RI 29 COLOMBIA
La Lindosa, Capricho, Cerritos

October 2016

Only a few kilometers from San José del Guaviare, we find four rock outcrops rising some 640 m above the lowland plains of the Orinoco watershed, and only a few kilometers from the northern edge of the Amazon basin. Two of them are nepheline syenite rocks found nowhere else in Colombia and the others are form from Cretaceous sedimentary rock. La Lindosa formation, holds beautiful wall paintings dating over 10.000 yrs. old. All these elements create an entanglement of flora and fauna harboring species from the Andes, Amazon and Guyana/Orinoco shields.

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The Guaviare region has been the epicenter of Colombia armed conflicts, which has halted any scientific exploration in the past. Their inhabitants are descendants of people who fled violence from other Colombian regions 100 yrs. ago, but have develop a profound connection with the forest which provides water for their crops and local ecotourism initiatives. Together with their government they agreed and decided these resources are worth protecting.

In 2016 thanks to the progress of the peace accords with FARC, a great window of opportunity opened for our team to carry out—in broad strokes—an inventory of the wonders of the region.