La Candelaria: Emerald Country

Eye on the stone:Studying an emerald in Bogotá's open-air emerald market. 

In addition to being Bogotá's historical and cultural center, La Candelaria is also an emerald market - and perhaps even the world's premier emerald market. After all, Colombia produces more than half of the world's emeralds, lots of them mined around Bogotá. 

So, what Christmas gift could be more Colombian, or even La Candelarian, than an emerald?

Streets 12b and 12c between Carreras 5 and 7 have lots of jewelry stores, as does the Jimenez Ave. around Seventh Ave. But perhaps the most interesting emerald market is the open air one which forms every day on the southern sidewalk of Jimenez Ave., just west of Seventh Ave. On weekdays, you'll see dozens of men standing about here, and if you look closely you'll notice they're carrying sheets of paper, in which they hold their emeralds. Now and again, one will hold a stone up to the sky to check it for defects.

The rule here is 'buyer beware': a stone's value varies depending on its size, cut, its transparency and the depth of its green color. Unethical traders can doctor emeralds to hide their defects. And, of course, the unwary may go home with a sparkly piece of glass. Many of the dealers will offer you a certificate - but outside of Colombia that certificate may be nothing more than a piece of paper. 

Remarkably, even with thousands of dollars in stones changing hands here every day, I've never heard of one getting lost or stolen.  

Men at work in La Candelaria's open-air emerald market by the intersection of Seventh and Jimenez Avenues. 

An emerald shark. 

A little emerald-carrying burro in the window of the Emerald Trade Center on Jimenez Ave. 

You can also visit the Emerald Museum, located across the street from the Gold Museum. But, inexplicably, they prohibit taking pictures inside!

Related entry: The world's biggest emerald - or not!

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Buy Colombian for Christmas

Colorful pottery for sale by Artesanias de Colombia. 

Looking for that last-minute Christmas gift?

Why not choose something beautiful that'll also help boost Colombia's economy - particularly its poor people?

Artesanias' store is in an elegant,
500 year-old building.

A great place to start is Artesanias de Colombia, the government's official handicrafts business, which hopefully returns a fair amount of the profits to the artisans who do the work.

Visit Artesanias' beautiful store on Jimenez Ave., alongside the historic Iglesia de las Aguas, and you won't be disappointed. To start off with, the store is in an elegant five-century-old building, which has been a prison, monastery and hospital, amongst many other uses. The courtyard is furnished with several antique objects, including an old weaving machine still in working order.

Artesanias markets the work of indigenous, Afro-Colombian and other artisans, and also publicizes Colombia's tremendous variety of folk art. You can find handicrafts cheaper elsewhere, but you're not likely to get the same quality.

If nothing else, the premises are worth a visit just to stroll thru the 500-year-old building and admire all the colors and textures.

Colorful hats. 

Carved wooden canoes.

Artesanias' store on Jimenez Ave. is beside the beautiful Las Aguas Church. 

Two women talk in the building's courtyard. 

Clay dolls. 

Hanging hammocks. 

Masks, some made by Afro-Colombians. 

Hanging hammocks. 

Pottery modeled after that made by the Muisca Indians, perhaps to drink chicha.

Necklaces made from jungle plant seeds. 

Pottery from the state of Tolima. 

A weaving machine in the building's courtyard. 

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Out of Uribe's Palace and Into Prison - II

Ex-Pres. Uribe: Better to leave
him off of your resume.

The procession of ex-Alvaro Uribe administration officials into legal trouble continues.

Already, ex-Pres. Uribe's Minister of Agriculture Andres Felipe Arias was arrested for alleged corruption in an agricultural subsidies program, which doled out support to the wealthy and influential, including a one-time beauty queen. Uribe's ex-chief of staff Bernardo Moreno was also jailed on charges stemming from the chuzadas scandal, in which Uribe allegedly ordered the DAS, or secret police, to spy on supreme court justices who were investigating him.

Hurtado: A free ticket home from Panama?

Now, Colombia has asked Panama to extradite ex-DAS Director Maria de Pilar Hurtado, who fled there after the chuzadas scandal broke. Top Panama politicians are reported to be divided on whether or not to hand over the one-time secret police chief. But a photo of Pilar Hurtado partying away in Panama while on the lam from charges in her own country didn't help her case.

Restrepo

Prosecutors have also called for the arrest of Uribe's Peace Commissioner, Juan Carlos Restrepo, on charges related to an allegedly staged demobilization of FARC guerrillas in 2006. Allegedly, non-guerrillas were hired to pretend to be guerrillas turning in their weapons to generate positive P.R. for the government.

The ex-Uribe officials' legal travails are a dramatic turnaround for an administration which ended with enormous popularity for its progress against Colombia's leftist guerrillas. But the charges could also indicate Uribe's willingness to ignore legality and civil rights in his determination to beat back the guerrillas and perhaps extend his own power.

Uribe's popularity was such that he succeeded in having the Constitution amended to enable him to run for a second term. And, his popularity would almost surely have carried him to a third consecutive term if the high court had not ruled that unconstitutional.

Uribe himself has encountered legal troubles in the United States, where he's been called to testify in a case involving alleged crimes by paramilitary groups.

But the cases also indicate once again the Colombian court's independence and their willingness to go after even popular figures. To his credit, current Pres. Juan Manuel Santos, who was Uribe's defense minister, has not interfered with the cases.

Related: Out of the Palace and Into Prison

The Greatest Show in Colombia?

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours

Bogotá, City of Churches

A Bogotá chapel in a long-ago scene. 

When the Spanish invaded the New World, spreading Catholicism was one of their principal justificiations for creating their new empire. After all, Spain had expelled the last Muslim kingdom from the Iberian Peninsula in 1492, the same year Columbus reached America, making the fabulous new territory seem like their reward for defeating the Muslims.

A historic photo of central Bogota showing
locations of 21 churches. 

Bogotá was no exception. The city's historical center, La Candelaria, has nearly two dozen Catholic churches. Altho the Spanish conquistadores fell far short of saintliness: they built their empire on slavery, mass murder and forced religious conversion - altho some Catholics, like the Jesuits, did try to protect the native American people.

But whether they represent holiness or exploitation, Bogotá's Catholic churches, many of them centuries old, are historical and cultural treasures. Sadly, tho, several old churches have been destroyed, by the 1948 Bogotazo riots or to make way for 'progress,' such as the broadening of avenues. Recently, tho, others have been restored.

The Amigos de Bogotá Foundation, on Calle 12 No. 6-67, has an exhibition about the history and architecture of Bogotá's churches. The foundation's exhibit was designed by the architect Mauricio Uribe, of Los Andes University.

The Cathedral on Plaza Bolivar undergoing renovation. 

The Vatican's embassy in Bogota, on Calle 12 and Carrera 4. It was destroyed in April 1948 during the Bogotazo riots following the assassination of Jorge Eliecer Gaitan. 

The Iglesia de Egipto, perhaps a century ago. 

A church in the now shut San Juan de Dios Hospital in Bogotá's Los Martires district. 

Bogotanos crowd Seventh Ave. in front of San Francisco Church. The building in front was called El Humilladero and used for punishing sinners. 

San Francisco Church today. Three colonial churches stand here side by side. 

Las Cruces Church, south of La Candelaria. 

Tenth Ave., where an old church was demolished to make way for 'progress.' 

A Dominican monastery between Calles 12 and 13 and Carreras 7 and 8, built in 1888. The monastery was demolished to make way for Seventh Ave., and its adjoining church was leveled a few years later. 

Lions on the side of the Cathedral. 

The Cathedral of Bogotá on Plaza Bolivar today.

A church model with behind it the interior of the Cathedral of Bogotá. 

A historic scene on Seventh Ave., with the Cathedral in the background. 

A door of La Bordadita Church, now inside El Rosario University. 

Las Nieves Church, which was recently restored.

By Mike Ceaser, of Bogotá Bike Tours