University City of Bogotá

“Ahora, Ciudad Universitaria” we told our taxi driver after a visit to the Virgilio Barco Library. “Cual Entrada?” came the reply. Hmm – I hadn’t planned for that. It appears that the University Campus has at least 5 entrances and our driver wanted to leave us outside one of them. So we asked him to take us to the nearest one (at the Northern side of the Campus). We got out, walked through the gates and were faced by a field of cows and a few very ordinary, even ramshackle, buildings. Perhaps we were at the Agricultural or Veterinarian Faculty? Luckily there was a board with a map and, after hailing a passing student, we got our act together. You need the Calle 26 entrance to get to the heart of the University and its main architecture - such as it is! This is situated at the Southern point of the large campus and would actually be best for reaching by public transport since Bogota’s limited route metro bus system, the Transmilenio, runs along this street and has a stop for the University. This is the street which, renamed “Avenida El Dorado”, goes on out to the airport.

University students had been a bit of a nuisance to us during our Colombian journey, having been a moving force for a series of demonstrations and strikes across the country. They had been joined by groups of Campesinos and Indigenous peoples who had caused the closure of …

This site is only about a 20 minute walk away from Bogota's other TWHS, the Virgilio Barco library so in less than half an hour we stood at the gates to the university staring at the stadium and not permitted to go any further. Who knew an entire university could be fenced off and closed by security on a holiday? I'd figured that even if there were no classes we could at least walk around the grounds a little to get a feel for the overall layout but no, we were not going to be able to talk our way in. Walking the perimeter of the university outside the fence leaves you quite far from anything of significance and we weren't able to get any real idea of what the nomination is about. Fortunately we hadn't had high expectations to begin with but for anyone else that might want to check this place out, definitely go on a day when classes are in session.