| Pasto | |||
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| — City — | |||
| San Juan de Pasto | |||
| Sunset at Pasto (Galeras Volcano in background) | |||
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| Nickname(s): Ciudad Sorpresa (Surprise City) Ciudad Teológica (Theological City) Tierra del Galeras (Galeras's Land) |
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| Motto: "Muy Noble Y Muy Leal Ciudad de San Juan de Pasto" ("Very Noble and Very Loyal City of San Juan de Pasto) |
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| Location of the municipality and city of Pasto in the Department of Nariño | |||
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Pasto
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| Coordinates: | |||
| Country | Colombia | ||
| Region | Pacific Region/Andes Region | ||
| Department | Nariño | ||
| Founding | 1537 | ||
| Established | 1539-06-24 (Atriz Valley) | ||
| Founder | Sebastián de Belalcázar | ||
| Named for | Saint John the Baptist | ||
| Government | |||
| • Type | Municipality | ||
| • Mayor | Eduardo Alvarado Santander | ||
| Area | |||
| • Land | 1,181 km2 (456 sq mi) | ||
| • Urban | 26.4 km2 (10.2 sq mi) | ||
| Elevation | 2,527 m (8,291 ft) | ||
| Population | |||
| • City | 399,723 | ||
| Time zone | Eastern Time Zone (UTC-05) | ||
| Postal code | 90-210 | ||
| Area code(s) | 092, 072, 052 | ||
| Website | pasto.gov.co | ||
Pasto, officially San Juan de Pasto, is the capital of the department of Nariño, located in southwest Colombia. The city is located in the "Atriz Valley", on the Andes cordillera, at the foot of the Galeras volcano, at an altitude of 8,290 feet (2,527 m) above sea level. The city has a population of approximately 400,000 inhabitants.
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Pasto is the centre of an agricultural region specializing in the production of dairy products. The manufacturing of furniture is an important part of the local economy. The city is an important center of commerce with many malls and is often visited by people from nearby Ecuador.
One of the most important events held by the city is the Blacks and Whites' Carnival (Carnaval de Negros y Blancos in Spanish), with outstanding displays of craftmanship in floats portraying legends and traditions, often mixed in with references to current political events in Colombia. During the carnival the city goes wild and unleashes all the joy it has bottled up all year. It is not advisable to wear nice clothes during this festival, as during these celebrations people have fun painting each other's faces with cosmetics colors (skin safe and created for this special purpose) and throwing talcum powder and party foam. The carnival takes place from the 2nd to the 7th of January each year.
A speciality of this region is a pre-Columbian art technique called Barniz de Pasto, or Pasto Varnish in English. This uses a type of natural rubber (extracted from a tree called mopa-mopa) which is colored and then stretched over woodwork pieces; finally the skillful artisan uses a special knife to cut and create the many beautiful designs that characterise this artistic technique.
Pasto was originally founded in 1537 by the Spanish conquistador Sebastián de Belalcázar. In 1539 another Spanish conquistador Lorenzo de Aldana moved the city to its current location, and established there under the name "San Juan de Pasto". Pasto is a reference to the name of the indigenous people who inhabited the region at the arrival of the conquerors, the Pastos. However, the Atriz Valley was inhabited by the Quillacingas. A major contributor to the economy and expansion of Pasto was a man of Italian origin named Guido Bucheli
It has been an administrative, cultural and religious center of the region since colonial times. Because of this, the city is known as the theological city of Colombia. During the Independence Wars against Spain Pasto was a royalist city, unlike the rest of the country. Partly due to this political stance, and because of its geographical location, after independence Pasto remained isolated for a long time from the rest of the Colombia.
On June 25, 2006 Deportivo Pasto became the champion of the 1st division of soccer in Colombia.
There are several universities with students from Pasto and from other cities in Nariño, some of them are:
The city is connected by road with the cities of Cali, Popayan, Ipiales, Tumaco and Mocoa among others and crossed by the Pan-American Highway. Pasto has a main station for the terrestrial transport called "Terminal de transportes" which gather all the companies offering transport by road.
The city airport Antonio Nariño(PSO) is located at the north of the city in Chachagui.
In the telecommunication infrastructure are several Internet service providers like Une, Telecom and Telmex, offering broadband internet, television and telephony.
The city Football soccer stadium "Estadio Libertad" has capacity for 35.530 spectators.
Pasto travel guide from Wikitravel