Guatavita

Location:
Guatavita, Cundinamarca
Near Bogotá, Bogotá, Colombia

Other Activity

By Richard McColl

Guatavita is a pleasant day trip destination from Bogota that allows the traveler to escape the fumes of Bogota and explore a little of the Cundinamarca countryside. The original laguna de Guatavita was a sacred site to the local Muisca people who were known to have enormous reserves of gold. Here in the waters of the probable meteor created lake the leader of the Muisca would bathe covered in gold. This most likely gave rise to the idea held by spanish Conquistadors, in particular Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada who discovered the lake in 1537, that the lake was one of the possible sites for the mythical El Dorado. There is an interesting wedge that one can see cut out of the side of the laguna where the Spanish attempted to drain the lake and extract its riches. Over the years there have been several attempts to recover gold from the lake and all have ended in failure.

The town as you can visit today has been built in a traditional colonial fashion but is obviously articificial and was moved to its present location in 1970 after the waters from the River Bogota flooded. There are some decent restaurants, a plethora of stalls from where to purchase Colombian gifts and some brave souls go in for water sports in the chilly waters of the lake.

Getting There
From Bogota, take the Transmilenio to the Portal del Norte station and then catch a bus from there within the station itself.

Travel Tips: You could save on your costs by taking a packed lunch along with you.

Price Description: Transport will set you back roughly $5 one way.

Relative price: Budget

Travel Skills: beginner/easy.