Humboldt’s University of Berlin Geography excursion

Alexander von Humboldt did it himself in 1801!

The geography faculty of the Humboldt University arranged to accomplish one additional chapter to the excursion in February 2012. A group of 26 bachelor and master students, 2 teachers and a Professor traveled through Colombia. While Alexander von Humboldt researched especially the fantastic beautiful nature and topography of Colombia, the Berlin geographers during the over two-week excursion program, were also able to research topics of economic geography of the country. Thanks to Promotora Neptuno’s excursion organisation, the students were able to visit, among others, a flower producer farm in the savanna of Bogotá. They were able to have a detailed insight of the production, packaging and distribution process of the most important trade product of the country (after Holland, Colombia is the second largest flower export in the world).      

Historic center of Bogotá

The program points included also a visit to other typical agricultural areas of Colombia, such as a palm oil plantation in the region of the Magdalena River in Barrancabermeja, a Coffee Hacienda in Manizales and a banana plantation on the Caribbean coast. Also issues of urban geography, e.g. a tour to the neighborhoods that originated the importance of salsa culture in Cali, the historic center of Bogotá and Cartagena were part of the excursion. The students were also able to experience how under the spanish colonial period, the cities were compiled in a squared checkerboard pattern (called Manzanas).

 

The center of the city was due to royal order, as in Spain, the Plaza Mayor with its cathedral, town hall and seat of government. At the prestigious buildings of the Plaza joined houses or palaces of the nobility or patio houses (aristocratic houses with large courtyards) leading to the upper class population.

The bigger the distance of the residences from center, the bigger the difference of sizes, furnishing and equipment as well as the social status of the residents for worse. Even further, outside the city there were shanty towns were the indians and slaves lived. These settlements were not even part of the city and were normally undeveloped.

Although a lot has changed since the colonial period, some of these typical characteristics are reflected in today's urban landscape and could be explained clearly by the excursion.

 

Los Nevados National Park

The excursion took the group also to some of the many natural resources of the country, such as Los Nevados National Park with its snow-capped Nevado de Ruiz, being the highest peak in the Central Andes Cordillera of Colombia with 5,400 meters high. The Tayrona National Park that lies in the northern part of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in tropic land directly on the caribbean seas, was also part of the natural treasures for the students. The landscape, and the stunningly beaches overwhelmed the group. 

The diverse, contrasting and exciting Colombia turned out to be an ideal excursion destination for the curious geography students from the Humboldt University of Berlin.

Tayrona National Park