The La Candelaria 'Ghost' Tour

El Tribuno del Pueblo, a figure from Colombia's 1810 revolution.

 This evening, I participated in La Candelaria's annual Halloween Ghosts Tour (Tour de los Fantasmas). It turned out to include more historical figures than ghosts, but was still entertaining.

Miguel Antonio Caro, man of letters and
Colombian president in the late 1800s.

The walk starts out on Plaza Bolivar, supposedly at 6 p.m. Wednesdays and Saturdays until Oct. 31, but actually closer to 6:30, and goes up Calle 10 to Carrera 2, then north to end at la Plaza del Chorro de Quevedo.

Along the way, you're introduced to figures such as El Loco de La Tranvia, a lovelorn young man with an obsession with streetcars, who had seen his love escape from him on one of them, and spent the rest of his days chasing the vehicles. Also, La Loca Margarita, a passionate supporter of the Liberal Party, who roamed the neighborhood denouncing the Conservative Party.

To participate, send an e-mail to the address on this page and wait for the confirmation message.

La Lavandera, The Washerwoman, who washed a rich family's clothing in a house on Calle 10. She suffered abuses, and one day when her son drowned in the water tank, she went crazy. She supposedly still haunts and house and sometimes residents awak to find she has washed their clothing overnight.

This vacant apartment complex - said to be Bogotá's oldest one - on Carrera 2 between Calles 11 and 12 is supposed to be haunted.

Policarpa Salvarrieta, a heroine of the revolution, is confronted by the Virrey (the Spanish king's representative), who murders her.

Jose Raimundo Russi in his doorway across the street from La Salle University. He was a lawyer in the mid-1800s who joined a criminal band, was arrested and executed. Supposedly, his ghost still haunts the street.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours