Current Time in Floridablanca, Colombia

Floridablanca lies in the department of Santander in north-eastern Colombia, on the slopes below the plateau where the regional capital Bucaramanga stands. The two cities have grown together into a single metropolitan area spread across terraces and ravines in the eastern branch of the Andes, at an altitude of around nine hundred metres. The setting gives it a warm, pleasant climate all year, with green hillsides, flowering trees and views over the deep valley of the Rio de Oro.

About three hundred thousand people live in the municipality, making it the second largest in the metropolitan region and one of the most important in Santander. Its economy rests on commerce, health services, education and residential development, and it has become a favoured place to live for families working in Bucaramanga, with modern shopping centres, clinics and housing estates spreading across the hills.

The town was founded in 1817, although settlement in the area is older, growing out of colonial estates and indigenous Guane villages that occupied these fertile slopes long before the Spanish arrived. Its name, meaning white flower, is said to come from the blossoms of the surrounding orchards. For much of the nineteenth century it was a farming village producing sugar cane, tobacco and fruit, and its country houses became retreats for wealthy families from the plateau above. The rapid growth of Bucaramanga in the twentieth century absorbed it into the expanding city, and Floridablanca developed into a large urban municipality in its own right.

The best-known attraction is the ecological park of the Rio Frio and above all the Neomundo interactive science museum, a large centre devoted to nature, technology and the human body that attracts school groups from across the region. The Casa de Bolivar country house and the colonial parish church on the main square recall the older town, while the botanical garden Eloy Valenzuela, with its lakes, orchid collections and shaded paths beside the river, is one of the most attractive green spaces in Colombia. Nearby, the canyon of Chicamocha, one of the great landscapes of South America, lies within a short drive.

The city is famous throughout Colombia for one particular pleasure: obleas, thin wafers spread with caramel, cheese and jam, sold at stands around the main square and considered a regional institution. Santander cuisine, including goat, ants eaten as a delicacy in season, and arepas made with maize and pork crackling, is served in local restaurants, and the temperate climate encourages outdoor life, cycling and paragliding in the surrounding hills.

A metropolitan bus rapid transit system links Floridablanca to Bucaramanga, and the international airport of the region lies a short distance away. Several universities, including campuses of the Universidad Autonoma de Bucaramanga and the Universidad Santo Tomas, together with major hospitals, give the city an important role in education and medicine.

Floridablanca is valued for its climate, its gardens and its comfortable pace of life within one of the most dynamic urban regions of Colombia.