Official Name: República de Colombia Capital: Bogotá Independence day: July 20, 1810 Population: 45,644,023 (July 2009) Religion: romain catolic, 95.4% Language: Spanish Currency: Colombian Peso

Colombia was one of the best protected secrets during many years. Still there rules a distorted picture scattered by the media of this fascinating country. Today Colombia is opening itself to the world, in order to welcome the travelers and show them its breathtaking beauty.

His people are frank, obliging and diligent. Their culture and traditions inspire the visitors.

"Castellano" is the official language of Colombia. Nevertheless, there exist many languages and dialects of the different ethnic groups, 65 indian and 2 creol languages. On the island group San Andrés and Providencia locals speak English.

Colombia holds a part of the Amazon, three mountain ranges, snowy mountains, lagoons, gigantic, fertile Flatlands called Llanos, woods, wonderful beaches and his two oceans; the Caribbean and the Pacific.

The region in the Atlantic is full of life and contrasts, white sand beaches, clear water and rich in corals and reef fishes. A colorfull world, ready the take the divers in her spell. There is no doubt, a real pleasure for the lover of nature, sun and beach.
On the Pacific side we find a completely different world. Gigantic tropical rain forests, looking similar to the Amazon Rainforest, but on the shores of the wild mystic Pacific. This part of Colombia contains areas with the highest amounts of precipitation worlwide. The rich animal and plant life, whales, dolphins, sea turtles, gigantic swarms of sardins, countless birds, dragonlike reptils, and the rare arrow poison frogs make out only a part of the abundant variety of this region. A MUST GO for everybody passionate about nature.
The island Malpelo counts as World Top Hot Spot for divers, especially for lovers of big fishswarms and Sharks. In Malpelo lives one of the largest hammerheadshark populations of the world.

Although there still do not exist precise and complete biological inventories for the whole of Colombia, nevertheless, spreading of the species is known. Colombia is worldwide number two in biodiversity, merely slightly excelled by Brazil. Colombia is number one in amphibians, number three in reptiles and number five in mammal species.
Colombia owns 15% of all orchid- species of the world, an excellent coffee, coal production, esmeralde, fruits and flowers.

The colombian national anthem: