Buenaventura | |
---|---|
Municipality and city | |
Nickname: El Puerto (the Port) | |
![]() Location of the municipality and town of Buenaventura, Colombia in the Valle del Cauca Department of Colombia. | |
Coordinates: 3°52′38″N77°1′36″W / 3.87722°N 77.02667°W | |
Country | ![]() |
Department | Valle del Cauca Department |
Region | Pacific Region of Colombia |
Regional District | Special economic zone district |
Foundation | 14 July 1540 |
Founded by | Juan Ladrillero by order from Pascual de Andagoya |
Government | |
• Mayor | Ligia del Carmen Córdoba Martínez |
• City Council | List of Councillors |
Area | |
• Municipality and city | 6,292 km2 (2,429 sq mi) |
• Urban | 33 km2 (13 sq mi) |
Highest elevation | 7 m (23 ft) |
Lowest elevation | 0 m (0 ft) |
Population (2020 estimate) [1] | |
• Municipality and city | 311,827 |
• Rank | Ranked 19th |
• Density | 50/km2 (130/sq mi) |
• Urban | 238,648 |
• Urban density | 7,200/km2 (19,000/sq mi) |
Demonym(s) | Porteño, Bonaverense |
Time zone | UTC-5 (Colombia Standard Time) |
Area code | 224 |
Website | www |
Buenaventura is a coastal seaport city located in the Pacific Region of the department of Valle del Cauca, Colombia (South America). Buenaventura (Spanish for "good fortune") is the main port of Colombia in the Pacific Ocean. [2]
As of the 2018 census, Buenaventura has a population of 235,064. [3] Most of the urban development takes place on Cascajal Island, while the majority of the city's land is rural with scattered, small villages. It is served by the Gerardo Tobar López Airport.
The city is part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network after it was named a "City of Gastronomy" in 2017. [4]
The city was founded on July 14, 1540, by Juan Ladrillero through orders from Pascual de Andagoya. Its name, Buenaventura, is Spanish for “good luck”. At that time, it was inhabited by an indigenous tribe called the Buscaja Indians (“Indians”, of course, being Christopher Columbus’s enduring misnomer for indigenous peoples of the Americas).
The city was destroyed by Indigenous Americans before 1600[ why? ]; it was later rebuilt. Buenaventura thrived after the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914; and in the 1950s became a regular stopover for the 'international jet set'. Today, the city is crucial for sending raw materials to nearby areas; this has brought prosperity and allowed recent new development to occur.
According to the 2018 DANE census, its demographic composition is as follows: [5]
Afro-Colombian: 220,318 (85.25%)
Whites and Mestizos: 29,825 (11.54%)
No response: 4,289 (1.66%)
Indigenous: 3,919 (1.52%)
Raizal: 48 (0.02%)
Palenquero: 33 (0.01%)
Romani: 13 (0.01%)
There are ten indigenous reservations fully or partly within Buenaventura. They belong to Emberá people, specifically to Waunana and Chami sub-tribes.
The city is one of the major ports on the continent, accounting for nearly 60% of all Colombian sea imports and exports. [6] However, due to its strategic position, the city's economy has been hampered by gang-related activity fighting over control of the port, making it among the most impoverished cities in Colombia. [6]
The city is surrounded by rivers, including: the Dagua; the Anchicayá; the Calima; the Raposo; the Mayorquín; the Cajambre; the Yurumanguí; and part of the right arm of the Naya River and part of the left arm of the River San Juan at its mouth. In addition, it has many streams and smaller rivers, such as Agua Clara, San Marcos, Sabaletas, San Cipriano and Escalerete, which supplies the municipal capital through an aqueduct.
Well paved and maintained roads, that are designed to be unaffected by landslides, leave the city via Loboguerrero, where it divides to go to Cali, or Buga and then onwards to the cities of Armenia, Medellín and Bogotá. This route is known as "La Vía al Mar", as it connects the parts of the country together.
Gerardo Tobar López Airport connects Buenaventura with direct flights to dorado airport of 1 hour 20 minutes to Bogotá via Satena, as well as to other cities.
Buenaventura has had a notorious history plagued by the Colombian armed conflict, drug trafficking, violence, and the presence of guerrilla and paramilitary groups. [7]
Colombian authorities have seized almost US$28 million in cash from drug kingpins. The money found was in several shipping containers sent from Manzanillo, Colima (Mexico) and Houston (United States), that belonged to brothers Luis Enrique and Javier Antonio Calle Serna, also known as the ‘Combas’. [8] [9]
Between 2008 and 2010, the number of reported homicides in the city doubled. In 2010, the murder rate of Buenaventura was 175.2 homicides per 100,000, a rate 5 times the national average. [10] To counter the violence, the Colombian government has set up a marine special forces unit in the worst area of the city. [11] In 2011, it seemed that counter-violence efforts had improved crime metrics, even while aspects of the Colombian drug war in that city worsened. According to community activist Victor Hugo Vidal, "If you ask the authorities, they will tell you [the city] is better -- that the homicide rates are way down. But for us [living here], during the last 10 years, there has been no change." [12]
The city hosts higher education universities, both private and public:
Buenaventura is located a few kilometers from the western cordillera of the Andes mountain range and about 116 kilometres (72.1 mi) by road from the major city of Cali, the department's capital. It is one of the rainiest cities in the world, with 6,000 to 7,000 millimetres (240 to 280 in) of rainfall annually.
Buenaventura, like all of the Colombia Pacific Coast, has an extremely consistent, wet, cloudy, humid and hot tropical rainforest climate (Köppen Af).
Climate data for Buenaventura (Gerardo Tobar López Airport), elevation 14 m (46 ft), (1981–2010) | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 29.6 (85.3) | 30.6 (87.1) | 30.9 (87.6) | 31.1 (88.0) | 30.9 (87.6) | 30.4 (86.7) | 30.3 (86.5) | 30.4 (86.7) | 30.2 (86.4) | 30.0 (86.0) | 29.6 (85.3) | 29.6 (85.3) | 30.3 (86.5) |
Daily mean °C (°F) | 25.8 (78.4) | 26.1 (79.0) | 26.4 (79.5) | 26.4 (79.5) | 26.3 (79.3) | 26.0 (78.8) | 25.9 (78.6) | 26.0 (78.8) | 25.9 (78.6) | 25.7 (78.3) | 25.6 (78.1) | 25.7 (78.3) | 26.0 (78.8) |
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 22.9 (73.2) | 23.1 (73.6) | 23.1 (73.6) | 23.1 (73.6) | 22.9 (73.2) | 22.7 (72.9) | 22.7 (72.9) | 22.7 (72.9) | 22.7 (72.9) | 22.6 (72.7) | 22.7 (72.9) | 22.7 (72.9) | 22.8 (73.0) |
Average precipitation mm (inches) | 413.9 (16.30) | 290.9 (11.45) | 392.7 (15.46) | 530.2 (20.87) | 618.9 (24.37) | 533.3 (21.00) | 578.3 (22.77) | 666.2 (26.23) | 781.2 (30.76) | 807.3 (31.78) | 713.9 (28.11) | 571.4 (22.50) | 6,898.2 (271.58) |
Average precipitation days | 22 | 18 | 21 | 23 | 25 | 26 | 26 | 26 | 26 | 26 | 24 | 23 | 282 |
Average relative humidity (%) | 89 | 88 | 88 | 88 | 89 | 88 | 89 | 89 | 89 | 89 | 89 | 89 | 89 |
Mean monthly sunshine hours | 86.8 | 87.5 | 96.1 | 105.0 | 99.2 | 99.0 | 114.7 | 124.0 | 93.0 | 99.2 | 87.0 | 86.8 | 1,178.3 |
Mean daily sunshine hours | 2.8 | 3.1 | 3.1 | 3.5 | 3.2 | 3.3 | 3.7 | 4.0 | 3.1 | 3.2 | 2.9 | 2.8 | 3.2 |
Source: Instituto de Hidrologia Meteorologia y Estudios Ambientales [13] |
Climate data for Buenaventura Port (Colpuertos), elevation 10 m (33 ft), (1981–2010) | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 29.7 (85.5) | 30.3 (86.5) | 30.4 (86.7) | 30.4 (86.7) | 30.3 (86.5) | 29.9 (85.8) | 29.8 (85.6) | 29.8 (85.6) | 29.7 (85.5) | 29.3 (84.7) | 29.2 (84.6) | 29.3 (84.7) | 29.8 (85.6) |
Daily mean °C (°F) | 26.2 (79.2) | 26.6 (79.9) | 26.7 (80.1) | 26.7 (80.1) | 26.6 (79.9) | 26.3 (79.3) | 26.3 (79.3) | 26.2 (79.2) | 26.0 (78.8) | 25.9 (78.6) | 25.9 (78.6) | 26.1 (79.0) | 26.3 (79.3) |
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 23.7 (74.7) | 23.9 (75.0) | 24.1 (75.4) | 23.8 (74.8) | 23.8 (74.8) | 23.6 (74.5) | 23.5 (74.3) | 23.5 (74.3) | 23.3 (73.9) | 23.3 (73.9) | 23.4 (74.1) | 23.5 (74.3) | 23.6 (74.5) |
Average precipitation mm (inches) | 410.4 (16.16) | 307.1 (12.09) | 384.5 (15.14) | 552.1 (21.74) | 667.0 (26.26) | 581.9 (22.91) | 685.2 (26.98) | 818.6 (32.23) | 911.3 (35.88) | 881.5 (34.70) | 788.0 (31.02) | 653.2 (25.72) | 7,609 (299.6) |
Average precipitation days | 25 | 21 | 21 | 25 | 27 | 27 | 27 | 28 | 28 | 29 | 26 | 26 | 306 |
Average relative humidity (%) | 88 | 87 | 86 | 87 | 88 | 88 | 88 | 88 | 89 | 89 | 89 | 88 | 88 |
Source: Instituto de Hidrologia Meteorologia y Estudios Ambientales [14] |
The most notable tourist venue is the Cascajal Island located in the western part of the city. It is inhabited, and is surrounded by marshes and in it are important tourist and commercial sites including Néstor Urbano Tenorio park, the field of handicrafts sea of the same, the cathedral San Buenaventura Hotel Station, the ramp or site boats to go to nearby islands and the pier.
Piangüita, a coastal town near Buenaventura, has the Ecoparque Theme Green Iguanas, created by Rigoberto Gomez. The Ecopark comprises four hectares, and is part of the homelands of the black community of Bazán. It also has beaches which attract tourists.
Bahía Málaga is a deepwater port designed to provide support to large ships that cannot enter the port of Buenaventura.
The city has had two professional football teams; each club played Categoría Primera B and had only a short existence. Pacífico F.C. only existed for the 2010–2011 season, whereas Atlético Buenaventura played between 1991 and 1995.
Cartago is a city in southwestern Colombia, about 187 miles (301 km) west of Bogotá. It is in the extreme northern portion of the Valle del Cauca. It is located very close to the city of Pereira, Risaralda about a 20-minute drive. It is the sixth largest city in Valle after Cali, Palmira, Buenaventura, Tuluá and Jamundí. Per the 2018 Colombian census, Cartago's population was 142,902.
Santiago de Cali, or Cali, is the capital of the Valle del Cauca department, and the most populous city in southwest Colombia, with 2,280,522 residents estimate by DANE in 2023. The city spans 560.3 km2 (216.3 sq mi) with 120.9 km2 (46.7 sq mi) of urban area, making Cali the second-largest city in the country by area and the third most populous after Bogotá and Medellín. As the only major Colombian city with access to the Pacific Coast, Cali is the main urban and economic center in the south of the country, and has one of Colombia's fastest-growing economies. The city was founded on 25 July 1536 by the Spanish explorer Sebastián de Belalcázar.
Santa Marta, officially the Distrito Turístico, Cultural e Histórico de Santa Marta, is a port city on the coast of the Caribbean Sea in northern Colombia. It is the capital of Magdalena Department and the fourth-largest urban city of the Caribbean Region of Colombia, after Barranquilla, Cartagena, and Soledad. Founded on July 29, 1525, by the Spanish conqueror Rodrigo de Bastidas, it was one of the first Spanish settlements in Colombia, its oldest surviving city, and second oldest in South America. This city is situated on a bay by the same name and as such, it is a prime tourist destination in the Caribbean region.
Valle del Cauca, or Cauca Valley, is a department in western Colombia abutting the Pacific Ocean. Its capital is Santiago de Cali. Other cities such as Buenaventura, Buga, Cartago, Palmira and Tuluá have great economical, political, social and cultural influence on the department's life. Valle del Cauca has the largest number of independent towns with over 100,000 inhabitants in the country, counting six within its borders. Buenaventura has the largest and busiest seaport in Colombia, moving about 8,500,000 tons of merchandise annually.
Tuluá, is a city located in the heart of Valle del Cauca, Colombia. A major industrial and commercial center, it is the region's fourth-largest city after Cali—the department capital—Palmira and Buenaventura. Founded around 1741 by Juan de Lemos y Aguirre, it has a population of approximately 178,000. It is also known as the Corazón del Valle, as La Villa de Céspedes and Tierra Fácil.
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Sevilla is a town and municipality in the Valle del Cauca Department, Colombia. Widely recognized and famous as one of the best Colombian coffee producers. It is also known as the "Coffee Capital of Colombia" In 2003, the municipality had a population of approximately 60,000.
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Piendamó is a municipality in the department of Cauca in southwestern Colombia.
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Caicedonia is a town and municipality located in the Department of Valle del Cauca, Colombia, situated about 172 km from the capital Cali. Founded in 1910 by Daniel Gutierrez, Juan Bautista Angely and a group of settlers from Antioquia, Caldas, and Tolima, it was named after Lisandro Caicedo and became a municipality in 1923. Mostly mountainous, its economy is based on agriculture and commerce, its main exports are corn, coffee, sugarcane and bananas. Given its location on the border with the Quindío Department, only 35 km from that department's capital, Armenia, Caicedonia belongs ethnographically and culturally to the Paisa region.
El Cerrito is a town and municipality located in the Department of Valle del Cauca, Colombia. This is one of the 42 municipalities of the department.
La Unión is a town and municipality located in the Department of Valle del Cauca, Colombia. The town, home to Casa Grajales, the country’s largest wine producer, is known for its grapes.
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