Reading a novel, in which the protagonist was invited to visit Colombia in South America, where his life was put in grave danger because of political unrest, stirred up memories of my visit to Colombia in September and October of 2018. My friend had heard of a river called Cano Cristales, which flows through Colombia in South America. She sent me a video of what the river looks like, and I was hooked! The river was multi-colored and I just had to see it.
Journey to South America
It was a twelve and a half hour flight to Amsterdam, a 3 hour stopover, and another 11 hours from Amsterdam to Bogota, the capital of Colombia. In Bogota, we took in the Botero museum and admired the colorful handicrafts sold by street vendors.
La Macarena
The next morning, we left in a propeller plane from a private airfield, and flew for 1 hour to La Macarena. This is a small isolated town in the plains of central Colombia, south of Bogota. It is known as a gateway to Cano Cristales, the rainbow river, also known as the river of 5 colours, and also the most beautiful river in the world.
This town is so small, the airport, river, hotel, restaurants, etc are all within walking distances of each other. My travel companions called it a one-horse town. There is one main street and a couple of smaller streets. The hotel, you guessed it, is not worth writing home about.
Cano Cristales
We travelled in a small boat, then walked more than an hour to reach this particular river. We had been repeatedly warned not to use sunscreen as this would damage the plants in the river if we waded or swam in it.
The plant in the river is the Macarena Clavigera plant, which only grows in the short period between the wet and dry seasons. During the wet season, the river is too high to allow adequate sunshine to get to the plant. During the dry season, there isn’t enough water flowing through the river to sustain plant life. Which means that there is only a narrow window period to visit and marvel at this river.
The Macarena Clavigera plant is bright red in color. Apparently the other colours we see come from black rocks, green algae, blue water and yellow sand, producing an iridescent effect. Another explanation is that the colours are produced during the reproductive process of the aquatic plant. The tour guide’s spiel was that the multi hues were due to the reflection and refraction of sunlight falling on the aquatic plants. I peered closely at the plant while wading in the shallow parts of the river. It looked like red, yellow and green algae to me. The feature image is a closeup photo of the river.
The next day, we took another boat ride, a Jeep ride, and another long walk to see another part of the river. I was so sunburnt during those 2 days that the tan has yet to fade completely three and a half years on.
Another memory of the visit to this river was the constant threat of insurgency, with soldiers toting rifles patrolling the area. But they consented to take photos with these tourists from Singapore.
Other Sites we visited
Having flown halfway around the world to get to Colombia, we of course visited other cities like Cusco and Lima, and the famed Machu Picchu in Lima, Iguazu Falls both from the Brazilian as well as the Argentinian sides (we visited the Falls 3 days in a row, they were so stupendous and so numerous), paid a short visit to Paraguay, and spent time in Buenos Aires in Argentina.
It was a great trip, particularly when we reminisced about it online with our travel companions during Covid times with zero travel. My intention to visit other places in South America had to be put on hold.
lingsinglin
Dr Ling Sing Lin is a medical doctor by training. She worked in MOH HQ for many years, in policy making and administrative positions, until her retirement.
