Salto del Tequendama

Salto del Tequendama
	Salto del Tequendama
Coordinates	4 ° 34 '29.6 " N , 74 ° 17' 36" W Coordinates: 4 ° 34 '29.6 " N , 74 ° 17' 36" W.
place	Soacha , Departamento de Cundinamarca , Colombia
height	145 m
flow	Río Bogotá

f

The Salto del Tequendama ( German Tequendama waterfall ) is a waterfall located southwest of the Colombian capital Bogotá in the area of the municipality of Soacha , which plunges 145 m vertically into the depths over a terrain step. It is fed by the Río Bogotá , which leads from the Sabana de Bogotá plateau to the Río Sumapaz .

Immediately above the falls is the village of El Charquito . The waterfall is easy to see from the national road Bogotá - El Colegio .

The traditional Hotel del Salto , right by the waterfall, an elegant Wilhelminian style building , was closed by the owner and was left to decay for many years. This was not least due to the heavy pollution of the Río Bogotá, which is polluted with the largely untreated sewage of the entire south of the metropolis of Bogotá.

But in 2011 the Colombian Institute for Natural Sciences took on the historic building together with the Ecological Farm Foundation of Porvenir . The building, known throughout the country as the “horror hotel”, began to be transformed into a museum, which today shines in new splendor as a national symbol of cultural heritage and renaturation. The hotel has now become the Museum of Biodiversity and Culture.

The height of the waterfall is used by the small El Laguito power plant above the town of Santandercito to generate electrical energy, so that the cataract and the wild river usually carry very little water with it.