Guasca is a Colombian town and municipality in the

Guavio Province The Guavio Province ( es, Provincia del Guavio) is one of the 15 provinces in the Cundinamarca department, Colombia. Guavio borders the Capital District of Bogotá and the Central Savanna Province to the west, to the north the Almeidas Province, t ...

, part of the Cundinamarca Department located approximately 55 km from

Bogotá Bogotá (, also , , ), officially Bogotá, Distrito Capital, abbreviated Bogotá, D.C., and formerly known as Santa Fe de Bogotá (; ) during the Spanish period and between 1991 and 2000, is the capital city of Colombia, and one of the larges ...

passing through the town of

La Calera, Cundinamarca La Calera is a municipality and town of Colombia in the Guavio Province, part of the Departments of Colombia, department of Cundinamarca Department, Cundinamarca. La Calera is a common weekend destination, mainly for the many restaurants, as it is ...

or 65 km passing through

Sopó Sopó is a municipality and town of Colombia in the department of Cundinamarca. The town is located 39 km north of the Colombian capital Bogotá. History The area of Sopó was inhabited first by indigenous groups during the Herrera Period ...

. Guasca borders the municipalities

Tocancipá Tocancipá () is a municipality and town of Colombia in the Central Savanna Province, part of the department of Cundinamarca. Tocancipá is situated in the northern part of the Bogotá savanna, part of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense in the Eastern ...

and

Guatavita Guatavita is a municipality and town of Colombia in the Guavio Province of the department of Cundinamarca. Guatavita is located 75 km northeast of the capital Bogotá. It borders Sesquilé and Machetá in the north, Gachetá and Junín in t ...

in the north, Junín in the east, in the south La Calera and in the west

.Official website Guasca
- accessed 05-05-2016

History

Before the

Spanish conquest of the Muisca The Spanish conquest of the Muisca took place from 1537 to 1540. The Muisca were the inhabitants of the central Andean highlands of Colombia before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors. They were organised in a loose confederation of differe ...

of the central highlands of the Colombian

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

, the

Altiplano Cundiboyacense The Altiplano Cundiboyacense () is a high plateau located in the Eastern Cordillera of the Colombian Andes covering parts of the departments of Cundinamarca and Boyacá. The altiplano corresponds to the ancient territory of the Muisca. The Alti ...

, the area was inhabited by the

Muisca The Muisca (also called Chibcha) are an indigenous people and culture of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, Colombia, that formed the Muisca Confederation before the Spanish conquest. The people spoke Muysccubun, a language of the Chibchan langu ...

who spoke

Chibcha The Muisca (also called Chibcha) are an indigenous people and culture of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, Colombia, that formed the Muisca Confederation before the Spanish conquest. The people spoke Muysccubun, a language of the Chibchan langu ...

. Guasca was ruled by a ''

cacique A ''cacique'' (Latin American ; ; feminine form: ''cacica'') was a tribal chieftain of the Taíno people, the indigenous inhabitants at European contact of the Bahamas, the Greater Antilles, and the northern Lesser Antilles. The term is a Spa ...

'' who was loyal to the ''cacique'' of

. In the

religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...

of the Muisca, the

Siecha Lakes The Siecha Lakes are three glacial lakes located in the Chingaza Natural National Park in Cundinamarca, Colombia. The Andean lakes are considered sacred in the religion of the Muisca who inhabited the area before the Spanish conquest of the Mu ...

were considered sacred.

Etymology

According to

friar A friar is a member of one of the mendicant orders founded in the twelfth or thirteenth century; the term distinguishes the mendicants' itinerant apostolic character, exercised broadly under the jurisdiction of a superior general, from the ol ...

and Muisca scholar Bernardo de Lugo the name Guasca is derived from ''guâ'', "mountain range" and ''shucâ''; "skirt". The name thus means "skirt of the mountain range", indicating the position of the village with respect to the

Eastern Ranges The Eastern Ranges is an Australian rules football team in the NAB League, the Victorian statewide under-18s competition. The club is a founding member of the competition (1992) and has produced several players for the Australian Football Leagu ...

of the Colombian Andes.

Economy

Main economical activities of Guasca are

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

;

potato The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...

es,

carrot The carrot ('' Daucus carota'' subsp. ''sativus'') is a root vegetable, typically orange in color, though purple, black, red, white, and yellow cultivars exist, all of which are domesticated forms of the wild carrot, ''Daucus carota'', nat ...

s, flowers and

strawberries The garden strawberry (or simply strawberry; ''Fragaria × ananassa'') is a widely grown hybrid species of the genus '' Fragaria'', collectively known as the strawberries, which are cultivated worldwide for their fruit. The fruit is widely ap ...

and

dairy A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting or processing (or both) of animal milk – mostly from cows or buffaloes, but also from goats, sheep, horses, or camels – for human consumption. A dairy is typically located on ...

farming.

Tourism

Guasca is known for

ecotourism Ecotourism is a form of tourism involving responsible travel (using sustainable transport) to natural areas, conserving the environment, and improving the well-being of the local people. Its purpose may be to educate the traveler, to provide funds ...

and has access to

Chingaza Natural National Park Chingaza National Natural Park ( es, Parque Nacional Natural (PNN) Chingaza) is located in the Eastern Ranges of the Colombian Andes, northeast of Bogotá, Colombia in the departments of Cundinamarca and Meta. The elevation in the park, to the ea ...

. Other natural areas are Los Encenillos and the

. One of the oldest hotels and restaurants in the area is ''Café la Huerta''.

Born in Guasca

Mariano Ospina Rodríguez Mariano Ospina Rodríguez was a Colombian politician, journalist and lawyer, founder of the Colombian Conservative Party and later President of Colombia between 1857 and 1861Arismendi Posada, Ignacio; ''Gobernantes Colombianos''; trans. Colom ...

- president of the

Granadine Confederation The Granadine Confederation ( es, Confederación Granadina) was a short-lived federal republic established in 1858 as a result of a constitutional change replacing the Republic of New Granada. It consisted of the present-day nations of Colombia an ...

Trivia

* The plant ''

Galinsoga parviflora ''Galinsoga parviflora'' is a herbaceous plant in the Asteraceae (daisy) family. It has several common names including guasca ( Colombia), pacpa yuyo, paco yuyo and waskha (Peru), burrionera (Ecuador), albahaca silvestre and saetilla (Argentina), ...

'' is called "Guasca(s)" in Colombia and an essential ingredient of the soup

ajiaco Ajiaco () is a soup common to Colombia, Cuba, and Peru.Clark, Melissa (October 28, 2011)"From Colombia, the Ultimate One-Pot Meal" ''The New York Times''. Accessed April 2016. Scholars have debated the origin of the dish. The dish is especially p ...

* The spiders '' Anapis guasca'', ''

Deinopis guasca ''Deinopis'', also known as net-casting spiders, gladiator spiders and ogre-faced spiders, is a genus of net-casting spiders that was first described by W. S. MacLeay in 1839. Its distribution is widely tropical and subtropical. They catch thei ...

'', and moth '' Dognina guasca'' are found in and named after Guasca

Gallery

References

External links

Café la Huerta
{{Municipalities cundinamarca department Municipalities of Cundinamarca Department Populated places established in 1600 1600 establishments in the Spanish Empire Muisca Confederation Muysccubun