The red riverboat

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BP-Atrat

 

Riosucio, Chocó, is a lumber town nestled on the banks of the Atrato River and the gateway to Los Katíos National Park. When I visited this Afro-Colombian community many years ago on a trip to the Darien Gap, the town could  count on one red jeep for the 10,000 residing there.

Overlooking the Atrato and several hundred kilometers north of the departmental capital of Quibdó, Riosucio is connected to the rest of country by water and the important river which meanders its way from the southern Andes through the Pacific lowlands. The Atrato is navigational for some 500 kilometers until it reaches the Urabá Gulf at the bease of the Colombian ridges of the Darién. The river is a vital lifeline for many Afro-Colombian communities who rely on wooden riverboats to transport their goods to the Caribbean ports of Cartagena, Barranquilla and Santa Marta.

 

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