Hiking in Bogotá: Crunch time for Bogotá’s Cerros Orientales

Constructors of mansions built illegally in the heart of Bogotá’s Forest Reserve have been ordered to knock them down. Will it happen? Photo. Amigos de la Montaña

The mountains are under threat. But they’ve got friends. About hiking in and around Bogotá.


‘Piratas estrato 8’ shouts the TV news headline. It refers to Bogotá’s habit of classifying neighbourhoods by wealth and influence with estrato 1 being the slums and estrato 8 presumably being filthy rich. But pirates?

Steve Hide: Steve Hide is a veteran journalist and NGO consultant with decades of experience working in Colombia and around the world. He has coordinated logistics for international NGOs in countries including Colombia, Venezuela and Zimbabwe. He provides personal safety training for journalists via the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting and his journalistic work has appeared in The Telegraph, The Independent, The Bogotá Post and more. He's also the Editor in Chief of Colombiacorners.com, where he writes about roads less travelled across Colombia.

View Comments (3)

  • Super bonita la labor de amigos de la montaña, en algunas de las salidas hablan de las aves de los cerros de Bogotá y de los humedales, encontré esta guia, esta con videos e imágenes de las aves migratorias y endémicas de Bogotá, se las comparto, https://caminatasecologicasbogota.com/aves-de-bogota/
    Sin embargo me gustaria saber si alguno tiene la guia en pdf es que mas facil de llevar

  • It is a very good report about illegal building in the surrounding mountains of the capital. I consider that even now, people are not aware of the value of protecting the natural ecosystem that provides us many benefits like clean air from a city which has hight pollution levels due to public transport emissions and industry.

    So, the law should be applied to all people without restrictions.