The Most Beautiful River in the World

Caño Cristales is a famous river in Colombia known as the “river of five colors”, which is also considered by many to be “the most beautiful river in the world”. The river has also been called the “liquid rainbow”.
During several months each year, Caño Cristales becomes a rainbow of vibrant colors including red, green, yellow, blue and black hues in a natural display that reportedly happens nowhere else on Earth.
Several readers on the Medellín Guru website asked about Caño Cristales and when is the best time to go. So, I wrote this up-to-date guide to Caño Cristales with plenty of time to plan for the next season that starts in June this year.

 

Serranía de la Macarena National Park

Caño Cristales is located in the Serrania de la Macarena National Park, which is located in the Meta department of Colombia. In addition, Caño Cristales is a tributary of the Guayabero River.
Serranía de la Macarena is a protected national park in Colombia that covers 2,500 square miles (6,200 square kilometers). The Serranía de la Macarena park is located where three large ecosystems in Colombia meet, each of them with a high diversity of flora and fauna: the Amazon rainforest, the Andes mountain range and the savannah plains of the East Llanos.
Serranía de La Macarena is considered one of the most biodiverse areas of Colombia. It reportedly is home to over 500 species of birds, 100 species of reptiles, over 2,000 species of plants and over 1,200 species of insects.
Until the mid-2000s, nearby guerrilla activity rendered this part of Colombia almost completely inaccessible, as it was considered an area that was too dangerous. But the military took back control of the area several years ago and it’s now generally considered safe. And it has become a growing ecotourism destination.

The animal life of the forests,

 

The animal life of the forests of the Amazon and Pacific coastal Chocó regions is particularly rich and has supported a considerable export trade to North American and European zoos. It includes anteaters, sloths, several monkey species, tapirs, peccaries, spectacled bears, deer, and such large tropical rodents as agoutis, pacas, and capybaras. Carnivores include pumas and jaguars, which were considered endangered species by the 1980s, and raccoons.