Inara Pey: Living in a Modemworld

In May 2020 I visited a region design by Jade Koltai which – as with her work with the much-missed Serene Footman – was based on a real world location: the Hotel De Salto, Columbia. It was a fascinating visualisation of a place with an equally fascinating history, some of which I touched upon when writing about my 2020 visit.

Well, Jade’s Hotel De Salto is once again open to tourists to visit in Second Life, and as with the original, again sits above the gorge of the Salto del Tequendama, or Tequendama Falls. With the return of the build come some new elements I don’t recall from the first iteration – although they could be things I simply missed back in May 2020; either way, they provided an added bonus in re-visiting this eye-catching build.

As I noted back in my original piece, the Hotel Del Salto is located some 30 km south-west of Bogotá, Columbia’s capital city, and within an area steeped in legend. The waterfall, for example, is believed by the indigenous Muisca people (also known as the Chibcha, also the name of their language) of the Andean plateau to have been created by Bochica, the founding hero of their civilisation, who (amongst other feats of leadership) used his staff to break the rocks of the high savannah plateaus to release the waters covering them, providing the Musica with rich and fertile lands for settlement. In fact, Tequendama, an ancient settlement close to the falls, is regarded as one of Colombia’s earliest permanent settlements.

Measuring 132 metres in their main height, the actual falls are an impressive sight, and the location of another Musica /  Chibcha people’s legend, being the place where it is said that in order to escape the Spanish conquest and its violently enforced evangelization of the Americas, the indigenous people of the area would leap from the falls, becoming eagles able to fly to their freedom.

The story of the hotel commenced in 1923, and became wrapped in its own semi-tragic legend. Designed and built by Carlos Arturo Tapias at the behest of the 11th President of the present-day Republic of Columbia, Pedro Nel Ospina Vázquez, the building reflected French architectural lines. Its original purpose was to be a private mansion where the elite of Bogotá could gather and celebrate their wealth and elegance in a setting of supreme beauty and breath-taking views  – the building built against the very lip of the gorge carved by the nearby waterfall.

By 1928, the building had become a more formalised hotel, opening its doors to visitors from around the world, a role it was to perform for around 50 years. With its spectacular views of the falls, available from both the rooms and suites on the gorge side of the hotel and – especially – from the broad dining and tea terrace extending from the rear of the hotel to the edge of the gorge, the hotel did attract many. However, not all of them were happy visitors, with the hotel gaining a reputation for attracting the broken-hearted who would – perhaps as a result of the ancient Chibcha legend of people throwing themselves from the nearby falls to escape the terror of the conquistadors – throw themselves to their deaths from the nearby cliffs. These tragedies further enhanced the Hotel’s reputation, as it was said the cries of those taking their own lives could be heard from within the hotel, leading to claims that it was also haunted.

However, in the 1970s, the Hotel’s fortunes entered a decline. Bogotá has undergone expansion at a pace that far outstripped its supporting infrastructure. As a result, the river serving the Tequendama Falls and following through the gorge below the hotel has become the city’s primary sewer. This became so bad that the falls gained the dubious distinction of becoming “the largest wastewater falls in the world”, and the river regarded as one of the most contaminated in the world, with its stench rising to the level of the hotel. A dam built across the river above Bogotá further restricted the flow of water reaching the falls whilst conversely increasing the among of raw sewerage it contained, and by the 1990s, Hotel Del Salto had closed its doors and was simply left to nature and to rot.

It is in this state that Jade has again chosen to represent the Hotel: an empty, mouldering shell. Rooms lay deserted, vines and creepers scale walls and hang from rafters, the branches of bushes and trees intrude through windows that have long since lost their glazing; paint fades on walls and doorways gape slack-jawed onto balconies, their doors also long-since vanished.

However, within its empty bulk, there are still reminders of the hotel’s glorious past, together with echoes of the ancient history of the Tequendama area and of the Musica / Chibcha.

For example, one of the broad terraces offers a parasol-shaded lounger from which to appreciate the full glory of Salto del Tequendama, here depicted long before any upriver dam stemmed the full spate of the the river. Directly behind the Hotel, another terrace presents an ornate cast-iron table and chairs set for tea offering, again offering a view of the falls and one down the lush gash of the gorge, humming birds and a parakeet adding to the exotic sense of indulgence.

Meanwhile, a balcony serving one of the long-since deserted suites of the hotel offers both a comfortable bed for use as a latter-day chaise lounge, a gramophone on the floor for those requiring music perhaps reflective of the hotel’s early years. Watched over by a cockatoo, this balcony carries some of the echoes of the ancient past in the form of painted skulls displayed on the parapet guarding its edge.

A further suggestion of the region’s ancient heritage might be found by descending the stairs which cling to the stone walls of Jade’s built as they support the Hotel from the rocks below, offering a route down to the water’s edge facing the foot of the falls. Here Jade has taken a little artistic liberty, turning the river into an enclosed body of water, allowing her to present evidence of ancient structures which help acknowledge the rich history of Tequendama, as well as providing a further retreat for those who wish to tarry for a while within the region.

Another place in which to pass the time can be found on the steps of the north face of the gorge. This takes the form of a sturdy, if rusting tower topped by plants and places for couples and individuals to sit. Reaching it, however, does require a sense of adventure and a trip along one of Cube Republic’s excellent rope climbs!

For the last 14 years, the original Hotel Del Salto has been undergoing restoration, initially as project undertaken by the National University of Colombia’s Institute of Natural Sciences. This was part of a broader (and on-going) effort “to recover the region and make it free, clean, and surrounded by a healthy ecosystem.” Initial exhibitions at the Hotel under the Institute’s umbrella commenced in 2013, with the museum officially opening to the public in 2016.

However, according to several reviews of the restored building, much of this work involved a complete abandonment of its original interior décor, settling instead for a modern, clinical white plaster finish, leaving the building’s interior a faint shadow of its former self. Similarly, much of the exterior of the building has been whitewashed, possibly in an effort to  protect the stone and brickwork against the ravages of the local climate, although visitors have again critiqued this as eliminating much of the building’s splendour.

But however one might find the original Hotel Del Salto – should one opt to visit Columbia! – there can be little doubt that Jade’s interpretation is a welcome returnee to Second Life, and represents a vision of what might actually be the most evocative era of the real Hotel’s history, and does so in a manner that both pays homage to the broader historical context of the Tequendama area whilst perfectly fitting the constraints of a Second Life region.

SLurl Details

• Hotel Del Salto (Overland Hills, rated Moderate)