Buenaventura | |
---|---|
Municipality and city | |
Nickname: El Puerto (the Port) | |
Coordinates: 3°52′38″N77°1′36″W / 3.87722°N 77.02667°W | |
Country | Colombia |
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 miles 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 Airport | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
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 (73.1) |
Average rainfall 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 (271.6) |
Average rainy days | 22 | 18 | 21 | 23 | 25 | 26 | 26 | 26 | 26 | 26 | 24 | 23 | 286 |
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] |
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 2,227,642 residents according to the 2018 census. 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.
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.
Palmira is a city and municipality in southwestern Colombia in the Valle del Cauca Department, located about 27 kilometres (17 mi) east from Cali, the department's capital and main city in the South of Colombia. Palmira is the second largest city in the Valle del Cauca, behind Cali.
Buga, formally Guadalajara de Buga, is a city and municipality in the Valle del Cauca Department of Colombia. It is famous for its Basilica del Señor de los Milagros, which houses an image of Christ called el Señor de los Milagros.
Tumaco is a port city and municipality in the Nariño Department, Colombia, by the Pacific Ocean. It is located on the southwestern corner of Colombia, near the border with Ecuador, and experiences a hot tropical climate. Tumaco is inhabited mainly by Afro-Colombians and some indigenous people.
Calima Lake is the largest artificial lake in Colombia and in the American continent with an area of 70 km2. It is located in the municipality of Darién in the Valle del Cauca Department.
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.
The contribution of travel and tourism to GDP was US$5,880.3bn in 2016. Tourism generated 556,135 jobs in 2016. Foreign tourist visits were predicted to have risen from 0.6 million in 2007 to 4 million in 2017. Responsible tourism became a peremptory need for Colombia because it minimizes negative social, economic and environmental impacts and makes positive contributions to the conservation of natural and cultural heritage.
The University of Valle, also called Univalle, is a public, departmental, coeducational, research university based primarily in the city of Cali, Valle del Cauca, Colombia. It is the largest higher education institution by student population in the southwest of the country, and the third in Colombia, with more than 30,000 students. The university was established by ordinance No. 12 of 1945, by the Departmental Assembly as the Industrial University of Valle del Cauca, under the leadership of Tulio Ramírez Rojas and Severo Reyes Gamboa.
Gerardo Tobar López Airport is an airport serving the Pacific coastal port of Buenaventura in the Valle del Cauca Department of Colombia. The runway is 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) south of the city.
San Cipriano is a small village located at 200 metres (660 ft) above sea level on the Pacific, around the Danubio River, nearby the port of Buenaventura, Valle del Cauca Department, Colombia.
The University of the Pacific, is a public, national, coeducational university based primarily in the city of Buenaventura, Valle del Cauca, Colombia. The university also has several satellite campuses across the Pacific Region in the cities of Guapi in the Cauca Department and Tumaco in the Nariño Department.
Farallones de Cali is a cluster of mountains in the West Andes of Colombia. It is located west of the city of Cali and gives rise to many of the rivers that provide water and electricity to Cali. The PNN Farallones de Cali encompasses 150,000 ha (580 sq mi) in the mountains as well as much of the Pacific slope and is an area of very high biodiversity. The average temperature ranges from 25 °C (77 °F) in the tropical foothills to 5 °C (41 °F) in the páramo. In this territory are located the district of Pichinde, Andes and Leonera, and two villages Penas Blancas and Lomas de la Cajita.
Yotoco is a town and municipality located in the Department of Valle del Cauca, Colombia.
Cauca State was one of the states of Colombia, which existed from 1857 until 1886.
El Queremal is a town in the Dagua municipality, Valle del Cauca Department, Colombia. It is located about 47 km (29 mi) west of Cali and is at an elevation of 1,450 m (4,760 ft). The town is situated on the upper part of the Old Cali-Buenaventura Road and is about 99 km (62 mi) from Buenaventura, the main Colombian port on the Pacific. The town is accessible from Cali from several roads leading away from the main Cali-Buenaventura Road near the area of Kilometer 18, Valle del Cauca.
The following is a timeline of the history of the city of Cali, Colombia.
The Solar Decathlon is an initiative of the Department of Energy of the United States (DOE) in which universities around the world compete with the design and construction of sustainable housing that works 100% with solar energy. It is called “Decathlon" since universities and their prototypes are evaluated in 10 criteria: architecture, engineering and construction, energy efficiency, energy consumption, comfort, sustainability, positioning, communications, urban design and feasibility and innovation.