Current Time in Soacha, Colombia

Soacha lies immediately south-west of Bogotá on the high plateau of the Colombian Andes, at an altitude of about two thousand five hundred and sixty metres. Although it is a separate municipality in the department of Cundinamarca, the built-up area runs seamlessly into the capital, and in practice Soacha functions as part of the Bogotá metropolitan region. The climate is cool all year, with frequent mist over the surrounding hills and the deep valley of the Bogotá River cutting away to the south.

With a population of well over six hundred thousand, Soacha is one of the largest municipalities in Colombia and by far the biggest neighbour of the capital. Its importance lies in housing: for decades it has absorbed families moving to Bogotá in search of work and people displaced from the countryside by the armed conflict, and it has grown faster than almost any other Colombian city. Manufacturing, cement production, textiles and logistics provide local employment, though a large share of residents commute daily into Bogotá.

The name comes from the Chibcha language of the Muisca people, who inhabited this plateau long before the Spanish arrival and for whom the site was associated with the sun. Muisca settlements, salt working and rock art existed here centuries before the conquest. The Spanish founded the colonial town in 1600, and it remained a quiet agricultural centre of haciendas and brickworks until the middle of the twentieth century, when the expansion of Bogotá reached its edge and transformed it within a few decades.

The most interesting attraction is the archaeological park known as the Piedras del Tunjo, a group of enormous rock shelters covered with red Muisca paintings, set in a park with lakes and walking paths. Nearby is the Salto del Tequendama, a waterfall of more than one hundred and thirty metres where the Bogotá River plunges off the plateau, overlooked by an abandoned mansion now restored as a biodiversity museum, a place of genuine drama despite the river's pollution. The colonial church on the main square and the surrounding paramo landscapes complete the picture.

Soacha has a young population and an energetic street culture, well known in Colombia for hip hop, mural art and community theatre that emerged from its neighbourhoods, along with football pitches on every spare piece of ground. Markets sell produce from the surrounding countryside, and traditional dishes of the Andean interior, such as ajiaco and changua, are everyday fare.

Transport is dominated by the TransMilenio bus rapid transit corridor, extended into Soacha in 2013, which carries huge numbers of commuters into central Bogotá, and by the Southern Highway leading towards Girardot and the hot lowlands. Plans for a regional light rail line would strengthen the connection further. Several university campuses and technical institutes have opened locally, though most students travel into the capital.

Soacha faces real social challenges, but it is also a resilient, creative and rapidly improving city that tells much about how modern Colombia has been built.