Quebrada La Vieja
Andean forest creek trail once tapped for city water, now patrolled by forest guards protecting its watershed.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to the Quebrada La Vieja trail in Bogota follows forest guard Jose Portela, who has spent decades answering hikers' questions about why this Andean creek carries the name of old women. It traces the stream's second life as a water-utility asset the Roca Paris family donated in 1947 to supply the growing Chapinero neighborhood below. The intake crews who once tapped its water for the city taps now spend their days watching for fires and pointing out the frailejones and hummingbirds along the path.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Virrey Park
Linear stream-side corridor of cycling lanes and shaded trails, reserved for jogging and quiet play rather than organized sport.
Cerros Orientales de Bogotá
Forested mountain ridge and protected reserve overlooking the city, laced with hiking trails and hidden illegal mansions.
Eje Ambiental
Pedestrian promenade tracing a buried river's curves through brick paving, wax palms, and quiet fountains.
Córdoba
Fragmented urban wetland rebuilt with wooden boardwalks and a citizen lawsuit that stopped landfill.
Chorro de quevedo
Cobblestone square built around a public fountain whose water once flowed for over sixty years straight.
Chico Park
Colonial hacienda garden sheltering Bogotá's largest stand of century-old, record-tall wax palms.