Buenaventura, Valle del Cauca


Buenaventura is a coastal seaport city on the department of Valle del Cauca, Colombia. Buenaventura is the main port of Colombia in the Pacific Ocean.
Buenaventura is a city with a population of 333,194 as of the 2005 census and it is the size of Los Angeles' metropolitan area; most of the city's land is rural with scattered small villages throughout. It is served by the Gerardo Tobar López Airport.
The city is part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network after it was named "City of Gastronomy" in 2017.

History

The city was founded on July 14, 1540, by Juan de Ladrilleros through orders from Pascual de Andagoya. At that time it was inhabited by the Buscajas. The city was destroyed by Native Americans before 1600; it was later rebuilt. Buenaventura thrived after the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914; and in the 1950s became a regular stopover for the 'international jet set'. Today, the city is crucial for sending raw materials to nearby areas; this has brought prosperity and allowed recent new development to occur.

Demographics

The city is, as of 2011, affected by very high levels of poverty and violence, and is considered a center for the cocaine trade in Colombia.
Buenaventura's population is mostly of African descent 85% — while 10% are Mestizo and 5% are White.

Transport

Port

The city is one of the major ports on the continent, accounting for nearly 60% of all Colombian sea imports and exports. However, due to its strategic position, the city's economy has been hampered by gang-related activity fighting over control of the port, making it among the most impoverished cities in Colombia.

Rivers

The city is surrounded by an immense number of rivers, including: the Dagua; the Anchicayá; the Calima; the Raposo; the Mayorquín; the Cajambre; the Yurumanguí; and part of the right arm of the Naya River and part of the left arm of the River San Juan at its mouth. In addition, it has an enormous amount of streams and smaller rivers, such as Agua Clara, San Marcos, Sabaletas, San Cipriano and Escalerete, which supplies the municipal capital through a modern aqueduct.

Road

Well paved and maintained roads, that are designed to be unaffected by landslides, leave the city via Loboguerrero, where it divides to go to Cali, or Buga and then onwards to the cities of Armenia, Medellín and Bogotá. This route is known as "La Vía al Mar", as it connects large and different parts of the country together.

Airport

connects Buenaventura with direct flights of 1 hour 20 minutes to Bogotá via Satena, as well as to other cities.

Crime

Buenaventura has had a notorious history plagued by the Colombian armed conflict, drug trafficking, violence, and the presence of guerrilla and paramilitary groups.
Colombian authorities have seized almost US$28 million in cash from drug kingpins. The money found was in several shipping containers sent from Manzanillo, Colima and Houston, that belonged to brothers Luis Enrique and Javier Antonio Calle Serna, also known as the ‘Combas’.
Between 2008 and 2010, the number of reported homicides in the city doubled. In 2010, the murder rate of Buenaventura was 175.2 homicides per 100,000, a rate 24 times that of New York City. To counter the violence, the Colombian government has set up a marine special forces unit in the worst area of the city. In 2011, it seemed that counter-violence efforts had improved crime metrics, even while aspects of the Colombian drug war in that city worsened. According to community activist Victor Hugo Vidal, "If you ask the authorities, they will tell you is better -- that the homicide rates are way down. But for us , during the last 10 years, there has been no change."

Education

Universities

The city hosts many higher education universities, both private and public:

Public

Buenaventura is located a few miles from the western cordillera of the Andes mountain range and the major city of Cali, the department's capital. It is one of the rainiest cities in the world, with 6000–7000 mm of precipitation annually.

Climate

Tourism

The city has several places of interest.
The most notable tourist venue is the Cascajal Island. This island is located in the western part of the city of Buenaventura, it is inhabited, and is surrounded by marshes and in it are important tourist and commercial sites, making it an important source of income. Among its most important tourist attractions are: Néstor Urbano Tenorio park, the field of handicrafts sea of the same, the cathedral San Buenaventura Hotel Station, the ramp or site boats to go to nearby islands and finally the pier, from which over 70% of commerce happens.
Piangüita, which is near Buenaventura is a coastal town, where the sea meets the sky in dreamy sunsets, is the Ecoparque Theme Green Iguanas, it becomes a community effort to revive tourism, as Rigoberto Gomez, creator of the place. The Ecopark, comprising four hectares, is part of the habitat of the black community Bazán, "who designed nature trails to show tourists their way of life, fauna and flora, and how it has been recording their culture." It also has beautiful beaches which attracts many tourists.
Bahía Málaga is a deepwater port designed to provide support to large shippers to ship next generation that can not enter the port of Buenaventura.

Major places of interest

The city has had two professional football teams; each club played Categoría Primera B and had only a short existence. Pacífico F.C. only existed for the 2010–2011 season, whereas Atlético Buenaventura played between 1991 and 1995.