Santuario, Risaralda, Colombia

I wonder if I'll ever manage to get a written and stamped postcard from Colombia... This one was sent from the US. I just love the colours here, such a lovely-looking place!

This is Calle Rial in Santuario, a town and municipality in the Department of Risaralda, Colombia.

Risaralda Department is located in the western central region of the country and part of the Paisa Region. Its capital is Pereira. It was divided from the department of Caldas in 1966. Risaralda is very well known for the high quality of its coffee, and a booming industry: clothes, food, trading of goods, and services.

The territory is very mountainous and has many kinds of climates in a very small area. Its proximity to harbours such as Buenaventura on the Pacific Ocean and to the biggest cities in Colombia – Bogotá, Cali, Medellín – makes it a fast-growing economic centre.

National Archeological Park of Tierradentro, Colombia

Another Unesco card... I just realised all three I've just posted here were received in 2013. That was not intentional :P

Tierradentro is a National archeological park in the jurisdiction of the municipality of Inza, Department of Cauca, Colombia. The park is located 100 km away from the capital of the Department, Popayán.

The area is very well known for its pre-Columbian hypogea, which were found in several excavations, and are divided in many archeological places. some of them are: Alto del Aguacate (Avocado Hill), Alto de San Andrés, Alto de Segovia, Alto del Duende and El Tablón.

The typical hypogeum has an entry oriented towards the west, a spiral staircase and a main chamber, usually 5 to 8 meters below the surface, with several lesser chambers around, each one containing a corpse. The walls are painted with geometric, anthropomorphic and zoomorphic patterns in red, black and white. Some statues and remains of pottery and fabrics can be seen scarcely due to grave robbery before the hypogea were constituted as protected areas.

The pre-Columbian culture that created this funeral complex inhabited this area during the first millennium A.C. Tierradentro Archaeological park features hypogea dating from 6th to 9th centuries AD. The details in the sculptures and pictoric patterns are similar to the San Agustín culture.

The park generates significant revenue to the local economy due to the high volume of tourists, both Colombian and foreigners. These sites form a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The site was listed on the World Monuments Fund's 2012 World Monuments Watch list of 100 Most Endangered Sites.

This card was sent from Germany, hence the German stamps.

Colombia

This beautiful postcard is another treat from a swap earlier this year. Alas, it's not mailed directly from Colombia and I'm still wishing one day I'll receive a written and stamped postcard from Colombia, but meanwhile I'm pretty happy with this one, too :) It's always great to see people around the world!

Colombia is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the northwest by Panama; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; and to the west by the Pacific Ocean. Colombia is the 26th largest country by area and the fourth largest in South America after Brazil, Argentina and Peru. With over 46 million people, Colombia is the 27th largest country in the world by population and has the second largest population of any Spanish-speaking country in the world, after Mexico. Colombia is a middle power, and is now the third largest economy in Latin America, and the second largest in South America. Colombia produces coffee, flowers, emeralds, coal, and oil. These products comprise the primary sector of the economy.

The card was mailed from the USA. I do have to admit I was a bit confused when I received this card as it only had this one stamp on it, and it's not supposed to be enough for international postage.. O_o These bonsai stamps are really nice, though. There are five stamps in the set, issued earlier this year.