Hotel Tequendama, one of the world's Top 5 Ghost hotels!

The hotel that can be seen on the top of the cliff to the right, Tequendama, was recently voted as one of the Top 5 Ghost hotels in the world by hotels.com. The other four are Chelsea Hotel (New York), Queen Mary Hotel (California), Gran Bolívar Hotel (Peru), Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel (California).

As can be observed, the Tequendama Hotel is situated by the 157 meter Tequendama waterfall, a mere hour outside of Bogotá. After the hotel was inaugurated in 1928, it tragically became a favourite spot for many Colombians to end their lives by throwing themselves into the abyss. The guests staying at the Tequendama eventually started meeting these restless souls at night in their hotel rooms; whispering in their ears, pulling their hair. Some even reported waking up with scratches in their faces.

So the hotel eventually was closed down, and still is. It now definetely even looks as a ghost hotel, something that the Golden Colombia team could witness at our visit to the Tequendama falls last month:

Santa Marta's most successful fast food chain: The Vomit!

El Espectador presents the unlikely story of the most successful fast food chain in Santa Marta, El Vómito: The vomit!

Another Coffee Zone - an hour and a half from Bogotá

Many of the vistors to Bogotá have been to the tourist resorts in the hot lowlands, a couple of hours from the capital, with their discoteques and swimming pools: such as Melgar, Girardot, Anapoima to the southwest and Guaduas, Villeta and others to the northwest.

Not as well known is the region you will pass through if you take the 120 km dirt road through the mountains from say Anapoima straight north to Guaduas. All of a sudden you have moved at least half a century back in time, and it will appear as if you have arrived in another region of Colombia: The Coffee Zone. The landscape and the culture bare a striking resemblance to Antioquia and departments in el Eje Cafetero. These small peaceful and pictureque villages, surrounded by a spectacular scenery, are easily accessible even on a day trip from Botogá. 

This region was however severly hit by the violence a decade ago, and the economy was ruined. The population, mostly farmers, are still struggling to get out of poverty. Golden Colombia are now looking to involve this region in our Golden Amigo programme next year, stay informed at www.goldenamigo.org and www.facebook.com/goldencolombia.

Trip advisor: Cartagena and Bogotá among the Top 10 Latin American Food and Wine Destinations

A steaming cup of hot chocolate santafereño with delicious melted cheese in Bogotá, a delicious plate of sea food with a sweet coconut rice in Cartagena; these are some of the Colombian recipes emphasized in the “Top 10 Food and Wine Destinations in Central and South America".

Los Llanos - the Colombian prairie

The great plains in Colombia - Los Llanos - is an extensive area dedicated mostly to cattle ranching. There coexist the men dedicated to the cattle and recently to the oil and the soy bean crops, together with more than 7 indigenous groups with more than 3.000 aborigenes. It is a land where the mixture of the catholicism and the indigenous beliefs give life to stories such as skeletons that appear out of nowhere in the shape of balls of fire. 

The entry to the plain is guarded by impressive high plateaus as Chingaza, with more than 8 lagoons and heights of 4.000 meters. When you get down at sea level, the sight gets lost in the eternal horizon, where every sunset is unique and impressive, almost impossibly to imagine.

In this land full of rivers like the Orinoco - one of the longest rivers in South America, 2.140 km long- and the Ariari as well as abundant in fauna like the jaguar, the armadillo, the babilla, the chiguiro and impressive birds such as the condor that live in the high plateau.

This region, as the majority of the Colombian territory, is rich in minerals, as the oil. At present the biggest petroleum reservoir of Colombia is located in Puerto Gaitan, a small city now considered one of the richest municipalities in Colombia due to the money received from the petroleum exploitation.

In this region the llanera music is well-known, a genre shared with Venezuela, in which they play instruments as the harp, the maracas and the mandolin while someone sings. The typical dance is the Joropo with its traditional tapping.

If we had to define briefly this plains region, we might say that the Plain is rivers, cattle, sunsets and chiguiros.

Fiestas de San Pacho in Quibdó!

Colombia is one of the most diverse countries of the world – and certainly when taken its size  into account. Quibdó is located a mere 120 km west of modern Medellín with its high rise buildings and mainly white population. It is the capital of the Chocó department that is almost exclusively an immense rainforest, and the wettest place on earth (the record being 13,3 meters per year!). Chocó has a predominantly black population and – unfortunately – widespread poverty, that will unavoidably give you the impression of having arrived in Africa. The main reason for this feeling is however what Colombian writer William Ospina has said about “the joy that stems from the children of Africa; whose color richness, whose sensibility and sense of rythm have bewitched our culture”.

Here in Quibdó the 100 000 inhabitants celebrate Las Fiestas de San Pacho (Saint Francis of Assisi) every year between September 20 and October 4. Golden Colombia is present at this year's celebration and will present more material on this page in the coming days.

Carranga music, another icon in Colombia

Colombia is starting to be recognized for its wide musical diversity, coming from the multiplicity of existing cultures in the territory. In the Andean region it arises from Jorge Velosa's hand, the carranga music, a genre that mixes Andean rhythms with the couplet, the rhymes of the peasant and sarcasm.
Jorge, its founder, explains it like this:
"The carranga is the very company of us who have found in it something with which to tuck up ourselves and gain a zone of identity and joy coming from tradition. For me it is a testimony of my walk through life, and for the country a musical genre that helps to knit together our identity".
The carranga is the popular expression of the man of the land, a genre which uses string instruments such as the guitar, the 'tiple', together with the 'guacharaca', an instrument of the Caribbean coast. In a humble way it combines poetry and humor, relating stories of the peasants. Another typical element of this genre is the exaltation of the traditional clothes, the hat and the 'ruana' - a fabric made from sheep wool. The peasants use it to cover themselves in the cold.
Jorge Velosa, who is not the only representative artist of the carranga but undoubtedly the most important one, has managed to break with the stigma of the peasant, to generate a feeling of pride in being from the countryside; the majority of Colombians come from rural families. He and his band have achieved national and international recognition, having appeared on venues such as the Madison Square Garden of New York in 1981. As a memorable story, the limousine to take them there did not pick them up because they were wearing ruanas and hats.

Thirty years of Jorge's work with his carranga partners, creating lyrics and rhythms for the exaltation of the traditional way of living - with a formidable reception among the Colombians - finally came into fruition Saturday on August 27th.
In Duitama, a city three hours from Bogota, with more than 3.000 assistants, the majority of whom were wearing ruanas, the most important musical production in the genre was launched: the symphonic carranga. In spite of the fact that Jorge Velosa already has more than twenty albums out, the importance of the latest one called "Carranga Sinfonica" - Symphonic Carranga - comes mainly from the fusion of the two musical genres, joining together two different worlds.
The original idea was to create an orchestrated folklore to generate a different perspective on the carranga and to popularize it, as a sample of our identity. In the hands of one of the biggest symphonic orchestra directors and folk music specialists in Colombia, Eduardo Carrizosa, it was demonstrated that the symphonic orchestras can actually be at the service of the folklore in Colombia. Needless to say, Carrisoza has been the director of the Symphonic National Orchestra, the Bogota Philharmonic Orchestra, among others.
So this concert was the launch of this new musical fusion, new for the ears of those accustomed to merely dancing and drinking alcohol to the carranga. Crucial, since it brings the chamber music over to the popular music, a genre that implies the constant work of more than 70 musicians together with the most important arrangers of the country.
Songs that speak about the work in the countryside and the family, everyday life, in places where to this day it is common to have a coal stove, eat potatoes three times a day and pray to the virgin.
The concert held the presentation of the Symphonic Orchestra of Medellin - one of the most important in Colombia - with Jorge Velosa and his group, all led by Eduardo Carrizosa. The delight of the audience was astonishing and at last, as happens with all folkloric Colombian music, the assistants were dancing, proud of their origins and traditions.

Here you find a sample of the music