Colombia is about to open the longest cable cart system in the world. The impressive structure is located in the Santander department and took 14 months to complete. The official opening is scheduled for January 24th, with president Uribe set to attend.
The cable cart operates in the Chicamocha national park in Panachi and is no less than six kilometers long. The system contains 39 cabins, each of which has a capacity of eight passengers. The maximum speed of just over twenty kilometers per hour allows for about 4500 visitors to be transported on a normal day.
The system covers the entire Chicamocha canyon from La Mesa de los Santos to Panachi and includes three stations in between, allowing people to get out for a moment and enjoy the park by foot.
Panachi director Carlos Fernando Sánchez Aguirre is expecting good things to come from this project. “There isn’t a similar system anywhere in the world at this moment,” he said.
“This will certainly be the number one tourist attraction in Colombia, we don’t doubt that for a minute.”
The project cost about 35 billion Pesos (19 million USD), but if it indeed attracts the amount of visitors Sánchez hopes for, the expenses should eventually be made up for.
The system is opened from Tuesday to Sunday, from 9am to 6pm. If the Monday is a national holiday the system will open that day, but will be closed the following Tuesday. That remaining day is to be used for maintenance.
The Chicamocha Canyon offers, apart from a spectacular landscape, outdoor activities such as paragliding, kayaking, mountain climbing, camping and fishing. The park is located at about fifty kilometers from Bucaramanga, the department’s capital.