Colombian Amazon Basin Information

Amazon River

Amazon sunset

Located in the far south eastern of Colombia with an area of 109.665 square kilometers including forests, great rivers and hundreds of creeks and streams is the department of Amazonas, one of the largest in the country.

The capital of Amazonas is Leticia and another important town is Puerto Nariño. Other towns are Metro Manila, Pedrera, Arica, Mirití Parana, House, La Chorrera, Puerto Santander, Puerto Joy and Victoria, the state bordered to the north with the Vaupés and Caquetá, on the east by the Republic of Brazil, south and west to the Republic of Peru and the state of Putumayo Colombia.


The Amazonas department consists of plains, together with the other territories of the Republics of Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela. It doesn’t have mayor variations in their structural conformation and altitudes covered by dense forests and crossed by many rivers.

The weather its entirety warm and humid, surrounded by well-defined periods of rain, totaling an average of around 3,000 mm. a year.

Dentro de su territorio, el Amazonas cuenta con innumerables ríos, entre los que se destacan el Amazonas, el más caudaloso de la tierra, el Putumayo, el Caquetá, el Apaporis, el Cahuinarí, el Mirití-Paraná y el Igara-Paraná.

                            

Within its territory, the Amazon has many rivers, among which include the Amazon (the mightiest of the earth), Putumayo, Caquetá, Apaporis the Cahuinarí the Mirití-Paraná-Paraná and Igara.

The department of Amazonas has some of the most diverse fauna and flora in the world, which is considered the Colombian department to be handled with the best concept in terms of environmental development.

In pre-Columbian times, the current department of Amazonas territory was inhabited by a large number of indigenous groups, several of which remain despite the destructive ravages of man "modern" but its forest environment remains. The most important ethnic group which remains is the descendants of the Arawak linguistic family, Tucano and the Caribbean.

The first conqueror to reach these lands was Francisco de Orellana, near 1524, after he called up the river Two Amazonas, in memory of the Indian warriors who attacked him during the trip. 

Amazon Lotus Flower

In the colony, these lands belonged to the province of Popayan, which covered the whole north region of the Napo and Amazon to the mouth of the Putumayo River later. Since independence, the governments of Peru and Brazil, began a policy of colonization to annex the territories of Colombia, after several conflicts, Colombia remain only one exit of the Amazon River, called El Trapezio Amazonico. During the time of Great Colombia, the Amazon belonged to the state of Asuay stretched from Peru, and Boyacá, until the mid-nineteenth century, belonged to the National Territory of Caquetá in 1886, the Department of Cauca in 1928, Later on it became Commissariat of the Amazon in 1931. In 1934, Colombia created the Special Commission of the Amazon, with its capital is Leticia, and finally, the July 4, 1991, the Constitution Colombia rose to the rank of a state.

Economic activity in the department focuses on activities such as fishing, wood, rubber, gum and pendare, tourism, trade and services, especially provided by the state.

The agricultural sector is barely subsistence, as poverty and acidity of the soils only favors the conservation of forests. In some areas near Amazon, Putumayo and Caquetá-Apaporis rivers have small productions of corn, cassava, bananas and rice.

In a perspective on tourism, the Amazon has excellent characteristics for the development of ecological tourism and adventure. Leticia and the journey down the Amazon River that runs from Leticia to Puerto Nariño and in the other towns in the department,  you can find beautiful landscapes and sites of great interest to visitors such as the "Monkey Island", Reserves and Indian villages, The parks, Amacayacu and Tarapoto lakes. Near the communities Araracuara (Caquetá) and Puerto Santander (Amazonas) the Caquetá Rivers decrease its channel passing several miles, called the “Araracuara Canyon". Going downstream the river itself we can find Cahuinarí National Park, where you could appreciate the fauna and flora, and you can visit indigenous villages and the old factory "Arana" where rubber was exploited in the Amazon.