I live in Rosales. This is a sector near between Chapinero and El Nogal–in fact, it might even be a part of Chapinero, technically. Rosales is a pretty upscale neighborhood, but not the one people (or guide books) talk about so much. It’s a little more discreet than some others, and also a little smaller. Most of the streets are charming (not the actual pavement, which sucks almost as much as the pavement in other parts of town does), and there are historic mansions now used as businesses or restaurants mixed in with the mostly modern brick apartment houses. The apartment houses in Rosales, I think, are more interesting architecturally than they are in most of the rest of the north part of the city, even though they are mostly the same concrete-trimmed brick boxes that characterize most of Bogota in the past 15 years or so.
I would describe Rosales as being stuck up against the mountain (and going up the mountain as far as possible) between approximately calle 69 and calle 80, and having the Septima as its western border. I have no clue if that resembles the legal description, but for neighborhood atmosphere, that’s what Rosales means to me. Therefore, it’s really only about 60 square blocks–kind of small and intimate.
This is one of those cool city neighborhoods where people live and play, but it doesn’t attract thousands of others from outside the neighborhood. There are a fair number of foreigners living here, since it’s a little upscale, and a couple of blocks of restaurants in an area known as Zona G (Gourmet Zone, to be written about later) draw in diners looking for cool and kinda upscale places to hang out, but it’s nothing like the mob tourist scene in Zona Rosa or Parque 93.
What’s good about the neighborhood is it’s probably the most accessible in the city. A few of the largest banks have headquarters in Rosales, and a fair number of embassies are also there. It’s as easy to get almost anywhere in the northern part of town from Rosales as from anywhere else. The airport is about half an hour away, the Septima and the Autopista, two of the major thoroughfares, are also convenient. So, you can be all the way downtown at? Bolivar Plaza or all the way uptown at Portal Norte pretty quickly.
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