Caño Cristales – A River of Colors

Caño Cristales – A river located in the Serrania de la Macarena Mountains, Colombia. The area where the river is found is so distant that you can only get there by horse, donkey, or on foot. Caño Cristales is full with waterfalls, rapids, wells and hollows, with water so pure you can see all the way to the bottom. During most of the year the river seems like any other, with the water flowing over green algae rocks. Then during the period of time between the wet season and the dry season – which happens between September–November – the river converts, becoming a river of color. The algae in the water produce a riot of color; red, blue, green, black and yellow line the river. This river has no fish because of the difficulty of the channels. Caño Cristales has been named as “The River of Five Colors”, “The Liquid Rainbow” and “The River That Ran Away From Paradise” and it’s fairly easy to see why.