After living for twelve years in Venezuela, I returned to Baraanquilla in Colombia. In Caracas, Venezuela, it was the place where I met photography and where I learned almost everything about it, it was also where I developed one of my main strengths, macro photography.

In Caracas I used to go to the fantastic Botanical Garden that the city has and I took photos of the great diversity of arthropods, flowers and other organisms that can be found in that place. When I arrived in Barranquilla I came across another reality, the city of Barranquilla is not highlighted by the presence of green areas or nearby forests, so I felt frustrated and practically did not do macro photography during the two years I've been in this city. To be able to do this type of photos, I used to travel to the city of Santa Marta and go to the University of Magdalena Campus, which has many green areas.

Jumping Spider. Universidad del Magdalena Campus, Santa Marta, Colombia.

But since a long time ago I had heard about the Botanical Garden of Barranquilla, that filled me with emotion because I imagined a large space full of trees and shrubs with a great diversity of organisms to immortalize through photography. One day I went to visit that place just to know him and plan a photographic outing. When I arrived at that place I felt a little disappointed, since it was not a botanical garden in the strict sense of the term, but a space or green area that the community had preserved and that it was actually a park with some sports courts, children's play areas, exercise machines and green areas with many ornamental plants. The only thing that managed to get my attention was a small watercourse that crossed this park with some natural vegetation along the course of that stream.

Barranquilla Botanical Garden.

Something more than a year after that visit to the botanical garden, I decided to try my luck and return to that place in search of the giant little stars of my photos. I must say that I did not have great expectations, but as I began my journey I found an abundance and diversity of life unexpected for me, and I realized that this small place was actually an oasis where life made its way through the concrete jungle of this city.

Today I want to share with you some of the images that I have managed to capture in the Botanical Garden Park of Barranquilla. It is my wish that you enjoy them as much as I have.