One thing we’ve always done at Nudist Day is bring you stories about nudists and nudism in far flung, unexpected, places. Recently we found-out that there’s an active nudist group called “Naturismo Bogota” in Colombia, based in the capital. We asked Edgar Lopez, organizer of said group, to tell us a bit about naturism in his country.
According to Lopez, social nudism has only existed for 10 years in Colombia. There’s no officially recognized nude beaches and no clubs in his country, and there’s no nudist association, although Lopez hopes to change that soon. He told us that there are several beaches within the boundaries of the Tayrona national park near Santa Marta on the Caribbean sea where everybody knows nudists go, but none of them have any official status.
“Naturismo Bogota” has been in existence since 2004, and uses a Yahoo discussion group to recruit new members and to keep in touch with existing ones which on June 7, 2007 numbered around 585. Men far outnumber women by a ratio of nine to one, perhaps an indication that Colombian women have yet to warm to the idea of social nudism. The media, including RCN television, Telemundo, Soho magazine and the El Tiempo newspaper have interviewed them countless times. Every time a story about them is published or aired, the group’s membership increases significantly, Lopez claims. Lopez stresses, however, that the group does not seek to promote itself actively, in order to avoid fomenting controversy. Many areas of the country are very conservative and would consider public nudity immoral, he goes on to say.
Photo courtesy of Naturismo Bogota. Copyright to same.
Lopez says his group sometimes gets together in members’ homes to practice yoga, but Bogota itself is too cold to practice nudism, the average temperature oscillating between 14 and 20 degrees Celsius all year, thanks to the city’s extreme altitude. Consequently, typical nudist activities such as sunning and swimming in pools takes place in the Melgar area, which is in a valley outside Bogota where temperatures are typically 28 to 30 C. One of the activities Lopez organizes frequently are nude hikes in the mountains east of Bogota (see photo). Whenever they encounter non-nudists along the trails, the groups’ members cover themselves with towels and the exchanges with the non-initiated have generally been cordial.
