Locombia 2017 Chapter Eight: The Scandal
Some places are best enjoyed through photos.
Bogotá - San Antonio del Tequendama 63 kilometers
The Salto del Tequendama is not the highest waterfall in Colombia, but may be the most beautiful. Beauty, however, is a fragile thing, and in the case of the Salto, it's poisonous, too.
The white stuff on Bogotá river is foam.
We are smelling the Salto long before we see it. Or rather, it's not the waterfall that smells, but the Bogotá river. On our first day of biking we managed to get out of Bogotá without accidents, and now we endure the stench of rotten fruit, an old toilet and a dysfunctional sewage system all in one. The river is covered in foam and life forms, if any, have probably mutated.
The culprits for this hideous environmental scandal are the leather factories upstream. Come to think of it, rephrasing is necessary: The culprits are politicians that let the factories continue to spew its filth into the river.
The valley in which the Bogotá river runs, is one of the most beautiful in the vicinity of the capital. Yet few people come here. A hotel offering waterfall view closed many years ago. Its guests couldn't stand the stench.
The abandoned hotel is now a weekend museum.
Heading out.
On the highway.
Our destination day 1.
