Ciclovia

Street Vendors Line The Road

             Bogota sits approximately 8,660 feet above sea level.  Making it one of the highest capital cities in the world, Mexico City and New York City are the only North American cities bigger than Bogota.  The elevation definitely makes physical activity way harder than normal.  I still need to find a gym but walking around all these hilly streets at this altitude is hard enough.  Each Sunday and holiday the main streets of Bogotá, Cali, Medellín, and other municipalities, are blocked off for Ciclovia to become Car free.  From 7 am to 2 pm, runners, skaters and bicyclists take over the streets.  At the same time, stages are set up in city parks.  Aerobics instructors, yoga teachers and musicians lead people through various performances.  

            Bogotá's weekly ciclovías are used by approximately 2 million people on over 120 km of car free streets.  It really is an amazing site to see so many people enjoying their Sunday among what is normally a gridlock filled boulevard.  It’s pretty hilarious to see hundreds of Bogotan’s engaging in what can best be described as jazzercise.  Ciclovia’s originated in Colombia and are now starting to make traction around the world but nowhere near the scale of Colombia.  I wanted to take pics of the 100s of jazzercisers but I couldn't do it secretly and just randomly taking pictures of people working out is not the best traveler protocol.