Only a small fraction can be visited by tourists, but that fraction includes the Maipures rapids , the Orinoco River, indigenous villages, ancient rock formations, hidden waterfalls and rivers and much more. Yet, remarkably I actually had to ask them to check these numbers before I took them seriously , Tuparro saw just tourists in the whole of , and I was number 61 for in June! The trip began in the small riverside city of Puerto Carreno , on the banks of the Orinoco and Meta rivers, and just across from the Venezuelan border.
The journey to Garcitas took a good four hours, involved a couple of river crossings on old metal barges, and during the entire journey we never passed another vehicle going in either direction. Suffice it to say, where we were headed was fairly isolated. Bordered by the Tomo River to the north, the Tuparro River to the south, and the Orinoco to the east, El Tuparro National Natural Park was created almost 50 years ago and covers an area of , hectares. Giant rocky outcrops, remnants of the ancient Guiana Shield , punctuate the jungles and plains, overlooking the mighty rivers snaking through the park.
A tiny percentage of this vast ecosystem has been properly explored and only a fraction is open to tourists. We were to spend two nights in Tuparro , visiting the principal attractions with Ariel. In the dry season — when the mighty river recedes, revealing hundreds of wide sandy beaches along its banks — guests sleep out by the river in tents; we were arriving at the onset of the rainy season, and the river had already risen and covered up the beaches.
We were to be staying in the most surreal place I have probably ever slept : an abandoned young offenders institute on the banks of the river. We slept in a huge tent laid out on a concrete floor we had mattresses! After settling in, eating some breakfast there are cooks and a kitchen there, and the set up was excellent, as was the food , and settling into our tent, we hopped back in the boat and set off for the park visitor centre at Maipures.
After receiving the obligatory National Park entrance lecture, we hiked along the river behind the park offices to visit probably the most iconic and exciting attraction in Tuparro: the Maipures rapids. These magnificent rapids, containing over 70 islands among their thundering waters, were christened the 8th Wonder of the World by Alexander Von Humboldt when he travelled along this stretch of the Orinoco in the 19th century. And what a sensory overload the rapids are: more like a connected series of hundreds of rapids, the noise is overwhelming and almost impossible to properly describe here.
