BARRANQUILLA

'Barranquilla', an industrial, portuary, and special district, is a city and municipality located in northern Colombia. The capital of the Atlántico Department, it is the largest industrial city and port on the Colombian Caribbean region and the fourth largest city of Colombia. It lies strategically by the delta of the Magdalena River, serving as port for fluvial and maritime transportation. It is also known as the cradle of Colombian aviation and as home to a very picturesque carnival.

Contents

History

Climate and Geography

Climate

Culture

Carnaval

Multiculturalism

Famous Barranquilleros

Fine Arts

Education

Economy

Media

Sports

Transportation

Sister Cities

Trivia

Notes

External links

History

It is known as Colombia's Golden Gate (''Spanish: 'La Puerta de Oro de Colombia''') as well as 'La Arenosa' (the Sandy City). While the city bears no established record of its foundation, its settlement or foundation can be traced back to at least 1629. However, its residents traditionally have come to commemorate the city's "birthday" as the date when Barranquilla was legally established as a village, April 7 1813. By 1834 Barranquilla had a population of 11,212 (official census), which made it slightly smaller than Santa Marta and not quite half the size of Cartagena.^[3] As Barranquilla became an important port, it also served as a haven for immigrants from Europe during World War I and World War II, and for different waves of immigrants from the Middle East and Asia.
Barranquilla was Colombia's first port and is proud of its level of industrialization and modernity, which earned it the name of 'Colombia's Golden Gate.' The first airport in South America was also built in Barranquilla, and the world's second oldest commercial airline doing business today was founded there, SCADTA (now known as Avianca). The Ernesto Cortissoz International Airport, the first airport built in South America (1919), is served by domestic and international flights.
In the 1940s, Barranquilla was the second largest city in Colombia and one of the most modern cities on the Caribbean, but later local administrations, given to widespread corruption, brought about a decline in the standard of living. As government investment increased in other Colombian cities, Barranquilla's national stature was surpassed. As of the 2005 census, Barranquilla was Colombia's fourth largest city after Bogotá (capital), Medellín, and Cali.

Climate and Geography

The climate is hot and very humid. Daytime temperature usually remains around 32°C. Nevertheless, from late November to early April, the trade winds more or less cool it to a more comfortable temperature during the day. During the evening and through the night the temperature can change due to the strong winds it receives. The rainy seasons are from April to June and from August to November, when some streets flood producing "arroyos" (streams) that are very dangerous, given the lack of appropriate rain drainage in some sectors of town.
Barranquilla is a modern, industrial city, with more than 1,700,000 inhabitants (2.2 million within a metropolitan area including nearby Soledad and Puerto Colombia).
The city is also known as "La Arenosa" (The Sandy One), alluding to the fine sand occasionally present in the air, due to its proximity to the Caribbean beaches.
The city's topographical layout is simple: to the east, it's bordered by the Magdalena river; to the west, it's bordered by a bypass called Circunvalar. The city grid is divided in the typical Colombian way: ''calles'' (streets, going from north to south) and ''carreras'' (avenues, going from east to west). Downtown is located near the river, on the eastern edge of town. The two main axes of the city are Olaya Herrera Avenue, which goes from downtown to the western edge of town, becoming the highway to nearby Cartagena de Indias, and Murillo Street, which goes from the southern, working-class neighborhoods to the city's downtown. Upper-class and middle-class neighborhoods are to the west and north of the city.

Climate

Culture

Carnaval

Barranquilla's Carnival (''Spanish: Carnaval de Barranquilla''), which is celebrated four days before Ash Wednesday, is broadly recognized as one of the world's largest carnivals; residents claim it is second only to the carnival of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. In November of 2003, UNESCO proclaimed it as one of 28 different "''masterpieces of the oral and intangible heritage of humanity''"(1).

Multiculturalism

As a result of the city's lengthy tradition as a port of entry, Barranquilla's culture is marked by a cosmopolitan streak^[4], only comparable in the national context to Colombia's capital, Bogotá. The city is home to numerous immigrant groups: Lebanese, Italian, German, Jewish, and Chinese. From its gastronomy to the local Spanish accent, Barranquilla's culture is markedly different from the rest of the regions in the country.
The city is recognized also for its carnival declared by Unesco as Patrimony of the Humanity (Oral and Cultural). It is also considered as the biggest carnival of the world because of it cultural content, gathering together more than 300 cultural expressions from the immigration waves during the Colombian Caribbean Coast history.
Barranquilla differentiates itself from other big cities of Colombia through the diversity of cultural and religious backgrounds. Around 52% of its population descend from foreigners in 2nd degree and, although the predominant religion is Roman Catholicism, there are big groups of Protestants and Jews. The Lebanese people, emigrés of the Turkish Ottoman empire, who arrived during various immigration waves throughout the twentieth century, were Orthodox Christians but they converted to Catholicism. The estimated percentage of Catholics is 69,3%, a very low number compared with other Colombian cities. With 4 synagogues, Baranquilla is home to the biggest Jewish community of Colombia, representing 1,1% of the city's population. Protestantism is the second largest religious group in Colombia and this is the same for Barranquilla where 19,4% of the population are Protestants. The remaining 10,7% of the population declares itself nonreligious.

Famous Barranquilleros

Barranquilla was home to Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez during his early years as journalist and bears substantial weight on his literary production. García Márquez's old bohemian hangout, La Cueva, has been restored and is open to the public as an artsy bar. It was also here that the writer was a part of the Barranquilla Group, a loose association of the city's writers and journalists.
Barranquilla is lovingly known as ''Curramba La bella'' (Curramba The Beautiful) and those hailing from Barranquilla, like international recording artist Shakira and Atlanta Braves shortstop Edgar Rentería, are known as "curramberos" (curramberos literally means party people, hinting at the locals' gregarious temperament). The adjective for a woman from Barranquilla is ''barranquillera'', while a man is a ''barranquillero''.
In 2006, the city unveiled a massive six-ton statue of famous local Shakira after she attended the ground-breaking ceremony of a school she is sponsoring in La Playa, a depressed suburb of Barranquilla. [1].
Sofia Vergara was also born in the city.

Fine Arts

The Teatro Municipal Amira de la Rosa is the city's main cultural scenario. Barranquilla is also home to the Cinemateca del Caribe, the Alliance Française, the Centro Cultural Avianca, and the Centro Colombo Americano.

Education

Barranquilla is home to a number of universities, like the Universidad del Norte, Universidad del Atlántico, the Universidad Metropolitana, the Universidad Autónoma del Caribe, the Universidad Simón Bolívar, and the Corporación Universitaria de la Costa. There are also many bilingual schools, such as Marymount, Karl C. Parrish, Lyndon B. Johnson, Deutsche Schule Barranquilla, and the British International School. Barranquilla is also home to a number of more traditional Catholic schools like Colegio Biffi La Salle, Liceo de Cervantes, Colegio Sagrado Corazón, and the Jesuits' Colegio San José. Other schools include the Colegio Hebreo Unión (a Jewish school), the Colegio Alemán (the local German school), and Presbyterian academic centers like the Colegio Rafael Borely and the Colegio Americano. The city is also remarkable for having one of highest literacy rates in the country: 96.4 percent and also one of the most bilingual young rates[2].

Economy

Barranquilla is home to a thriving trading industry, as well as to a number of staples of the Colombian economy, such as Bavaria S.A., Comisariato Vivero, Monómeros, Expreso Brasilia S.A. and Cementos Argos. The city is the birthplace of Grupo Santo Domingo, one of the major business conglomerates in Colombia.

Media

The city's two main newspapers are ''El Heraldo'' and ''La Libertad''. Other dailies include newspapers of nationwide distribution, such as Bogotá's ''El Tiempo''. The local TV channel is Colombia's Caribbean regional network, Telecaribe.
Local radio includes the customary assortment of tropical music and news. The two main highbrow alternatives, Radiodifusora Nacional de Colombia and Uninorte FM Estéreo, broadcast on 640 AM and 103.1 FM, respectively.

Sports

Though baseball is popular, the locals fervently follow Barranquilla's soccer team, Atlético Junior. The team plays at the Estadio Metropolitano, one of the largest soccer stadiums in the Americas.

Transportation

'Land Transportation'

Public transportation in Barranquilla mainly consists of buses and taxis. The main bus terminal is located near the southern edge of town, at the end of Murillo Street. A bus rapid transit system called Transmetro, similar to Bogotá's TransMilenio, will begin operating by late 2007.
Recently, an illegal form of transportation denominated ''mototaxismo'' developed. A regular motorcycle is used to carry a passenger for a lower fare than a bus or taxi. This unregulated and potentially dangerous practice has led to protests by the legally operating transport companies and drove many of them into bankruptcy.
'Air Transportation'

The city's airport, the Ernesto Cortissoz International Airport, receives domestic and international flights. Domestic flights are mainly operated by Avianca.
'Fluvial and Maritime Transportation'

The port of Barranquilla is located by the Magdalena River, and accessible to ships coming from the sea thanks to dredge ships, that constantly make way for the ship canals, named ''Canal de Acceso'' (Access Canal).

Sister Cities

Sister cities of Barranquilla include:

★ Tampa, Florida

★ Nanjing, People's Republic of China

★ Kaohsiung City, Republic of China

Trivia

★ Barranquilla is well known for being the hometown of Colombian singer-songwriter Shakira.

★ The Barranquillero José María Peñaranda composed the famous song "Se va el caimán", which is known throughout the Spanish speaking world for the line "Se va el caimán, se va el caimán... se va para Barranquilla"

Notes

External links

★ Alcaldía de Barranquilla Municipality Page

★ Barranquilla Free Zone

★ Carnaval de Barranquilla Official Page on the Carnival

★ Terminal Metropolitana de Transportes de Barranquilla (main bus terminal)

★ Uninorte FM Estéreo (online broadcast)

★ Zoológico de Barranquilla Official zoo page, small section in english

★ Personal Page on Barranquilla and its Carnival

★ Carnaval de Barranquilla 2008