The Hotel Del Salto: Colombia’s Once-Abandoned “Haunted” Inn
Wikimedia CommonsThe Hotel del Salto, a once-thriving mansion ruined by nearby pollution.
The Hotel del Salto was a haunting building perched on a cliff overlooking the Tequendama Falls, located 18 miles away from Bogotá, Colombia.
Constructed as a mansion in 1923 and converted into a hotel in 1928, the building was designed to capitalize on the waterfall’s natural beauty and the area’s appeal as a leisure destination for Colombia’s wealthy elite.
During its early years, the Hotel del Salto thrived as an exclusive getaway where Bogotá’s upper classes would escape the city to enjoy the misty grandeur of Tequendama Falls. The hotel was seen as the height of sophistication, offering elegant rooms where guests could experience the beauty of one of Colombia’s most impressive natural wonders.
But the hotel’s fortunes declined due to an environmental catastrophe.
Wikimedia CommonsA series of tragic deaths at the once-abandoned hotel gave the building a haunting reputation.
As Bogotá’s population exploded through the 20th century, the Bogotá River became increasingly polluted with industrial waste and sewage. By the 1950s and 1960s, the once-pristine waterfall was fed by a contaminated river that sometimes produced foul odors and made the cascading waters murky.
Understandably, the romantic appeal started to vanish as pollution destroyed the area’s natural beauty. Tourism evaporated, and the hotel closed in the 1990s, unable to attract guests to what had become an environmental disaster. Soon enough, the abandoned Hotel del Salto gained an even darker reputation due to the suicides that took place there.
The Tequendama Falls had already long been associated with suicide — the tall cliff attracted some who were seeking to end their lives — but new local legends claimed that the hotel itself became haunted by restless spirits.
Despite this, the Hotel del Salto is no longer completely abandoned, as it has since been largely renovated and reopened as the Tequendama Falls Museum of Biodiversity and Culture, emphasizing environmental conservation.
