A New Life Growing in San Juan de Dios Hospital

A hospital building, behind growing trees.

The hospital's church.

San Juan de Dios Hospital, on Calle 1 and Carrera 10 in south-central Bogotá, holds a legendary status in Colombia's medical history. Its roots reach back to the 16th century, and some of the country's most accomplished doctors did their internships there.

But, amid financial problems, the hospital was shut down in 2001. Since then, it has been the center of controversy, as citizens groups and some politicians called for its reopening, laid-off employees lived in its buildings, demanding back pay, and its structures deteriorated.

Mayor Gustavo Petro supported the hospital's renovation and reopening - despite the huge cost - but did nothing. Under Mayor Peñalosa, two small sections of the hospital have been turned into emergency medical centers for ambulatory patients.

Meanwhile, the rest of the buildings continue deteriorating, and the trees keep growing, turning the hospital grounds into a kind of urban forest interspersed with decaying buildings, very possibly haunted.

San Juan de Dios's long limbo is nothing but a tragedy for Bogotá: for sick patients who suffer thru long waits for treatments, and for the hospital's neighbors, for whom its campus could provide much-needed green space - if only visitors were allowed in.

An urban forest.

A wheelchair access ramp for patients who never come.

The front of the building, a small part of which is in use.

Wouldn't this make a nice park, or medical museum?

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

A Collapse in La Candelaria

This scarred but colorful house on a cobblestone street above La Plaza del Chorro in La Candelaria collapsed the other day, something which seems to happen with a certain regularity here. The houses are neglected by their owners, perhaps because the rules for renovating historic homes are so strict that some owners find it cheaper and easier to just let them collapse instead. Other houses elong to absentee landlords, who just abandon them, or are caught up in legal disputes.

The result, however, always seems to be the same: the collapsed buildings stay that way for years. Why doesn't the government uses eminent domain laws to take over and repair them, or sell them off to someone who will do so?

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

The Homeless Man and the Monument

On Los Martires Plaza today I noticed these tell-tale clothes on the monument to Colombian patriots executed by the Spaniards during the revolutionary era.



Soon, the clothes' owner appeared: A homeless man who's apparently taken up residence in the monument. Remember that this is an extremely important monument, hallowed ground immortalizing the people who gave their lives to make an independent Colombia possible. But now it's an illegal homeless residence.

 The police and soldiers nearby don't appear to care....

The Iglesia del Voto Nacional, built in gratitude after the end of the Thousand Days War, is being repaired and renovated.

On the plaza today, homeless men listened to an evangelical service and then received lunch. How sincere is their faith?

A homeless drug addict on the plaza.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

A Tire Mountain Grows in Bogotá

Dozens, or hundreds, of discarded tires piled on a Caracas Ave. median in central Bogotá.

This mountain of used tires magically appeared, reportedly this morning, on the median strip of Caracas Ave. by Calle 17. Where they came from is a mystery, even tho they look like motorcycle tires, and a block away is one of the city's motorcycle districts, where tires are sold and changed. But that's no reason to think there's any connection.

Still, the tires are there, and will undoubtedly remain while more arrive, until someone sets fire to them, or our tax money pays for them to be hauled to a probably unregulated dump, where they'll breed mosquitoes until they eventually catch fire. In the 'best case', they'll end up in the city's Doña Juana landfill, which is almost full, despite Mayor Petro's ineffective 'Zero Garbage' program.

As we all can see, Bogotá's sidewalks, parks and streetcorners are becoming inundated with discarded car and motorcycle tires, while city officials look on passively, and fantasize that recycling programs are functioning.

What Bogotá needs to do is charge the tire industry for the disposal of its products. Each tire purchase would include a deposit, part of which would be returned when the tire is correctly disposed of. The rest of the deposit would pay for some recycling process, such as shredding the tires and incorporating the material into asphalt.

But will the supposedly environmentalist and sustainability-minded Mayor Petro put into action such a policy? Don't count on it, especially in an election year.

Scenes from the neighboring motorcycle district. Is it possible that the tires are coming from here?

Sleep tight, you motorcycles, in those comfortable pijamas.

Across Ave. Caracas, yet another tire pile, altho these look like car tires.

Near motorcycle alley, more tires pile up on a sidewalk.

According to El Tiempo, some 2.5 million used tires are generated annually by the city of Bogotá, of which 750,000 are discarded illegally.

As a public service, I've come up with some ideas about how to use those 2.5 million waste tires:

As footrests.

As bumpers.

For urban gardening.

To mark holes in streets and sidewalks, where covers have been stolen, so that people don't fall in.

As sidewalk sculptures.

As taller sidewalk sculptures.

As advertising, to sell more tires, which will end up on sidewalks.

To protect fire hydrants.

Great, now only 1,999,978 more tires to find uses for (not counting the ones discarded today).

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Bogotá's Hol(e)y Streets and Sidewalks

Taxis maneuver thru urban lakes in the Los Martires neighborhood.

Central Bogotá's streets have become urban obstacle courses. And things will only get worse, since El Tiempo reports that money for road repair will be cut by more than 50% in next year's city budget. 

Near Paloquemao Market.

But it may not matter, since the Petro administration doesn't seem to be able to get anything done on any front. 

Some bogotanos blame the city's traffic jams on bad roads. But one might also put the blame for the bad roads on the traffic.

Bogotá now wants to build a multi-billion dollar subway line - even tho nobody can say how the city will pay for it. Does it make any sense at all that a city which can't scrape together the money to pave its streets could finance a mega-project like a subway?

A big pothole in La Candelaria causes cars to drive onto the sidewalk, destroying the sidewalk.

Big cracks on Caracas Ave. turn the pavement into a trampoline for TransMilenio buses.

Crumbling asphalt in the Santa Fe red light district.

During the rain, the red light district's streets turn into lakes. 

A buckling sidewalk in Teusaquillo.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

The Abandonment of the Idols

Tattered plastic coverings to ruins of last Christmas make an ugly backdrop to replicas of San Agustin monuments 

Bike tourists walk past a fallen idol.

A few years ago, the Los Martires neighborhood filled a small park behind the Central Cemetery with reproductions of the famous and mysterious monuments near the town of San Agustin, in southern Colombia. It was a nice idea, altho this poor and socially troubled part of the city is not likely to become a tourist mecca anytime soon.

Sadly, however, the park has not been maintained. Monuments knocked over by children lie on the grass, like dethroned gods. And, adding insult to injury, after building a huge Christmas display in the park, local government workers simply left parts of the display in the park, covered with disintegrating foam sheets, perhaps until next Christmas.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours