Pasto, Colombia

Pasto, officially San Juan de Pasto (Spanish pronunciation: [saŋ ˈxwan de ˈpasto]; "Saint John of Pasto"), is the capital of the department of Nariño, in southern Colombia. Pasto was founded in 1537 and named after indigenous people of the area. In the 2018 census, the municipality had a population of 392,930. Pasto is located in the Atriz Valley on the Andes cordillera, at the foot of the Galeras volcano.

The etymology of the word Pasto can be traced to the indigenous people who inhabited the region at the arrival of the Spanish conquerors, the Pastos. However, the Atriz Valley itself was inhabited by the Quillacingas. In the 2018 Colombian census, 163,873 people self-identified as Pasto, and in the 2010 Ecuadorian census, 1,409 people self-identified as Pasto.

Pasto was founded in 1537 by the Spanish conquistador Sebastián de Belalcázar. In 1539 Lorenzo de Aldana, also a Spanish conquistador, moved the city to its current location, and established it under the name "San Juan de Pasto". A major contributor to the economy and expansion of Pasto was a man of Italian origin named Guido Bucheli.^{[citation needed]}

Pasto 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.^{[citation needed]} During the Independence Wars against Spain Pasto was a royalist city. 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 Colombia.

Most of the city lies between 2,520 metres (8,270 ft) and 2,700 metres (8,900 ft) elevation above sea level, while some settlement exceeds 3,000 metres (9,800 ft) on the flanks of the Galeras Volcano, which stands at 4,276 metres (14,029 ft).

Under the Köppen climate classification, Pasto features an unusual altitude-influenced warm-summer Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification Csb) that tends to possess the wet season of the southern hemisphere, for example the section of Quito that is south of the equator. Pasto has relatively consistent temperatures throughout the course of the year. Despite the fact that the city is located close to the equator, due to its high altitude, Pasto's average high temperatures typically range only between 15 and 18 °C (59.0 and 64.4 °F) while average low temperatures are usually between 9 and 11 °C (48.2 and 51.8 °F). Pasto averages roughly 800 millimetres or 31 inches of rainfall annually.

In the municipality, 11.1% of establishments are dedicated to industry; 56.0% to trade; 28.9% to services and 4.1% to other activities.

In urban areas, the main economic activities are trade and service industries, as well as some small businesses, about half of which are craft manufacturing. The larger companies in Nariño are located in Pasto and are largely involved with food, beverages and furniture production. For the development of trade, mainly with the neighboring country of Ecuador, there are several shopping centers. The Pasto Chamber of Commerce was established in 1918 and according to the 2008 yearbook had 14,066 commercial establishments of which 58.5% were engaged in trade and repair of vehicles. In the rural areas, there is predominantly farming and cattle ranching, as well as a small-scale mining industry.