Guaviare River

The upper Guaviare at San José del Guaviare

Template: Infobox River / Obsolete

The Guaviare (formerly also Guayare ) is a river in Colombia. It flows to the upper Orinoco (referred to here also Río Paragua ) together, he at length ( a total of about 1760 km ) and water supply significantly exceeds them. The Guaviare is thus hydrologically the main stream of the Orinoco system.

History and natural space

The Guaviare bears his name from the confluence of two source rivers, the Ariari and the slightly larger Guayabero, which have their sources in the Eastern Cordillera of the Andes. The Guayabero (formerly also Canicamare ) has a length of approximately 540 kilometers, the following flow section as Guaviare has a length of around 1,220 kilometers, of which 630 km are given as navigable. The water flow increases from 1.930 m³ / s below the confluence of the Ariari on 7,400 m³ / s or 8.200 m³ / s at the confluence with the Orinoco.

With his light brown waters of the Guaviare is a typical white water river with large sediment load from the Andes and the subandinen chains. It flows in its upper reaches ramifies in a broad gravel bed and in the lower reaches in large meanders. Approximately in the middle of its course, the river cuts into four epigenetic gorges with rapids ( Raudal de Guacamayas ) granitic hill to where project through rocks of the Guayana Shield, the wide alluvial plain. The westernmost outpost of the hill country of Guyana with its sandstone table mountains ( tepuis ) applies the layer level of the Serranía de la Macarena, which separates the two sources of the Guaviare. Being with a water flow of about 3,000 m³ / s is by far the largest tributary, the rich cataracts Río Inírida also rises at the foot of such Durchragungen. He is a typical black water river, as well as the Rio Atabapo, which flows to him three miles from the mouth of the Orinoco River from the south ( approximately 700m ³ / s).

The Guaviare is in the headwaters of the boundary between the Llanos and the tropical rain forest of the Amazon Basin. The fish fauna of the Río Guaviare is considered to be particularly rich in species.

Culture and economy

The river basin is settlement of several indigenous peoples such as the Guayabero Tinigua, Sikuani, Nukak, Piapoco or Puinave. Contacts with Europeans, there were in the 16th century by missionaries, conquistadors and prospectors. From the end of the 19th century rubber boom also spread to the Río Guaviare.

In the area of the upper reaches of the gallery forest is increasingly displaced by cultivated land, is grown on the mainly cocoa, but also many other cultivated plants in the tropics. Since about 1980, and the illegal cultivation of coca is significant. In recent years, the population growth and the expansion of roads have increased, particularly in the area of the largest city on the river, San José del Guaviare, with the aerodrome and the only bridge across the river.

Economic development has been suffering from the early 1990s from the conflicts between the guerrilla organization FARC and government, as well as paramilitary units. Made famous by the massacre at Mapiripán (east of San Jose del Guaviare ) in 1997.