Bucaramanga

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Bucaramanga
Flag Seal
Nickname: The Pretty City
Location of the city and municipality of Bucaramanga in the Santander Department.
Region	Andean Region
Department	Department of Santander*
Foundation	1622
Government
- Mayor	Honorio Galvis Aguilar, (L)
Elevation	1,189 m (3,901 ft)
Population (549,263 2005 est.)
- City	508,102
- Metro	1,012,331
*
Website: www.bucaramanga.gov.co

Bucaramanga is the capital of the department of Santander, Colombia, and is the hub of Colombia's sixth-largest metropolitan area (2003 census: 553,046, metro pop. 979,040). The metropolitan area has experienced rapid growth since the 1960s, much of which has taken place in neighboring municipalities.

Bucaramanga is the major commercial center of northeastern Colombia, anchoring a regional network that extends to Cúcuta on the Venezuelan border and the oil-producing center of Barrancabermeja. Local manufacturing, especially of textiles and shoes, has struggled in the face of legal and contrband imports in recent decades. The city is the base of the Colombian Petroleum Institute (ICP)[1], the research arm of the state oil company, and the Colombian Natural Gas Company (Ecogas).

Contents 1 History 2 Geography 3 Municipal flag 4 Climatology and Surface 5 The City 6 City's Neighborhoods 7 People 8 External links

[edit] History

Girón was the first and most significant town founded by Spanish colonizers in the region, and Bucaramanga (founded in 1622) did not overtake Girón in population or economic significance until the early 1800s. In the 1860s and 1870s the city attracted a core of German merchants and adventurers (the most famous of whom was Georg von Lengerke), and tensions between the newcomers and local residents flared in 1879. With the political reorganization of 1886, Bucaramanga replaced Socorro as departmental capital. The region (although not the city itself) was devastated by the civil war of 1899-1902, and Bucaramanga grew only modestly in the first half of the 20th century.

[edit] Geography

Bucaramanga is located on a plateau in the Cordillera Oriental of the Colombian Andes, and many residents occupy unstable lands descending steeply from the meseta. The city is located at 7°08′N, 73°08′W. The official metropolitan area includes the municipalities of: Girón, Piedecuesta and Floridablanca, but Lebrija is home to Bucaramanga's airport and is commonly considered part of greater Bucaramanga. All four neighboring municipalities contain extensive rural areas despite recent urbanization.

[edit] Municipal flag

The municipal flag of Bucaramanga was designed by the historian Gustavo Gomez Mejia. Made of two green stripes with a yellow one in the middle. In the center is a blue disk, surrounded with a red circle. In the middle of the blue disk is a white star. In the red circle is written the following legend: "Below the azure of its sky and defended by the generous blood of its sons, Bucaramanga is opened to the four horizons of the motherland". (Ivan Sache, 23 March 2001)

[edit] Climatology and Surface

Bucaramanga has a municipal area of 165 km² and is located at 959m above sea level. The average temperature of 23°C (73ºF) with an average humidity of 65%. Its medium annual precipitation is of 1,041mm. There are two rain seasons, between March-May and September-November. The dry months of the year are December and January with a medium precipitation of 58mm.

[edit] The City

Bucaramanga is also known as the "Ciudad de los Parques" ("The City of the Parks") and "Ciudad Bonita" ("Pretty City"). The city is served by one transportation terminal and the Palonegro Airport, which is located west of the city. In general, the more prosperous areas are along and above Carrera 33 (Cabecera area) and to the south, over the Viaduct in Floridablanca (Cañaveral area), while the poorest areas are to the north (Kennedy area). The site of the old airport, the last big piece of undeveloped land on the plateau itself, was turned into middle-class apartment housing (Ciudadela Real de Minas) in the 1980s. The government center for the city and department, built around the old colonial plaza, is several blocks removed from the commercial center of the city. The departmental university, the Universidad Industrial de Santander (UIS), is in the northeastern part of the city; there are several private universities of varying quality.

In January 20, 2006, Colombian company Telecom launched WiMAX, thus becoming the first city in Colombia, and the second in Latin America to have it. The city is in the initial stages of an articulated-bus mass transit system, called Metrolínea, on the model of the Bogotá Transmilenio system. [2]

[edit] City's Neighborhoods

Bucaramanga is divided in 23 Main Neighborhoods

1. Norte (North)
2. Nororiente (Northeast)
3. San Francisco
4. Occidente (West)
5. García Rovira
6. La Concordia
7. Ciudadela Real de Minas
8. Suroccidente (Southwest)
9. La Pedregosa
10. Provenza
11. Sur (South)
12. Cabecera del Llano
13. La Floresta
14. Pan De Azucar
15. Terrazas
16. El Prado
17. Alvarez
18. Conucos
19. Oriente (East)
20. Morrorico
21. Centro (Downtown)
22. Lagos del Cacique
23. Mutis

[edit] People

Many important personalities from Colombia are from Bucaramanga such as Luis Carlos Galán, presidential candidate,Carlos Ardila Lülle,most important empresary in Colombia and Horacio Serpa Uribe.

[edit] External links

• Bucaramanga travel guide from Wikitravel
• Bucaramanga Link - Vínculos más representativos de la "Ciudad Bonita".
• Wikitravel Spanish page (Spanish)
• Satellital photographs of Bucaramanga at Wikimapia
• Physical data (Spanish)
• A brief history (Spanish)
• Website of the mayor's office (Spanish)
• City photo Guide (Spanish)
• Metropolitan area of Bucaramanga(Spanish)
• Local Chamber of Commerce (Spanish)
• Maps and virtual tours(English and Spanish)