San Gil

San Gil was founded on 17 March 1689 by Don Gil Cabrera Dávalos and Leonardo Correa de Betancourt, on land between the Sogamoso and Fonce rivers. It was established as a town of Spaniards, and it grew as a market and administrative centre for the surrounding farming country of the Guanentá province.

The Comuneros revolt of 1781 against new colonial taxes broke out in nearby Socorro, and its rebels marched on Bogotá. San Gil's main church, the Cathedral of the Holy Cross, was built in 1791. The town remained the commercial centre of southern Santander, helped by its position on the road between Bogotá and Bucaramanga.

Its modern identity came from tourism. The rivers and canyons around it offer rafting, kayaking, caving and hiking, and in 2004 the government of Santander officially named San Gil the tourist capital of the department. Commercial charter flights began at its small airport, Los Pozos, in September 2023.

San Gil's culture is that of the Santander countryside. Santandereanos have a reputation across Colombia for bluntness and a quick temper, and the local speech can sound abrupt to outsiders. The central square and the riverside Gallineral park are the town's gathering places, and the cathedral remains the focus of religious life.

Adventure tourism has given the town a second, younger character. Backpackers and Colombian visitors arrive to raft the Fonce and harder rivers, to explore caves near Curití, to swim beneath waterfalls and to paraglide over the Chicamocha Canyon, and tour companies, hostels and cafés cluster near the entrance to the Gallineral park. Rafting trips on the rivers of the area range from gentle class 1 water to class 5 rapids.

The Guane past is remembered in place names and in foods such as the hormigas culonas, the large ants eaten as a snack. Tejo, Colombia's traditional throwing sport, in which metal discs are thrown at targets set with small charges of gunpowder, is also played here.

The 2018 census counted about 56,000 people in the municipality, the large majority of them in the town itself, making San Gil the third-largest urban area of Santander after Bucaramanga and Barrancabermeja. Official projections put the population above 60,000 by 2022, with growth in the town while the rural population shrinks. It is the main urban and economic centre of the south of the department, serving farming towns for many kilometres around with shops, banks, schools, hospitals and transport.

Commerce, services, agriculture and tourism make up the economy. The town's tourism businesses — rafting and caving operators, guesthouses, restaurants and transport — employ many residents. The town is spread along the valley of the Fonce, which, with smaller streams, also supplies its drinking water.

Days are warm, and life starts early, with the centre busy from the morning. At weekends and on public holidays the town fills with visitors from Bogotá and Bucaramanga, and hotels and buses are crowded, while the weekdays are calmer.

San Gil eats the hearty food of the Guanentá province. Carne oreada, a traditional thin cut of beef, is a regional staple. Mute santandereano is a hearty soup of chickpeas, beef rib and tripe with plenty of vegetables, sometimes with white maize; goat (cabro) is a local favourite, and pepitoria is a stew of rice, vegetables and goat offal and blood. The arepa santandereana is made of yellow maize with cassava and pork crackling, which makes it thick and crunchy.

The best-known local food is the hormiga culona: large queen ants, eaten since the time of the Guane people, with legs and wings removed, soaked in salt water and roasted. They are harvested for about nine weeks of the rainy season each year.

For everyday eating, the menú del día — soup, main course and juice — is served in restaurants around the central square, alongside bakeries and roast-chicken shops. Obleas, thin wafers spread with arequipe caramel, are sold along the region's highways, and aguapanela and guarapo are traditional drinks.