“May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.” - Edward Abbey

I saw this quote and felt that it was a perfect reference to the bizarre, captivating and at times melancholy scenery and geography on display all over Colombia. That a countryside and a region can be so imaginative as that found in Guaviare where the savannahs meet the jungle and the interim collision results in some of the most exotic and curious vistas is simply baffling. But, as they say, Colombia has it all.

Arriving in San Jose de Guaviare, the capital of this department is to enter a parallel universe of a place that really feels only as if it exists in your mind. The town is verdant, flat and stiflingly hot, almost as if under constant threat of a tropical downpour. But, it’s the nearby natural attractions that should draw you down to this little visited department just a few hours south of Bogota on from Villavicencio in Meta.