Modern office buildings tower over centuries-old cathedral spires. Yellow, bug-like taxis dart past ragged horse carts. The electric pulse of international house music compliments a full repertoire of folkloric standards from the provinces. Contemporary art galleries and explosions of graffiti. Boutique hotels and backpacker hostels. Theatre festivals and street performers. Five-star restaurants and five-thousand-peso luncheonettes. Highlife on 93rd and whores on 23rd. Ten minutes of equatorial sun and ten hours of ice-cold rain. Vast flatness leading to a jagged horizon of green mountains, Monserrate andthe Virgin Mary blessing the whole array. Developed-world comforts and developing-world chaos. Rags and riches. Bogotá is contrast, perched 2,600 meters above sea level. That’s high.

Hosting a burgeoning population of over eight million, Bogotá has almost shed its not-so-unearned reputation for insurgent violence and other such un-pleasantries. Almost. Battling both selective news reports and erroneous Hollywood imagery, most of the city’s renaissance has only been chronicled in Spanish-language media (which many English-speakers just don’t understand). But this year, the crown of the Colombian Andes caught the eye of The New York Times, which listed Bogotá in its “53 Places to Go in 2008,” and we consider it our duty to continue exposing the shiny new Bogotá as it joins Buenos Aires, Santiago, and São Paulo among the ranks of the continent’s world cities.

Bogotá 2600 is a gateway to the Bogotá that welcomes ever-increasing scores of foreign tourists—three times as many gringos since 2003—as well as foreign expatriates, planting roots in the city in the clouds. Here, English-speaking visitors and residents can discover the who’s, what’s, when’s, where’s, why’s, and how’s of Colombia’s on-and-poppin’ capital city. So welcome to the Cinderella of South America, where, as the country’s official tourism agency touts, “the only risk is wanting to stay.”

Ernest White II and Pepe Caracas

We’ve pretty much established that Bogotá is clearly in the nosebleed section of the Andes. But if terrestrial pursuits don’t raise your interest, there are many ways of elevating body and soul closer to the heavens—this city isn’t at all short on lofty viewpoints.

One of the most obvious vantage points is the Sanctuary of Monserrate, perched birdlike on a mountain peak lording over downtown Bogotá. This whitewashed, colonial-era church and associated restaurants and crafts market can be accessed by cable car, vertical railway, or on foot. From its height of 3,160 meters (10,367 feet), the entire city spills from the foot of the cordillera in Liliputian proportions. Towering over even the skyscrapers, Monserrate offers views as far as the volcanic hills on the other side of the Sabana.

Nestled 162 meters (532 feet) above the streets of downtown, the observation deck of the Colpatria Tower (open weekends and holidays from 11am to 5pm) places you in the middle of the action, where you can see Matchbox-sized vehicles radiate in all directions, peek into high-rise apartment windows, or even—if you’re lucky—catch a bullfight at the Santa Maria bullring from an ultra-skybox seat.

Nocturnal vistas also dot the city, and one of the most spectacular is the view from the Café de Buenos Aires, an Argentinean tango bar and restaurant with floor-to-ceiling windows along three walls atop the Residencias Tequendama. The nearby Colpatria Tower itself is illuminated in Crayola colors, while neon signs and corporate logos add bursts of color to the otherwise topaz grid of Bogotá; one of the more colorful—certainly the brightest—points of light is the Doll’s House strip club a few blocks over on Avenida Caracas.

Uptown, literally, is the curvy, corkscrew road to La Calera, hidden in the mountains hemming in Bogotá to the east. Dotted with bars, restaurants, and nightclubs that offer L.A.-style panoramas of the northern half of the city, the road splits from the city proper along the Avenida Circunvalar, and a taxicab is required. You can enjoy the view from several of the clubs—the Auditorio La Calera (mixed crowd) and El Clóset (mostly gay) being two of the more popular ones—or from a simple scenic overlook called El Mirador. However you decide to do it, make sure you’re getting high the legal way.

Settled at the beginning of the 20th Century by the elites of Colombia’s capital, the Teusaquillo neighborhood (part of the larger district of the same name) lies studded with architectural gems in the shadow of downtown’s skyscrapers. Located between Avenida Caracas, Avenida 28, and calles 32 and 36, Teusaquillo offers brick and stone artistry and verdant landscaping among its stately residential structures.Celebrated at the city’s most elegant suburb in the 1920s, Teusaquillo grew from a football pitch at the turn of the century to Bogotá’s Bel-Air, where political luminaries, socialites, and captains of Colombian industry raised mini-mansions along with families. Noted architects Alberto Manrique Martín, Kurt Brunner, Galindo Guerra, and Hans Wiesner constructed homes in the neighborhood in the varied styles of the English Victorian period that suited Bogotá’s chilly climate while contrasting stylistically and thematically with the Iberian and colonial structures of La Candelaria or the Republican modes of the central business district.

Residences in the area reflect designs from several British and American architectural movements during the Victorian era (1837-1901): the Arts and Crafts movement, which stressed individual craftsmanship over pre-fabrication, Gothic Revival, integrating Medieval stone construction with brick masonry design, and shingle-style Queen Anne architecture that features gabled roofs underneath earth-toned shingling.

For an unexpected glimpse of Bogotá’s historical homes in a close-in, easily-accessible, and safe area (hopefully on a sunny Sunday), take TransMilenio to the Profamilia station along Avenida Caracas (at Calle 35) and head westward, away from the mountains, along any of the streets between calles 32 and 36, up until Carrera 22. Here, you’ll be transported not only to another time, but also to a quiet corner of the city that some may find more suitable for tea and crumpets than chicha and tamales.

Photo courtesy of Alejandro Forero Cuervo

Thanks to the good people at the U.S. Department of Transportation and their Colombian counterparts, American Airlines was forced in March to loosen its stranglehold on flights between Florida and Bogotá. Under an Open Skies-like agreement reached by the two governments at the end of last year, American was stripped of a set of daily round-trips from Miami.

Those slots were then awarded to “ultra low-cost carrier” Spirit Airlines, which will operate between the much more pleasant Fort Lauderdale airport and El Dorado starting this summer. Glam go-getter JetBlue Airways (seatback TVs, blue corn chips) was also granted permission to fly daily from Orlando. Hopefully these two carriers will usher in a new age of lower fares and better service between the States and Colombia.

Other winners: Delta Air Lines, with a new daily nonstop from New York-JFK to compliment its service from Atlanta, and Continental Airlines, flying daily to Newark and, soon, two dailies to Houston. South Florida can still be accessed via American twice a day to Miami, Chilean-carrier LAN (nice on-board wine and in-flight magazine) with thrice-weekly service; and Colombian flag carrier Avianca, serving both MIA and Fort Lauderdale, as well as JFK and Los Angeles.

Photo courtesy of vayenne7