Bogota 2011
I recently had the opportunity to spend several weeks in Bogota, Colombia – the home of the world’s best emeralds. The famous emerald mines of Muzo, Chivor, Cosquez and La Pita are located within 100 miles of Bogota, so it has become the center of the emerald buying, cutting and sales business.
The city was built up against the Andes mountain range, and was founded in 1538 by the Spanish after conquering the local indigenous population. With 8 million residents, it is among the thirty largest cities in the world and is the third highest in elevation in South America. The 8600 foot altitude ensures a cool, rainy climate, with most of the mornings partly cloudy and rain developing later in the day and during the night. Despite Bogota's dangerous reputation in the 1990s, I never felt threatened - although I was warned not to travel alone at night or to hail a taxi from the street. Tight security is evident everywhere you go.
I finally found a day off to peruse the famous emerald district. The first stop for all visitors is the Gold Museum (http://www.banrep.gov.co/museo/eng/home.htm), a fantastic collection of pre-Colombian gold artifacts. The quantity of the gold objects found in the region fueled the Spanish legend of “El Dorado” - the city of gold. Smelting and jewelry techniques were shown, including many contemporary goldworking techniques as hammering, wax casting and granulation. Room after room were filled with dozens of gold objects, elegantly displayed with lots of supporting information. The final display was a completely dark circular room. After entering the lights were brought up around the outside, displaying hundreds of gold medallions, masks, breastplates, jewelry and other objects. There was a circular cutout in the center of the room that displayed more gold objects, but what really caught my attention was an emerald crystal as large as my fist.
The next stop was a walk through the emerald street market located at Jimenez and 7th Avenue, just a few blocks from the Gold Museum. Dealers and buyers congregate here every Monday through Friday, so it’s a great opportunity to watch the pros in action. I was sorely tempted to buy some rough emeralds, but a non-Spanish-speaking gringo like me was in no position to properly assess rough emeralds on the street. I made the mistake of looking at some inexpensive cut emeralds with perfect color and clarity (obviously synthetics or glass). The seller aggressively followed me around for five minutes (with the price getting lower every minute) until he asked what my best offer was. Nada was my answer and he finally stormed off. One stone might have made a fun souvenir but I don’t like to encourage this kind of deception.
Two blocks east on Jimenez, towards the mountains, was the Emerald Trade Center. This is the center of all commercial emerald activity and housed dozens of offices, cutting centers and emerald shops. I had a great time exploring them and checking out thousands of cut emeralds and mineral specimens. I bought two inexpensive emerald mineral specimens but wish I had anticipated the availability of specimens – I would have brought another suitcase! One specimen in particular was a fascinating trapiche emerald, but I finally decided that it was out of my budget.
After working my way through all the stores I came across a small office with a friendly dealer, who showed me several nice emeralds and parcels of smaller stones. Between my ten words of Spanish, his ten words of English, and a calculator we negotiated over the next hour on two small but beautiful Muzo emeralds. It was great fun and a highlight of the visit, but since he was an unknown dealer (to me anyway), I didn’t want to spend any more money until I could have the stones checked out as being authentic. He had a few larger Chivor emeralds that were tempting, but they’ll have to wait until next time.
My money gone, I walked to the Emerald Museum (http://www.museodelaesmeralda.com.co), located next door to the Gold Museum. A fairly small museum located on the 23rd floor of the Avianca Airlines Building, it provided a great introduction to the conditions for emerald formation in Colombia (with a simulated mine environment), world-class emerald specimens, cutting demonstrations, a jewelry shop (naturally), and a great view of the city. Not quite as nice as the view from the Monserrate hilltop, but nice nonetheless.
Finally out of money and time, I headed back to the hotel for my return trip home the next day. I’m already looking forward to my next trip, and my goal to learn more Spanish should surely help my next buying opportunity!
The city was built up against the Andes mountain range, and was founded in 1538 by the Spanish after conquering the local indigenous population. With 8 million residents, it is among the thirty largest cities in the world and is the third highest in elevation in South America. The 8600 foot altitude ensures a cool, rainy climate, with most of the mornings partly cloudy and rain developing later in the day and during the night. Despite Bogota's dangerous reputation in the 1990s, I never felt threatened - although I was warned not to travel alone at night or to hail a taxi from the street. Tight security is evident everywhere you go.
I finally found a day off to peruse the famous emerald district. The first stop for all visitors is the Gold Museum (http://www.banrep.gov.co/museo/eng/home.htm), a fantastic collection of pre-Colombian gold artifacts. The quantity of the gold objects found in the region fueled the Spanish legend of “El Dorado” - the city of gold. Smelting and jewelry techniques were shown, including many contemporary goldworking techniques as hammering, wax casting and granulation. Room after room were filled with dozens of gold objects, elegantly displayed with lots of supporting information. The final display was a completely dark circular room. After entering the lights were brought up around the outside, displaying hundreds of gold medallions, masks, breastplates, jewelry and other objects. There was a circular cutout in the center of the room that displayed more gold objects, but what really caught my attention was an emerald crystal as large as my fist.
The next stop was a walk through the emerald street market located at Jimenez and 7th Avenue, just a few blocks from the Gold Museum. Dealers and buyers congregate here every Monday through Friday, so it’s a great opportunity to watch the pros in action. I was sorely tempted to buy some rough emeralds, but a non-Spanish-speaking gringo like me was in no position to properly assess rough emeralds on the street. I made the mistake of looking at some inexpensive cut emeralds with perfect color and clarity (obviously synthetics or glass). The seller aggressively followed me around for five minutes (with the price getting lower every minute) until he asked what my best offer was. Nada was my answer and he finally stormed off. One stone might have made a fun souvenir but I don’t like to encourage this kind of deception.
Two blocks east on Jimenez, towards the mountains, was the Emerald Trade Center. This is the center of all commercial emerald activity and housed dozens of offices, cutting centers and emerald shops. I had a great time exploring them and checking out thousands of cut emeralds and mineral specimens. I bought two inexpensive emerald mineral specimens but wish I had anticipated the availability of specimens – I would have brought another suitcase! One specimen in particular was a fascinating trapiche emerald, but I finally decided that it was out of my budget.
After working my way through all the stores I came across a small office with a friendly dealer, who showed me several nice emeralds and parcels of smaller stones. Between my ten words of Spanish, his ten words of English, and a calculator we negotiated over the next hour on two small but beautiful Muzo emeralds. It was great fun and a highlight of the visit, but since he was an unknown dealer (to me anyway), I didn’t want to spend any more money until I could have the stones checked out as being authentic. He had a few larger Chivor emeralds that were tempting, but they’ll have to wait until next time.
My money gone, I walked to the Emerald Museum (http://www.museodelaesmeralda.com.co), located next door to the Gold Museum. A fairly small museum located on the 23rd floor of the Avianca Airlines Building, it provided a great introduction to the conditions for emerald formation in Colombia (with a simulated mine environment), world-class emerald specimens, cutting demonstrations, a jewelry shop (naturally), and a great view of the city. Not quite as nice as the view from the Monserrate hilltop, but nice nonetheless.
Finally out of money and time, I headed back to the hotel for my return trip home the next day. I’m already looking forward to my next trip, and my goal to learn more Spanish should surely help my next buying opportunity!
