49 Fun Facts About Colombia

Before Colombia took Columbus's name, what was it called under Spanish rule?

New Granada survived independence: after Gran Colombia broke up, the country went by that name and only became Colombia in 1863.

Which 1819 battle, won by Simón Bolívar, secured Colombia's independence from Spain?

Boyacá came after Bolívar's army marched from the plains of Casanare over the Andes and took the Spanish by surprise.

Which country broke away from Colombia in 1903?

Panama broke away after Colombia's congress rejected a US canal treaty, and US warships backed the breakaway.

Colombia's currency shares its name with several other Latin American countries. What is it?

Its ISO code is COP; a coffee in Bogotá runs to a few thousand of them.

Which US TV series was adapted from a hit Colombian telenovela?

Ugly Betty came from Yo soy Betty, la fea, a telenovela so popular it was also remade in Mexico, India and Germany.

Besides Bolivia's two capitals, which South American capital sits higher than Bogotá?

Quito, about 2,850 m up, tops Bogotá, and FIFA's 2007 ban on internationals above 2,500 m would have barred both before protests got it suspended.

Which Spanish conquistador founded Bogotá in 1538 after conquering the Muisca?

Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada soon found rival conquistadors Belalcázar and Federmann camped within sight of his men, each claiming the land.

Found in a cave in 1969, Bogotá's Muisca raft is traditionally linked to which legend?

El Dorado began with accounts of a ruler said to cover himself in gold dust and wash it off in a sacred lake, later tied to Lake Guatavita.

In which Colombian city did Simón Bolívar die in 1830?

Santa Marta was not meant to be his last stop: Bolívar had resigned and was heading for exile in Europe when he died there.

Which privateer held Cartagena for ransom in 1586?

Francis Drake left with a ransom, and raids like his pushed Spain to ring Cartagena and its bay with fortifications.

Which one-eyed, one-legged Spanish commander defended Cartagena against Admiral Vernon in 1741?

Blas de Lezo's defenders forced Vernon to retreat, though British workshops had already struck medals celebrating a victory that never came.

Medellín, Colombia's second city, is nicknamed the City of what?

Eternal Spring fits: Medellín sits about 1,500 m up in the Aburrá Valley, so it stays mild despite lying near the equator.

What kind of transport began linking Medellín's hillside barrios to the metro in 2004?

Cable cars, which researchers have linked to sharp drops in crime and violence in the neighbourhoods they serve.

Who parades through Medellín carrying huge floral displays on their backs during the Feria de las Flores?

Silleteros carry their flowers on silletas, frames that recall how peasants once carried their products on their backs.

In 2003 UNESCO named which Colombian festival a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage?

The Barranquilla Carnival's oldest parade, the Battle of Flowers, was first held in 1903 to celebrate the end of the Thousand Days' War.

The hooded Marimonda costume of Colombia's biggest carnival resembles a cross between which two animals?

Its floppy ears and long nose were meant to mock the city's elite.

In which town was Gabriel García Márquez born in 1927?

Aracataca voted in 2006 on renaming itself Aracataca-Macondo, and over 90% said yes, but too few people voted for the change to pass.

García Márquez's 1982 Nobel Prize honoured which style of fiction?

Magical realism runs through One Hundred Years of Solitude, where the town of Macondo loses its memory to an insomnia plague.

Shakira was born in which Colombian city?

Barranquilla is Shakira's birthplace, and she was once turned down for her school choir, her voice likened to a goat's.

Which single became Shakira's first number one on the Billboard Hot 100?

Hips Don't Lie reworked Wyclef Jean's 'Dance Like This' and joined Oral Fixation, Vol. 2 only on a reissue, after the album had come out.

What is the trademark of Boterismo, the style of Medellín-born artist Fernando Botero?

Figures of exaggerated volume were Botero's hallmark, and in 2000 he gave more than 100 of his works, plus Picassos and Chagalls he owned, to Bogotá's Museo Botero.

Which fictional farmer has long been the face of Colombian coffee advertising?

Juan Valdez was played by Carlos Sánchez for nearly four decades until 2006, when a real coffee grower was chosen to take over the role.

Colombia's Muzo, Coscuez and Chivor mines are famous for which gemstone?

Emeralds from Colombia were traded abroad by the Spanish, who valued gold and silver more, and so reached royalty across Europe and Asia.

Caño Cristales, the 'River of Five Colours' in Meta department, turns red because of what?

An aquatic plant, Macarenia clavigera, gives the red, and when the river dries up in the dry season it clings on to the rocks rather than dying.

Colombia's national sport, tejo, involves throwing a metal disc at a clay board fitted with what?

Packets of gunpowder, called mechas, go off with a bang when hit, and tejo is widely believed to descend from a Muisca game played with golden discs.

On the Colombian flag, which colour occupies the entire top half?

Yellow fills the top half; one telling says Francisco de Miranda took the colours from a talk with Goethe, another from Catherine the Great's hair, eyes and lips.

Colombia's flag closely resembles those of which two countries?

Ecuador and Venezuela fly near-copies because all three flags descend from the flag of Gran Colombia, the union they once shared.

Colombia's national tree, found in the Cocora Valley, holds what world record?

It can reach 45 metres and occasionally 60, and has been legally protected since 1985.

Colombia's national flower, an orchid, was chosen partly because its lip shows what?

The colours of the flag on its central petal helped Emilio Robledo pick Cattleya trianae in 1936, as did its name honouring botanist José Jerónimo Triana.

Which volcano's 1985 eruption sent mudflows that buried Armero, killing some 23,000?

Nevado del Ruiz gave weeks of warning, yet Armero's evacuation was called off when the volcano went quiet, hours before the mudflows struck.

Colombia's Salt Cathedral, built inside a salt mine, lies near which town?

Zipaquirá's salt was mined by the Muisca long before the Spanish arrived, and its cathedral now lies deep inside the mine.

Bandeja paisa, the huge platter of beans, rice, chicharrón, egg and plantain, comes from which region?

Antioquia's bandeja paisa is often treated almost as Colombia's national dish, a status critics dispute because it comes from one region.

Ajiaco, Bogotá's signature chicken soup, gets its distinctive flavour from which herb?

Guascas is prized in Bogotá's ajiaco, yet in the US the same plant is dismissed as a weed called gallant soldier.

Colombian aguardiente is a sugarcane spirit flavoured with what?

Anise is where aguardiente brands compete: rival makers vary how much they add, so some bottles taste far more of it than others.

Vallenato music is built around the accordion, the caja drum and which scraped instrument?

The guacharaca came before the accordion: early vallenato was played with flutes, guacharaca and caja, and accordions arrived later.

In traditional cumbia from Colombia's Caribbean coast, what does the woman hold while dancing?

Candles light her dance, and she also uses them to fend off her partner's advances as he courts her.

President Juan Manuel Santos won the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize for his deal with which guerrilla group?

FARC's peace deal was narrowly rejected by voters in a referendum just five days before Santos was awarded the prize.

In 2019 Egan Bernal became the first Colombian, and first South American, to win which race?

The Tour de France was his after hail and landslides cut short stage 19, when times taken on the Col de l'Iseran put Bernal in the race lead.

Nairo Quintana, 'El Cóndor de los Andes', became the first Colombian to win which race in 2014?

The Giro d'Italia turned his way on a snowy Stelvio stage, when rivals mistakenly thought the descent was neutralised and Quintana attacked.

Which Colombian won the Golden Boot at the 2014 World Cup?

James Rodríguez's six goals won him the Golden Boot, and within weeks Real Madrid signed him from Monaco in a £63 million deal.

In Disney's Encanto, what is the Colombian family whose members each receive a magical gift called?

The Madrigals' valley home was modelled on the Cocora Valley near Salento, which the filmmakers toured on a research trip to Colombia.

Colombia's Caribbean island of San Andrés lies much closer to which country than to the Colombian mainland?

Nicaragua later repudiated the 1928 treaty recognising Colombia's claim, but in 2007 the International Court of Justice upheld Colombian sovereignty over the islands.

As of 2021, Colombia has more species than any other country of which animal group?

Birds, yet Colombia's national bird, the Andean condor, grew so rare there that condors hatched in US zoos were released to rebuild its numbers.

Which Colombian shortstop won World Series titles in 1997 and 2010?

Édgar Rentería's 11th-inning single won Game 7 of the 1997 World Series for the Marlins, and in 2010 he was named World Series MVP.

Colombia won which tournament in 2001 without conceding a single goal?

The Copa América came despite chaos: Argentina pulled out over security fears, and late invitees Honduras knocked out Brazil 2–0.

Hippos imported in 1981 for which drug lord's private zoo now roam wild in Colombia?

Pablo Escobar's four hippos were left behind after his death in 1993, and the herd has multiplied since then.

Colombia was the only Latin American country to send combat troops to which war?

The Korean War drew a Colombian battalion after President Laureano Gómez ordered troops to support UN and US forces.

The assassination of which Liberal candidate on 9 April 1948 triggered the Bogotazo riots?

Jorge Eliécer Gaitán's killing set off a 10-hour riot that left much of downtown Bogotá destroyed, and a young Fidel Castro took part in the unrest.

Which Colombian won the Indianapolis 500 at his first attempt, in 2000?

Juan Pablo Montoya was the first to win on debut since Graham Hill in 1966, and the next year he moved to Formula One with Williams.