Location
The site is beside the Meta River, one of the most important transportation axes of Colombia, which connects the east of the Vichada region with the Andean region and the Atlantic Ocean through the Orinoco River and Venezuela.
The Colombian Orinoco has the vocation to be a tropical rainforest, just like its Venezuelan alter ego on the other side of the river that became so famous thanks to the music of Enya. The geologists explain that the crash of the Nazca and Latin American tectonic plates first created three mountain ranges in Western Colombia.
The subsequent volcanic eruptions and massive erosion simply covered the part of the rainforest West of the Orinoco River some 800,000 to 1 million years ago. All the rivers, including the Amazon, which used to flood towards the Pacific Ocean, were forced to find their way to the Atlantic. It is no surprise that this dramatic reversal of hydro systems caused biodiversity to explode. Nature embarked on a fantastic path of adaptation and co-evolution exemplified by the 550,000 HA National Tuparo Park in Vichada, just outside Gaviotas. It is claimed, that there exists in this place the largest biodiversity of birds in the world.
Source: Proexport