Pamplona

By Lorraine Caputo

Altitude: 2287 meters / 7503 feet, Population: 65,000 plus 12,000 students, City Code: 7

 A good highway leaves eastward from Bucaramanga, climbs to the settlement of Berlín on the páramo, and then descends to Pamplona (120 kilometers / 72 miles, 1 tollbooth). Pamplona can also be reached from Málaga to the south. At a relatively high altitude, Pamplona enjoys a pleasant spring-like climate year-round, thus making it a popular get-away for Colombians and Venezuelans alike. It is a cultural mecca, also, hosting a number of music, dance and cinematographic festivals, and possessing some excellent museums.

This small burg has produced poets (Jorge Gaitán Durán, Augusto Ramírez Villamizar, Francisco Valencia) and artists (Eduardo Ramírez Villamizar), as well as military leaders and a president (Rafael Faría Bermúdez). Pamplona's 

Semana Santa, or Easter Week, is rated as one of the top three in Colombia, along with Popayán and Mompós. Other Colombian cities can't match Pamplona for the number of nicknames it has garnered over its 450 years of existence: Founder City of Cities, Patriotic City, The Mitered City, First Capital of the Sovereign State of Santander, The City Spoiled by the Mists, Student Capital of Eastern Colombia. Indeed, in the modern era, university education has become the basis of Pamplona's economy.