Travel Guide Caño Cristales

The "stream of crystals" is a tributary of the Guayabero River, located in the Serranía de la Macarena, near the village of the same name. It is one of the most spectacular natural sites in Colombia, a succession of waterfalls and rock formations including basins, tunnels and natural pools. But Caño Cristales is most famous for the colors that line the riverbed. Shades of yellow, red, green, blue and black given by an endemic aquatic plant (it is not an algae), the Macarenia Clavigera, which changes color depending on the intensity of its exposure to the sun. Caño Cristales is thus nicknamed the "river of five colors", but also "the most beautiful river in the world", "the river of the gods", or "the river that escaped from paradise"! Be careful though: the colors only appear between the end of May and November, during the wet season, when the water level is at its highest.The site is accessible to tourism only since 2010, it was previously under the control of FARC. The rules of access are drastic, both to protect the tourist and to preserve the river and its surroundings. One does not bathe in the middle of the aquatic plants, even less if one has applied sun cream or anti-mosquito (forbidden). The ecosystem is pure and very fragile, do not leave any trace! We can worry about the constant increase in the number of tourists on this natural jewel, even if the access is now limited on the trails. On the other hand, tourism, if it is practiced in a responsible way, is perhaps the only rampart against the galloping deforestation of the surroundings, for the breeding, which did not cease increasing since the departure of the FARC. Some agencies will propose you to explore more deeply the Serranía de la Macarena, the first natural reserve (1948) of the country, which was later declared national park, then biological heritage of the Humanity by UNESCO. It is an area with a particularly rich biodiversity, as it is located at the junction of the Cordillera Oriental, the eastern plains of the Llanos and the Amazonian forest. This mountainous chain of 120 km long and 30 km wide, which rises up to 1 600 m, is not part of the Andes. It would be connected to the plateau of the Guianas.