially shops, I mean, some that sell more than others and that for that, they are bigger than the others. For Example, Falabella in Santa Fe is huge; it has 3 levels, or ARMI, also in Santa Fe, that has a good extension. Or Pepeganga in Unicentro, or Panamericana also in Unicentro. Until I know, evety mall mentioned before has a cinema, some bigger and best thatn others.

Artcile 2: Mi Point Of View and Personal Experience in Malls.

Well, is true that I mentioned a lot of Malls in Bogora before, but that doesn't means I have visited them all. Of all that ones I mentioned, I've only visited Unicentro, Santa Fe, Gran Estacion, San Rafael, Palatino and Metropolis. And well I liked them, personally, the one I most like is Unicentro, because, for me, it has the better cinema of all, also I like the shops, because, it has shops of all, I mean, I've bought techno things there, I have also bought clothes, food, books and etc, another thing I like is the small arcade it has inside, but is like for little children. And for Metropolis, Gran Estacion and San Rafael, I've visited them only one time, so that's why I don't have something good or bad to say about them. The only thing I know and remember, is that I didn't like the cinema of Palatino, because for me , it doesn't has good food for movies, food isn't all but, its imoportant in a movie.

Even I had passed good times in Malls, I've also passed embarassed times in them, especially in Unicentro. Like there was an ocassion in which I could buy my food by myself, but something got wrong and I made a big mistake. Another was that I was taking care for my sister in Pepeganga and accidently, I shocked my head  with the things that hold the toys, and a lor of toys fell. In Santa Fe, I' havent had accidents like the las ones. But I always repair my mistakes so nevermind.

In my opinion Unicentro is the most complete Mall in Bogota, bacause it has it all, but Santa Fe and the other malls are also pretty, pretty good, beacuse they can have the same shops, or different shops and sell sifferent things and all that, but I like Univentro because of its service and because it is not really, really big as the other ones, that some are huge, like Santa Fe and others.

Article 3: Outro

Finally in Bogota, there are a lot of Malls, each one in different locations, but for me, or until now, the ones I've visited are really, really cool, very cool, and if I' dont find something in one, I can go to other anf found it, that is the thing I most like of all the malls together. Each ones decides which are the best shops. restaurants and other business that will secure a high number of clients diary, and some have this hability morre evolutionated thatn others.

Also for me, the person who visits the Mall will have always the reason, no matter which mall he visits. I mean, the client has always the reason, do for me the person is free to decide which Mall is the best one, it can be because likes or dislikes, whatever, a person likes are unique and, well, Malls can't guilt them if they didn't like them or if they liked more another Mall, it will be the clients position towards that. In conclusion, Bogota's Malls are cool and constitute part of turism, famous, beauty and other characteristics of the city and thenselves. That's why Bogota is a coll city to visit, and not only the Bogota Malls, the biggest part of Colombian cities Malls are great, and they are small but good reasons to visit the country below itns nautre and natural neauty.