I all too often praise the benefits of Twitter. It’s a great resource, a great way to discover the world and a great way to connect with people, places and businesses in a manner that simple was not possible even a decade ago.
Monthly, we’ve been featuring a handful of resorts and hotels from the Twitterverse. This month, we’re going to focus on just one. The Casa Gaitan Cortes Boutique Hotel is a new hotel in Bogota, Colombia but the building it is housed in is a city landmark. The hotel is located in Zone G, or the Gourmet Zone.
I had the chance to catch up with Eduardo Gaitan from Casa Gaitan and throw some questions his way. Eduardo is the son of Jorge Gaitan, the architect of what is now the hotel. He knows the building intimately, having grown up there when it was still the family home. The Q & A is below with additional notes and info added. Three of the images below have been captured from Google street view and show building before it was converted to a hotel/restaurant.
Contact info
Official Website: Casa Gaitan Cortes Boutique Hotel
Twitter: @CGaintanCortes
Facebook: Casa Gaitan Cortes Bogota
How far is your hotel from the airport and do you offer a shuttle service to and from the airport?
The Hotel is about an hour from the airport. We can arrange transport from the airport and we charge it to the room.
Additional info: El Dorado International Airport in Bogota is one of the 50 busiest airports in the world and among the top four in South America. At the moment, looking at a month away, airfare from Toronto to Bogota runs around $700-$800. Jumping the border and flying out of Buffalo, New York can save around $100.
Professional sports tourism is quite popular now and soccer (futbol) is becoming more and more popular with Canadians. Is there elite level futbol or baseball nearby? Can your hotel help to get tickets and provide transportation?
Bogotá is a Soccer city with two big teams: Santafé & Millonarios. Estadio el Campin is around 45 min from the Hotel. We can get tickets and provide transport. Baseball is more popular in the north coast of Colombia, like in Cartagena & Barranquilla). Coincidentally one best Baseball Stadium in Colombia in Cartagena in 1947, Estadio 11 de noviembre was built by the same architect of the Hotel.
Additional info:
Both Independiente Santa Fe and Millonarios play out of Estadio El Campin. The venue seats over 36,000 and was built in 1938. It housed Millonarios right from the beginning and Santa Fe moved in in 1952.
Santa Fe was founded in 1941 and has won seven national titles, most recently in 2012. Millonarios was founded five years later in 1946 and has won double the amount of national titles at 14. When the two teams play it is, as expected, quite a spectacle. The matchup is dubbed El Clasico Capitalino.
As for the baseball stadium in Cartegena, Etadio Once de Noviembre, it opened in 1947. The venue seats 12,000 and is home to the Tigres de Cartegena.
Eco-tourism is obviously on the rise. Can you arrange
transportation and/or guided visits to national parks like Chingaza?
We can arrange to any destination in Colombia. Right now there is a new beautiful destination everybody is talking about: Caño Cristales.
Additional info: Caño Cristales, or the River of Five Colours, re-opened to visitors in 2009 after being closed off for several years due to threats of terrorism and fears of environmental damage from over-tourism.
Caño Cristales is located due south of Bogota within Serrania de Macarena National Park and is reached pretty much by airplane only. The river gets its unique red colour from an aquatic plant called Macarenia Clavigera. The phenomenon can only be experienced between the wet and dry season, somewhere between September and November.
Built by Jorge Gaitán Cortés, was the building originally his home?
Jorge Gaitán was an architect who made studies at Yale university in the forties. He became Mayor of Bogotá, he represent a new generation of architects at that time. He made contact with Le Corbusier who developed a plan for Bogotá.
Additional info: Jorge was appointed mayor of Bogota in 1961. He remains the longest standing mayor, lasting from 1961 to 1966. His house was completed nearly a decade before in 1953. Originallly, Casa Jorge Gaitan Cortes was two houses, one for Jorge and family and the other for his father-in-law.
His family lived in the house until the mid-1980’s. Between that time and 2007, the building was used for offices.
If you could recommend just one traditional Colombian meal from your restaurant’s menu, what would it be?
Ajiaco is traditional three types potato soup with chicken. Typical from Bogotá.
Additional info: This version of Ajiaco should not be confused with the hearty stew popular in Cuba that goes by the same name. The Cuban version does contain a variety of potatos but also has a variety of meat and not just chicken.
The restaurant at Casa Gaitan Cortes is named Restaurant Paradis Barcelona. The food ranges from Mediterranean to traditional Colombian. As mentioned earlier, the hotel is located in Zone G – the gourmet zone. The area is dotted with many restaurants.
For fun: Who has been your most famous guest?
We´ve been open only for 6 months but we had a TV host in Miami called Alexandra Rossi. Also a Spanish blogger stayed at the hotel.
So, what does a room at a boutique hotel cost you in Bogota, Colombia? About the same as a room at any airport hotel in Toronto, New York, Chicago or any major U.S. city. In other words, for what you’re getting at Casa Gaitan Cortes, it is great value.
Why Colombia? From all reports, Colombia is quickly becoming a cultural, tourism and economic leader in South America. The North American television induced images of drug fueled gang warfare and bloodshed have been replaced with fine art and fine cuisine.
