Hotel Del Salto, Colombia: The Haunted Hotel 

Tequendama Falls (or Salto del Tequendama) is a major tourist attraction about 30 km (18 miles) southwest of Bogotá, the capital city of Colombia.  According to Muisca legend, the waterfall was created by Bochica, who used his staff to break the rock and release the water that covered the Bogotá Savannah after the Indians began to offend in secret Chibchacum, who outraged punished them flooding their land for which he brought from other parts of the Sopo and Tibitó rivers. Both grew the waters of the Valley which each day was the largest flood in such a way that the Indians had no food nor where planting.

Near the falls of Tequendama on the Bogotá River, is located the Hotel del Salto, opened in 1924 on the cliff facing the waterfall to welcome wealthy travelers visiting the Tequendama Falls area and closed in 1990  thought to be linked to contaminated river water.

The Tequendama Falls is a natural waterfall about 157 meters high on a rocky chasm. This place was the site that many chose to end their lives by jumping into the void. This situation gives rise to hundreds of stories of ghosts and banshees. Many tourists, curious travelers and reaffirm errant seeing ghosts haunt the hotel. Experts in the field and caregivers of the old hotel, note that it is normal to have supernatural events. They hear piercing screams and the atmosphere is dense for those who visit for the first time

 "LA PIEDRA SUICIDA"

According to an interview two workers who worked for Empresa de Energía de Bogotá S.A. in the 50s, for this time almost every day there was a suicide.

Two paintings that were formerly on the famous stone used to say : The Lord Jesus Christ says to you, I am the way, the truth and the life. The second was a commemorative plaque to a suicide. It is in this place, where the roar of gray water can be heard and where smells rotten start to get dizzy, it was where people left their last messages before dying. Across the river, just in front of the stone suicide is Virgin Suicides.

A little story...

a stranger about 23 years old, blond, with a scar on his cheek, wearing green striped cloth and who never knew his identity, came by bus to the hotel in the morning .When he  left the hotel, went to cataract, climbed the stone and he began to reading a book to the Virgin. It was not yet nine police on duty had not arrived; but passengers on a bus passing by,  got out and ran to the spot. The young man, realizing people screaming and coming towards him, he jumped into the void. Like this there are many stories about suicides and those killed who were thrown into the "jump of Tequendama".

MUSEUM
 

Good news came in 2011 when the Ecological Farm Foundation of Porvenir and the National University of Colombia’s Institute of Natural Sciences began a joint restoration effort of the hotel’s intricate architecture. Their aim was to convert the Hotel Del Salto into a museum that would serve as a national symbol of cultural heritage and environmental restoration. They renamed it the Tequendama Falls Museum of Biodiversity and Culture.

POINT OF VIEW

I chose the jump of Tequendama because my mom had told me about the legends of this place and wanted to find out if they were true and I wanted to find out about a mysterious place in Colombia to learn a little more about my country. There are countless stories counted by witnesses about the suicides that took place in this beautiful place. While more sought information, more was impressed, because each of the stories were mysterious and intriguing because without knowing the circumstances that people had to kill himself they considered it the perfect place to die.

GLOSSARY

Outraged : Indignados.

Flooding: Inundación.

Wealthy: Rico.

Chasm: Avismo.

Banshees: Almas en pena.

Field: Campo.

piercing screams: Gritos desgarradores.

Spot: Lugar.

Joint restoration: Restauracion conjunta.

Aim: Objetivo.

Heritage: Patrimonio.

REFERENCES:

http://marcianosmx.com/el-hotel-embrujado-en-salto-del-tequendama/

http://cerosetenta.uniandes.edu.co/los-suicidas-del-tequendama/

http://peru.com/viajes/noticia-de-viajes/hotel-salto-lugar-embrujado-colombia-fotos-noticia-264397