Latest News

City of Whispering Walls: Inside Bogotá’s Most Haunted Homes

By Richard Emblin - October 29, 2025

In Bogotá, the past is never fully at rest. It lingers in courtyards and stairwells, in shuttered colonial mansions and dimly lit gardens, whispering through cracked adobe walls. Nowhere is this spectral presence more palpable than in the city’s oldest quarters, where the cobblestones have absorbed centuries of triumphs, tragedies, and the uncanny footprints of […]

Ancient Colombians “Unmasked” with Digital Reawakening

By Richard Emblin - October 6, 2025

For centuries, the funerary masks of Colombia’s Eastern Andes have guarded their secrets. Crafted from resin, clay, wax, maize, and adorned with delicate beads, these masks were fitted so precisely to the faces of the dead that the mummified bodies appeared almost alive. Between the 13th and 18th centuries, the Muisca — an Indigenous civilization […]

Oscar Pérez-Escobar: Mapping The Orchid Tree of Life

By Richard Emblin - September 6, 2025

Colombian botanist Oscar Alejandro Pérez-Escobar, Research Group Leader at Kew Gardens, leads the Orchid Tree of Life project, tracing the evolution of 30,000 orchid species. His research, published in New Phytologist, underscores orchids as “canaries in a coalmine,” vital for biodiversity, conservation, and understanding climate change.

How Singapore Turned Necessity into Sustainability and Global Influence

By Richard Emblin - June 13, 2025

Singapore has engineered a vision for green living. From desalinated water, smart housing, eco transportion, and integrated planning, this island nation blends innovation, multicultural harmony, and climate resilience to shape a future-ready city.

Medellín’s Comuna 13 rejects Pablo Escobar memorabilia

By Richard Emblin - January 7, 2025

Medellín’s Comuna 13 attracts nearly 900,000 visitors annually, blending vibrant art with community-focused tourism. The merchandise and tours glorifying Pablo Escobar have overshadowed the identity of a city rooted in culture and innovation.

Colombian painter Fernando Botero spoke with The City Paper.

Fernando Botero (1932-2023): Of Masterpieces and Monuments

By Maria Cristina Pignalosa - September 15, 2023

The works of the great master of the visual narrative, Colombia’s Fernando Botero, are as corpulent as they are compositions of humanity’s uncertainty.

Colombia’s Jorge Duque a star act at Bogotá Fashion Week

By Paulina Diazgranados - May 9, 2023

With head-turning collections and trailblazing designs, Colombian fashion designer Jorge Duque Vélez is a star act in the 2023 Bogotá Fashion Week.

Parque Los Nevados

The Children of the Nevado del Ruíz volcano

By Federico Rios - April 2, 2023

For the young residents of PNN Parque Nacional Los Nevados, life is a contrast between stark realities and imposing beauty of the Nevado del Ruíz volcano.

Life as an Expat under Medellín’s coronavirus quarantine

By Laura Field - March 30, 2020

While many expats left Colombia before the country closed its borders with the coronavirus pandemic, others remain, feeling safe with the government’s public health quarantine.

A poison arrow frog native to Colombia.

Colombian officials on alert over reports of illicit frog trade

By Ed Buckley - April 28, 2016

Colombian whistleblowers say foreigners are paying rural villagers to collect poison arrow frogs for illegal trade in exotic animal markets.

Taking back Buenaventura from violent crime

By Callam Reynolds - June 24, 2015

Community initiatives are helping to curb the violence in Colombia’s most important port city, Buenaventura.

Obituary: Gabriel García Márquez (1927 – 2014)

By The City Paper Staff - April 17, 2014

Colombia’s literary giant, Nobel Laureate Gabriel García Márquez died Thursday April 17th at his Mexico City home age 87.

Colombians carlos Jacanamijoy and Rodolfo Llinas.

Llinás and Jacanamijoy: A meeting of minds and memory

By Kyra Gurney - November 12, 2013

Painter Carlos Jacanamijoy and neuroscientist Rodolfo Llinás met up in Bogotá to discuss how the brain sees art.

Colombia hip hop band ChocQuibTown release a new album this month.

Music: Who and where is ChocQuibTown?

By Richard Emblin - June 28, 2013

With a growing fan base thanks to a series of hit singles, ChocQuibTown are back with a new album which reaffirms their musical roots and love of the Chocó.

Colombia’s women pilots risk all for the frontline

By Vicki Kellaway - November 21, 2012

Colombia’s women pilots put their lives on the line flying dangerous missions with the National Police’s helicopter division.

Rio Puré

Roberto López and Colombia’s lost Amazonian tribes

By Jimmy Weiskopf - March 5, 2012

Robert Franco has spent years covering a remote corner of Colombia in search of uncontacted tribes and believes he has found “lost peoples” in the Río Puré.