Explore Colombia in South America

Description and Basic Information

Colombia with its capital Bogotá is located in South America (Northern South America, bordering the Caribbean Sea). It covers some 1,138,911 square kilometres (slightly less than twice the size of Texas) with 45,013,000 citizens. Spanish is the language used by the people in Colombia. Ecuador, Peru, Panama, Brazil and Venezuela are bordering countries.

Colombia is the only country in South America with coastlines on both the North Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea. Traveling in Colombia is definitely worthwhile, however: it is really important to understand that there are still many areas of the country that are considered too dangerous for tourism. The climate is tropical along the coast and eastern plains; cold in the highlands. Much of Colombia is in the Andes, which means there is very nice mountainous scenery to be found. On the other hand, there are also nice beaches to be found in the lowlands. The currency of Colombia is the Colombian peso. Most banks and money changes will accept major world currencies such as the US dollar and the Euro. Be sensitive. Colombians are a proud people, and are proud of the progress they've made. Do not make jokes about the drug trade in Colombia, as it has ruined many innocent citizens' lives. Drink only bottled water outside the major cities. The water in major cities is safe. Anywhere else, never get drinks with ice cubes in them. Clothing, including lingerie is particularly well-regarded as high quality and very affordable. Leather garments, shoes and accessories are also of interest to foreigners.

Pictures from Bogotá (Capital)

Photos provided by Panoramio are under the copyright of their owners.

About Colombia

The landscape features flat coastal lowlands, central highlands, high Andes Mountains, eastern lowland plains. The average density of population is about 39 per km². The climate in can be described as tropical along coast and eastern plains with cooler in highlands. Potential threats by nature are highlands subject to volcanic eruptions or occasional earthquakes or periodic droughts.

To reach someone in Colombia dial +57 prior to a number. There are 7,500,000 installed telephones. And there are 42,160,000 registered mobile phones. The cellular networks operate on frequencies of 850, 1900 Mhz. Websites typically end with the top level domain ".co". If you want to bring electric appliances (e.g. battery charger), keep in mind the local 110V - 60Hz.

The country consists of 33 regions/states which are listed below.

Regions/States of Colombia

Tourism Information

Official Tourism Office

Website: Colombia Tourism

Carrera 8
N260 9-83 Bogota
Colombia

Phone: +57 327 4900

Unesco World Heritage Properties

Colombia has 2 more world heritage locations. To see all of them, visit the Colombia Unesco Heritage location overview.

Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia

An exceptional example of a sustainable and productive cultural landscape that is unique and representative of a tradition that is a strong symbol for coffee growing areas worldwide - encompasses...

Historic Centre of Santa Cruz de Mompox

Founded in 1540 on the banks of the River Magdalena, Mompox played a key role in the Spanish colonization of northern South America. From the 16th to the 19th century the city developed parallel to...

Los Katíos National Park

Extending over 72,000 ha in north-western Colombia, Los Katios National Park comprises low hills, forests and humid plains. An exceptional biological diversity is found in the park, which is home...

Malpelo Fauna and Flora Sanctuary

Located some 506 km off the coast of Colombia, the site includes Malpelo island (350 ha) and the surrounding marine environment (857,150 ha). This vast marine park, the largest no-fishing zone in...

National Archeological Park of Tierradentro

Several monumental statues of human figures can be seen in the park, which also contains many hypogea dating from the 6th to the 10th century. These huge underground tombs (some burial chambers are...

Demographic Information

Age Distribution in Colombia

Each pair of bars represents a single age group (male/female). Each group is spanning 5 years. E.g. 0 to 5 years, 5 to 10 etc. and group "0 to 5" being at the left end and "100 +" at the right end of the chart.

Natural Population Growth

Population, Migration and Growth: The population in Colombia is growing at an rate of 1.18% (or by 523,391 citizens). Each year 30,060 people leave this country (or 0.70 per thousand citizens) - making it an emmigration country. This leads to an absolute natural increase rate of the population of 1.25%. Or an total increase of 553,450 citizens.

Based on content from wikitravel.org. The original article can be found here based on the work of these users.
Geographic information is based on the data provided by geonames.org, CIA factsbook and Unesco.