Hiking up Cerro Aguanoso

High above Bogotá.

Today, I joined a hike thru Bogota's Eastern Hills, which are beautiful, but almost off limits because muggers wait up there for unwary hikers. As a matter of fact, our guide, Baltazar, of Montaña Sagrada, was mugged at gunpoint twice recently near the Laches neighborhood, although the muggers, strangely, didn't take much but warned the hikers not to return to the area. This time, four police officers accompanied us, and perhaps because of that we suffered no incidents.

The magical thing about Bogotá's hills is that just a few minutes walking or cycling takes you into a different world. Unfortunately, it's not a native world: most of the trees, such as the pines and eucalyptus, are introduced exotics.

Lingering signs of wildfires.

The hike started off passing small farms amidst forest. But as we climbed, the trees became smaller and replaced by scrub. The trail also got steeper: toward the top, we clambered uphill gripping rocks and roots to make progress. Along the way, we visited the tiny abandoned chapel with its big iron cross which you can see from central Bogota perched on a hillside.

We were also treated to spectacular views, which make you appreciate just how immense a city of nine million people is. After several hours of hiking we reached the peak of Aguanoso, at 3555 meters above sea level

From the peak, you can continue walking east for several kilometers to reach a paramo, a high-altitude wetland. We instead walked down behind and around the hills and caught a SITP bus back to central Bogota.

A view of the Eastern Hills and Cerro Aguanoso, from near Bogotá's Central Cemetery.

Passing a frailejon, characteristic of the paramos.

Mosses on a water-splattered rock.

An abandoned chapel, visible from central Bogotá.

A photo op high above Bogotá.

A frailejon: a characteristic plant of the paramos.

A friendly lizard.

Frailejons.

The long and winding trail.

Baltazar has a hiking business called 'Montaña Sagrada.' Look for them on Facebook.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Fire in the Hills!

It's a repetitive tragedy - a forest fire in the hills adds more pollution to Bogotá's already-smoggy air and leaves scars on the hillsides.

This fire, near the Virgin of Guadalupe, burned all afternoon, destroying about 1,200 square meters of vegetation, but by the evening firefighters reported having it between 70 and 90% extinguished. The forest fires' causes include illegal campfires, discarded cigarettes, sparks from cars, and even arson.

Preventing such fires, particularly when the intention is criminal, is difficult. However, environmental authorities have often talked about replacing the hills' exotic tree species, particularly pines and eucalyptus, with less-flammable native species, and I haven't seen that happen.

Perhaps tragedies like this one should makes us grateful to the people deforesting the Eastern Hills to build luxury high-rises and massive parking garages. After all, once the hills' forests are converted into concrete and asphalt, there'll be nothing left to burn.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

The Privatization of Bogotá's Hills

Entrance to the Green Park apartment towers
on Bogotá's Eastern Hills. (Photo: Caracol Radio)

Late last year, a Colombian high court ruled that the Forestry Reserve in Bogotá's Cerros Orientales - the Eastern Hills bordering the city - was sacrosanct and no licenses for construction could be issued there. Bogotá then-Mayor Gustavo Peto, who styled himself an environmentalist, vow that no more building would be allowed on the hills.

Of course, it hasn't happened. To see for yourself, just look uphill from La Candelaria, where the Externado University is building vertical parking lots on the hillside, albeit apparently outside the Forestry Reserve. And, about ten days ago, a high court ruled that construction of a luxury apartment complex named Green Park in La Calera could go ahead because it was not located inside the forestry reserve.

A traffic jam on the road to La Calera. Apartments
near here will only worsen congestion. (Photo: ADN)

Perhaps these projects really aren't inside the reserve or the buffer area supposed to protect the reserve from the city - but such border lines seem to experience remarkable flexibility when they conflict with the profits of  influential builders. But that's only part of the point. Bogotá's leaders have declared many times that open space is important and should be preserved, as well as that the city should grow by becoming denser, rather than sprawling, which compounds the city's traffic jams.

Construction cranes on Bogotá's Eastern Hills.
The Externado University is building two towers
with almost 500 parking spaces.

When environmental authorities suspended construction on the Green Park apartments in June of last year, they said that the construction damaged the area's plants and animals and that the site was inside the  Teusacá River,'s watershed, "should be a protected area." Presumably, all of those things are still true nine months later, yet a court nevertheless has ruled that construction on the apartments can go ahead - all of which makes one wonder what when on 'behind the curtains.'

'Bogotá is being renewed here.' This huge lot, where the
Spanish government was going to build a cultural center,
has sat empty for years.

Legal issues aside, why do planning officials permit projects like these which contradict the city's expressed values? In the city center, for example, there are numerous unused or underused spaces where a university could build, near mass transit and without deforesting Bogotá's emblematic hills.

Fewer trees and more concrete in the hills will worsen flooding and pollution in Bogotá. Car-based constructions on the hills will make Bogotá's monumental traffic jams even worse. All of which will pile huge costs on the city and citizenry.

Expert courts and curadurias to reinterpret the forestry reserve's borders to facilitate more construction. The hills, which by all rights should be a resource for all all Bogotanos - and particularly for the poor, who can't afford to escape into the countryside - will be progressively privatized by the wealthy.

The empty lot in the center of Bogotá - why don't they build here, instead of deforesting Bogotá's hills?

Traffic congestion in central Bogotá will only get worse with more construction of auto-dependant projects far from TransMilenio.

One of the historical center's daily traffic jams. 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

A Hero for Bogotá's Hills

Jose Baquero stands before Monserrate, with a newspaper about his fight to protect the hills. 

Deforested land where La Externado
University is building its towers.

He's a small man, who lives in the hardscrabble neighborhood of Belén and supports himself and his three teenage children by installing natural gas stoves.

But Jose Baquero, 50, hasn't hesitated to take on some of the city's most powerful institutions in his long battle to save Bogotá's beleagured Eastern Hills.

Baquero was in the news recently when he organized a protest march against a pair of towers being built by the Universidad Externado in the hills in forest above La Circunvular Avenue. He has filed legal objections and recently organized a protest march, which he said was attended by 40 people.

Jose Baquero on a Bogotá street, carrying a packet of
documents about the Eastern Hills.

It's a David-and-Goliath struggle for a man of humble means who didn't attend college and until today didn't even have an e-mail account. Impressively, he expresses confidence that he'll be able to stop La Externado's project, even tho the forest has already been cleared and work is proceeding. That's despite the university's money, connections and team of attorneys.

"Any fight is winnable," he asserts.

Baquero is president and a co-founder of the Civic Environmental Comittee for Bogotá's Eastern Hills, which was founded 25 years ago, but still doesn't even have a website.

What's most impressive to me about Boquero - and pathetic about the rest of us - is that in a city of nine million people, all of whom benefit from the hills, as well as NGOs and city officials charged with protecting the environment, Boquero seems to be the only person actually doing something to defend those hills.

A sign at the construction site last year gives permission
for building up to seven floors. It doesn't mention
basements or multiple towers.

With his lack of sophistication and resources, he's an unlikely crusader. Yet, he's also representative of the majority of Bogotanos, for whom escaping from the city for a weekend in the countryside is an unaffordable expense. They have to find nature in the city's urban parks - and its Eastern Hills, if their forests survive.

According to news reports, one trouble for Baquero is that the hills are in a sort of legal limbo, subject to multiple and contradicting municipal resolutions and court rulings. Still, it seems to be popular belief and common sense that the hills which provide a green backdrop for the city, as well as oxygen and rainwater, are common patrimony.

In a recent photo, the sign has been replaced by another one
describing two towers of eight floors  with three basement
levels and 484 parking places.

Another problem is the weakness of laws and, perhaps, officials' lack of determination. Recently, the media reported the construction of an illegal road in the hills in north Bogotá. Despite unanimous opinion that the road was illegal and that it crossed several protected forests, according to the last thing I read, officials said they could not have it removed, altho they did promise to find the road's builder.

Boquero also pointed out an apparent contradiction in the university's construction plan, which is posted on a signboard at the site. One sign, which Boquero said he photographed late last year, describes plans to build two seven story towers without basements. But a sign at the site now says the university has permission to build two eight-story towers with three basement floors. Those floors will apparently contain the project's 480 parking spaces - a contradiction to the city's goals of promoting mass transit and discouraging use of the private car.

Jose Baquero and friends in defense of the hills. 

In the past, Boquero has challenged construction projects by La Universidad de Los Andes and La Universidad America, which he said violated hillside protections. Those projects include a swimming pool complex built by Los Andes and fencing which Boquero says illegaly excludes the public from hillside rivers. He said he also participated in an 'popular action' against the cutting of trees in Parque de la Independencia in order to build a bridge over 26th St. to the Museum of Modern Art. That project, already mostly finished, is now finally moving ahead.

Despite Boquero's crusade, powerful institutions like La Externado have continued deforesting and building on the hillsides. But Boquero is not discouraged. He claims to have stopped additional construction by Los Andes University, among other battles.

"That's why I don't have any fear," he says.

A sign near Monserrate says that this is an
 'Area of Protective Forest Reserve.'

While he and I talked on La Plaza del Periodista in La Candelaria, some friends of his walked past. There were a dark-skinned family of indigenous descent. Boquero said that they lived in the hillsides, where a number of families have homes, whose legality is uncertain.

"The city just told them they couldn't plant potatoes on their land," Boquero said. "We poor people get shafted, but the rich get permits to do whatever they want."

Boquero also said that he and others had requested permission to build a fourth floor on the La Concordia neighborhood's public high school, which is in the heart of the city's historical center. They were refused because of historical preservation laws. Yet, La Externado is building eight-story towers.


Baquero points out that without the hills' forests, Bogotá's remaining wetlands will suffer, and the city will experience worse flooding from rainstorms. The problem, says Boquero, is that, if La Externado builds its towers, "there'll be another and another and another..."

Boquero seemed thoroughly informed and determined, with his feet planted on the ground. However, he did describe one extraordinary experience. He said that recently he was kidnapped, drugged and dumped outside of town north of Bogotá. He didn't offer any evidence of the supposed ordeal, which would be a serious crime if true, and said that he had no idea who had done this. Whatever the truth of this experience, it might also be true that just a bit of insanity is needed to carry out such a Don Quijote-like struggle.

Boquero has other dreams, including an 'ecological corridor' extending up Jimenez Ave. to the Quinta de Bolívar and then along La Circunvular, an area in which the city planned several public parks which have never actually been created. But getting people to visit a park in the Eastern Hills will be a challenge unless the area's reputation for muggings changes. Boquero, in fact, said that while in the hills recently thieves tried to steal his camera. He fought them off, but the camera was damaged, and he can't afford to pay the repair shop's charges.

But with lighting and security, he expects Bogotanos to use such a park.

"It's what I wish for," he said.

Baquero also hopes to replace the cement posts on La Candelaria's sidewalks with planters to give the very grey neighborhood some green.

Baquero is has scheduled a second protest march against La Externado's project, this one to start at Plaza del Rosario at 9 a.m. April 1.

"We have to double the number from the previous march," he says. "Maybe get 100 people.

"I'm keeping the faith. I won't give up."

Jose Baquero: 313-805-3888

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Another Bite Out of Bogotá's Hills

Bogotá's Eastern Hills: Do they belong to everybody, or just a few?

There was forest here. Soon, there will be towers. 

As we all know, the forests of Bogotá's Eastern Hills are inviolate. A wildland providing fresh air and water, recreation and storm protection to all the people of Bogotá - which is why the hills and their forests belong to everybody.

Or, at least that's what we thought.

But individuals and institutions continue taking pieces of the hills.

Recently, there were headlines about an illegal road built in protected forests in north Bogotá. At last word, environmental officials said they couldn't remove the road, even tho it would likely spur homebuilding in the area.

Now, in central Bogotá, the Universidad Externado is taking its own bite out of Bogotá's hills.

The university has already cleared land above La Circunvular to build two eight-story towers on the hillside above La Candelaria. The legal status of this area is unclear, according to press reports, because of contradictory municipal resolutions and court rulings.

In a photo supplied by Jose Baquero and taken late last year,
a sign at the construction site describes a seven-story tower
and says nothing about basements.

But what does seem clear is that the forests are a resource benefiting millions of Bogotanos, while these towers will be used by a privileged few. And, you can bet that the towers' possible impacts, on hillside stability, water quality, erosion and traffic in the area will be born not by the university, but by the city in general.

It also seems inevitable to me that, unless someone quite literally draws a line on the hillside protecting the forests, this construction will be the beginning of further buildings, leapfrogging each other up the hillside.

And the project's nearly 500 parking spaces constitute a gut punch to hopes for promoting sustainable transit in central Bogotá.



This sign, at the construction site in early March,
explains that the towers will be 8 stories tall
and have three levels underground,
including almost 500 parking spaces. 



Certainly, this is not the universities' first invasion of hillside areas which many consider protected. Several years ago, Los Andes University built a swimming pool and a soccer field in the hills. And La Universidad Distrital has buildings even higher than La Externado's construction site. But La Distrital is a public university, it's been there for many years, and its students arrive mainly by foot or bus, reducing local impacts. And anyway, two wrongs don't make a right.

The La Candelaria neighborhood's mayor, Edilberto Guerrero Ramos, told HSB noticias that he'd visited the site and found nothing wrong. 

A green, quiet road no longer?

"As far as I know, they just have to replace the trees they cut," he said. "That's my opinion as mayor."

Guerrero added that, as a La Candelaria resident, "I'd prefer that the forests be healthy. But we're in a market of free competition, and as long as they meet the norms, nothing can be done."

I'd like to ask the mayor if he believes there's any limit to construction on the hillside. As a local official and resident, doesn't he feel an obligation to fight for the hills, no matter what the laws say? Or, should the trees fight the bulldozers on their own, in 'free competition'?

The battle against the project is being led by Jose Baquero, a resident of the impoverished Los Laches neighborhood. He told ADN newspaper that the university had cut down 3,600 trees.

Can La Circunvular handle hundreds more cars daily?
Note the newly-built retaining wall holding back the hillside. 

"How can they permit this?" he asked. 

His is a David vs. Goliath battle, a real Quijotesque effort of a single, humble man against one of the city's more powerful institutions. 

Has anybody thot about pedestrians? How will students cross this narrow, winding road with only one narrow sidewalk with a stream of cars racing by?

A sign details the costs of building
retaining walls along La Circunvular. 

The city just finished a long, expensive project building retaining walls to prevent the hills from sliding down onto La Circunvular. Has anybody calculated the impact of two towers and lots more traffic on the hills' dynamics? Or will the soil movements become another expense to be born by city taxpayers? 

Today, La Circunvular is a peaceful road bordered by trees and fields. But will thousands of wealthy students be followed by bars, fast food restaurants and chain stores?

'These hills produce water and air for everybody.
Help us protect them.'

What will an additional 1,000 cars a day do to La Circunvular and narrow streets of La Candelaria? 

Will new buildings leapfrog each other up the hill until the Virgin de Guadalupe is walled in?

University expansion is legitimate and good. And it's good to have more activity in the city center. But the university had alternatives, such as building on the sites of parking lots near the university and below La Circunvular.

Why didn't they build here? A parking lot below La Circunvular.
Note the retaining wall holding back the hills. 

This is yet another glaring example of the need for public hearings before major planning decisions. The Eastern Hills are a public resource. Every single resident of Bogotá has an interest in their preservation, if only to preserve the city's green backdrop and flood protection. 

Don't city officials believe that Bogotanos deserve an opportunity to comment on a project like this one?



Related posts: 

Bogotá's Eastern Hills - So Near, Yet So Far Away

A Hero for Bogotá's Hills

Along La Circunvular. Watch out for falling rocks.
What will two towers do for the hills' stability?

The view of Bogotá from the nearby Media Torta amphitheatre. 

How will pedestrians and bicyclists fare on this narrow,
winding road with its tenuous sidewalk?

The view of Bogotá from La Circunvular.

A sign in central Bogotá asks: 'The law is only for the poor?'

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours