Wednesday, June 16

Ciclovia in Bogota, Columbia

From Andres:

My wife and I were in Colombia on vacation, mainly visiting my parents, relatives and some friends, for a couple of weeks (we came back to Omaha last Friday). I took some pictures that I would like to share with you and the rest of the group.




These pictures were taken in Bogota on Monday June 7th (it was a Holiday in Colombia). Bogota has something called Ciclovia which translates to Bike Path in English. Every Sunday and Holidays, some streets in Bogota are closed to traffic and people use these streets to ride bikes, run, walk, take dogs for a walk, etc. I don’t know the right number, but I estimate that 80 to 100 miles of streets and roads in Bogota are closed so people can use the Ciclovia every Sunday!!.




My dad’s bike wasn’t operational, so I decided to go ahead and rent a bike in a place called “Bogota Bike Tours” located in downtown Bogota. At this place, you can rent a bike for $8USD (half day) or $12USD (entire day). It wasn’t the best bike that I have ridden in my life, but I decided to still take it for a ride and take some pictures of the Ciclovia and people in Bogota.




I ended my bike ride in the central square in Bogota (Plaza de Bolivar) on which people get together to see and take pictures of the historical buildings around this plaza. At the end of my 2.5 hour ride, I felt a little extra tired (I think my body felt the effects of the high altitude – 8500ft above sea level), but I was very happy to have enjoyed the ciclovia experience for a couple of hours.
It still amazes me that the Ciclovia is probably the only place on which all kind of people in Bogota “cohabit” including rich and poor, kids, casual and serious bikers, runners, street performers, etc.





3 comments:

dmars said...

very nice

Stratomatic said...

I'd like to be in Bogata on a Sunday when some streets are closed to cars. Thanks for sharing this. Great photos Andres.

RF said...

super cool!