Bienvenidos!

Welcome to The Real Bogotá! I hope this site serves itself useful for visitors or ex-pats in Bogotá. When considering the implications of writing about my time here, I realized that it´s important to keep in mind that Bogotá is a city of intense contrasts. Although we as foreigners, and our wealthy Colombian peers, can enjoy nights out - cocktails, nice meals, clubs and dancing - nearly 50% of Colombians live in poverty. In Bogotá itself, a city of at least 8 million citizens, the number of impoverished people are simply staggering. The urban slum of Ciudad Bolivar, in the south of Bogotá, has an estimated population of 1-2 million people and Soacha, even farther south, is one of the biggest recipients of Internally Displaced Peoples (IDPs) fleeing civil war in the country. If you drive by in the evening the lights litering the hillside flitter attractively...but in the daytime the reality of the massive, sprawling settlements are quite shocking, even for someone like me who has lived in Eastern Africa and Brazil.

I do not mean for this site to be a flippant response to the contextual realities of Bogotá and Colombia. This is a country of severe inequalities and violence, and I do not want to forget the profound complexities of Colombia when writing about my lifestyle here. I hope this comes through in the posts; please enjoy and feel free to write to me about contributing!