Due to this features, the river attracts many tourists who come to witness for themselves this amazing site. It's the only river in the world that will give you this amazing spectacle.
The river flows through many wonderful sites too. Thus if you are a tourist coming to see the river you will also have the privilege of getting to see other sites to. The river flows from the plateau of Sierrania de la Macarena. This happens to be a park and a mountain range that is a sanctuary for many plant and animal species.
The rugged terrain is coupled up with many archaeological sites and caves that have not been explored. The archaeological sites have pictograms and petroglyphs that date as far back as the pre-Colombian times. The river is the parks central feature.
During the wet season the river displays a spectacular array of colors. The colors range from deep red, yellow and pink to blue black and green. These colors can be attributed to the mosses and algae that grow on the river bed during the dry season. During the wet season they get enough moisture to be able to unfold the spectacular array of colors.
However, as the wet season progresses, it is not possible to view that many colors. This is because the depth of the river does not allow for the algae to get enough sunlight. For those that love rugged rivers this would be the time to view the river.
Cano Cristales, a river in Columbia’s Sierra de la Macarena, is as moody as it is beautiful. Come a bit too early in the dry season, and you’ll just find a parched river bed. Come a bit too late in the wet season, and everything will be flooded and more inaccessible than unusual. But come just at the right time, in the first few days of the wet season, and you’ll witness a magnificent spectacle of rainbow colors in a river that’s nicknamed the “most beautiful river in the world”.
Like a painter’s palette:
Pools of yellow:
Cano Cristales’ waters flow from the plateau south of the Sierranía de la Macarena, a national park and mountain range that is a sanctuary for many animal and plant species. The rugged terrain features many unexplored caves and archeological sites with pictrograms and petroglyphs dating back to pre-Columbian times. The 100 km long and 20 m wide river is the national park’s central feature.
Waterfalls in a sea of pink:
The river bed and river rocks are covered with green and brown mosses and algae during most of the year. At the onset of the wet season in early October and early April, however, they receive enough moisture and sunlight to unfold a most spectacular array of colors ranging from deep red, yellow and pink to blue, green and black.
Have you ever seen orange waters before?
A sea of orange with waterfalls:
As the wet season progresses, the water levels become deeper and the river currents faster, obscuring the bottom of the river and therefore not letting the much needed sunlight through for the river’s many mosses and algae.
Back to crystal clear at the end of the season:
