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In a city nestled in the Andes mountains, modernity and tradition meld in Bogotá, Colombia, near the lake that is considered the origin place of the legend of El Dorado.

Colombia is the most recent location of the United Nations Biodiversity Conference of the Parties (COP 16), held in Cali, a city southeast of the country’s capital. The rich flora of Colombia surrounds even Bogotá in the mountains.

By day, the streets bustle with tourists buying beaded earrings, origami animals or sizzling empanadas from food stands, or gawking at the colorful graffiti that paints the city.

Indigenous artists paint the natural world around them as a symbol of the long history Bogotá has, both before and after colonizers came to the city in search of gold.

Colombia is the second-most biodiverse country in the world, according to the World Wildlife Fund, and in graffiti across Bogotá artists have painted rainbows of the country’s beauty and indigenous peoples.

However, the biodiversity, and the ancestral traditions and families that make their livings off of the rich variety of plants in Colombia, are at risk of becoming extinct.

Full story originally published with North by Northwestern.