Lake Calima, one of the largest reservoirs in the Americas

Lake Calima, located in El Darien, Colombia, is one of the largest reservoirs in the Americas, part of the region’s hydroelectric project and a major tourist attraction. We invite you to discover all the information about this lake, including its history, attractions, activities and much more.

History of Lake Calima

The area where the Calima region is now located, known as El Darien, was the site of the settlement of a culture known as the Calima culture more than 8,000 years before Christ.

They were a people who made interesting pieces of gold and pottery, but who also had a series of customs and practised funeral rites. Their lives evolved over several periods and many of the present inhabitants of the area are descended from them.

The region of Calima is part of a Colombian municipality in the Valle del Cauca, which was founded mainly by people from the Valle del Cauca, Antioquia and Caldas, representing the current inhabitants of the departments that make up Colombia.

The history of Lake Calima begins as an artificial lake dammed by a reservoir, whose name refers to one of its characteristics, as it presents a particular mist, hence the name Calima or Calina. Its waters enter the basin through the Rio Bravo canyon, which is remarkable for its biodiversity, characterised by mountains and exotic forests.

Its history practically begins with the construction of the Calima dam by the PERINI company, which was inaugurated in 1966 and took about five years to complete.

The origin of Lake Calima is the river of the same name, which has its source in Alto las Nieves, known as the Páramo del Duende, and also gives rise to the River Bravo. Both are directed to discharge their waters into this lake, which is limited by the presence of a reservoir.

Calima Dam

Built in 1966, this 19.34-kilometre-long reservoir is located in the Cauca Valley, in the departments of El Darién and Restrepo, and is used to generate hydroelectric power and for nautical sports.

Its dam is located about 1,500 metres above sea level, near the towns of Calima, El Darién, Restrepo and Yotoco, and has a total capacity of 581,000,000 cubic metres, covering an area of 19.34 square kilometres.

As well as providing hydroelectric power to the region, the reservoir is also a tourist attraction with a number of facilities around it, including leisure centres, land and hotels.

Attractions and activities

The Valle del Cauca region is located in the southwest of Colombia, on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. It is a vibrant and lively department of this South American country, where Lake Calima, one of the largest reservoirs in the Americas, stands majestically.

This magnificent reservoir is located in the municipality of El Darien, only 86 kilometres from the city of Cali, surrounded by one of the country’s most outstanding forests and with the presence of very fast winds, making it ideal for the practice of nautical sports.

The area of Lake Calima and the reservoir have facilities to meet the needs of all visitors, such as the well-known tourist complex that surrounds the lake, offering attractive accommodation in chalets, cabins, farms, camping areas, restaurants and schools for water sports training, all with the strictest comfort and safety.

The main attraction of this place is undoubtedly the water of its reservoir, as many of the activities offered are based around it.

In the same way, the Embalse de Calima has hosted many national and international championships in sports such as windsurfing, regattas and sailing, making it an attractive venue for these events due to the winds that blow from the Pacific Ocean all year round.

Some people choose to hire jet skis, ATVs or similar boats to experience the adventure of sailing the waters of this lake, visitors also have the alternative of taking a boat ride, banana boats, pontoon boats or taking a ferry.

The more adventurous can opt for paragliding and admire the beautiful panorama of Lake Calima from the air, with its lush green forest and magnificent reservoir, which can also be used for hiking or ecological trekking to the Maria Luisa or La Gringa waterfalls.

This is another of the town’s tourist attractions, a beautiful waterfall of crystalline water that cascades down from the mountain and is considered one of the most representative ecological sites of Lake Calima, which also has a legend that we will tell you about below.

This is an old legend that has its historical roots in the colonial period, when there was a young woman, the daughter of a landowner in the Valle del Cauca, whose name was María Luisa de la Espada, only 14 years old at the time, and who married Don Diego Lasso de la Vega, the first Royal Ensign of the region.

She later became a widow and married her second husband, Captain Benito López Millán. She began to be known as La Gringa and became the owner of large tracts of land that extended as far as the town of Guadalajara de Buga, in the Cauca Valley.

Some of these lands were inherited from her father, others from her husband. One of the most representative was Hato Viejo, which had areas lost in the jungle; a place where the locals said that anyone who accidentally found their way to the hato would experience terrifying phenomena.

After the death of María Luisa, a waterfall in this region was named after her, where, according to legend, she appears at midnight on a black horse with red eyes and golden horseshoes, in order to bathe naked in its waters.

It is said that bathing in this waterfall attracts good luck and gives people the opportunity to obtain great fortunes, so we invite you to visit it as it is located on the shore of the road that leads to Lake Calima.

 

What to do at Lake Calima?

Lake Calima and its reservoir offer a number of opportunities for tourists, especially when the weather conditions are quite pleasant, so it is recommended that you carry out the following activities during your visit:

• Enjoy the beautiful view of the lake, rest, relax and take great panoramic photos.
• Jet-skiing, water-skiing or boating.
• Take a boat or kayak ride around the lake.
• Take personalised windsurfing, kitesurfing or skiing lessons.
• Get in touch with nature by hiking or ecological walks.
• You can drive to the Mirador Tribunas, 8 kilometres from El Darien, at 2,100 metres above sea level, from where you can see Lake Calima in all its splendour.
• Some people, once they have reached this viewpoint, take the opportunity to try paragliding, with the aim of landing on the waters of Lake Calima.
• Another activity not to be missed is a visit to the María Luisa waterfall.
• In March there is a Colombian music festival, in May there is an equestrian fair and in August there are the Fiestas del Verano and the Windsurfing Championships, which are really impressive thanks to the speed of the winds.

Characteristics

Lake Calima is characterised by the presence of dense fog, especially on the peaks of the mountains that surround the lake, which generally accompanies the landscape for most of the year and thickly covers the water, a natural phenomenon that the locals call “el brujo” (the witch doctor).

It has a reservoir that is 13 kilometres long and 1.5 kilometres wide, where it was even necessary to flood around 1934 hectares in order to achieve such a surface.

The reservoir has a maximum capacity of 529 million cubic metres and a minimum capacity of 118 million cubic metres. It feeds the Calima and Bravo rivers, which originate in the Western Cordillera of the Andes.

The reservoir is also a source of electricity for the departments of the Cauca Valley, and is therefore of great importance to the Colombian nation. All the natural beauties of the region, added to the presence of this reservoir, make the place have a great tourist demand every year.

The Climate

Lake Calima has the fastest winds in Latin America and the third fastest in the world. Its refreshing currents from the Pacific give it an ideal climate, with waters that are in constant natural movement, making it one of the most visited lakes for water sports.

The region where this natural lake is located is considered to have a tropical climate, with rainfall almost all year round, even in its driest month, July, and with an average annual temperature of 19.9°C, while the average rainfall is around 1,310 mm. The highest rainfall occurs in October, with 193 mm.

On the other hand, the warmest month is March, where the temperature rises to 20.3°C, but October is the coldest with 19.4°C, which means that Lake Calima is considered to have an ideal climate to attract visitors all year round.

In extreme cases, the climate has a minimum temperature of 12°C and a maximum of 28°C, which is considered to be representative of a temperate cold environment, but this is a function of many of the meteorological changes that are occurring worldwide, which is unusual.

Flora and fauna

Lake Calima is an ecosystem that is home to around 4,260 representative species of flora and around 313 species of fauna, making it an area of great biodiversity and good conservation status.

In this sense, it has diverse natural resources due to its climatic and hydrological conditions, where a large number of birds stand out, such as the osprey, which usually looks for food in the reservoir. Herons and ducks are also abundant.

As for the flora, the higher and wetter the slopes, the greater the variety of vegetation, such as bushes covered with mosses, ferns, orchids and epiphytes.

Many ecologists, as well as professional photographers, come to this place to study the number of animal and plant species found there. Thanks to them, the presence of rodents such as the guatín, the red bird that comes from the United States in search of warmth, as well as the black solitaire, a bird that is difficult to observe and that lives in humid and cloudy areas covered with moss.

Also noteworthy is the presence of a large number of amphibians, represented by toads and salamanders, for a total of an estimated 313 species of birds, approximately 23 species of reptiles and 57 species of mammals.

The town of Darien

El Darien is the capital of the municipality of Calima del Valle del Cauca, 86 kilometres from the city of Cali, which has been a municipality since 1939, with a total area of 1,144 square kilometres.

This municipality is identified with the name of Darien, because one of its founders, Don Nicolas Restrepo, felt that it reminded him of the places of a region he knew in the department of Chocó, also in Colombia.

The town of Darien has the third largest area in the Valle del Cauca, after the other two known as Buenaventura and Dagua. The region includes the basins of the Rio Bravo and the Rio Calima, as well as a large part of the Cerbatanas mountain range, areas that are practically deserted.

This locality is made up of a series of hamlets that are well known to its inhabitants and are known by the names of El Mirador, El Diamante, La Gaviota, La Florida, Río Bravo and La Cristalina.

In terms of its boundaries, Darién is bordered to the north by the department of Chocó, to the west by the municipality of Buenaventura, to the east by the municipalities of Riofrío and Yotoco, and to the south by the municipalities of Dagua and Restrepo.

It is a region whose economy is based on agriculture, livestock, tourism and public services. Among the products to which its agriculture is dedicated are mentioned: Peppers, tomatoes, bananas, yucca, corn, panelera cane, coffee and various beans.

As already mentioned, the town’s economic resources are derived from tourism, but mainly from Lake Calima, as well as from the holding of important festivals and fairs, usually in August, where visitors can sample its gastronomic specialities, such as chicken stew, sausages, bean stews and various types of sweets.

The area also has a basic infrastructure of public services, banks, schools, hospitals, stadiums, a bullring, a gymnasium and a parish church dedicated to Our Lady of Perpetual Help.

Highlights of the region

Valle del Cauca, is one of the most visited places in this region to get to know Lake Calima, so we give you some interesting facts about this place:

• Around the year 8,000 B.C., this was a region inhabited by the indigenous Calima tribes, who excelled in the art of pottery and goldsmithing, which is why today you can see many of their pieces preserved in the region’s Archaeological Museum.
• It has a beach marked with the number five, public and free of charge, located about 1.5 kilometres from the town of Darien.
• In the Valle del Cauca, the general public can enjoy a series of typical dishes such as marranita valluna and pork chop, which can be accompanied by a refreshing drink known as lulada. This is made with a fruit called lulo, similar to the orange, to which lemon juice and panela are added, all well mixed.
• All tourists are advised to bring enough cash with them as there are no ATMs, bureaux de change or banks in Lago Calima.

The importance of Lake Calima

The Calima reservoir, also known as Lago Calima, is the largest artificial lake in Colombia and is part of a project to generate electricity for the Valle del Cauca region. This is vital for the region’s energy supply.

On the other hand, it has given its inhabitants an important source of income through tourism, thanks precisely to the presence of Lake Calima and to the ideal climate, favoured by its strong winds.

All this has allowed this region to become a tourist attraction for an infinite number of activities, as well as for contemplating nature and taking impressive photographs. The importance of this lake has been such that hotels, leisure centres and many plots of land for urban and industrial development have been built around it.

In addition, the authorities of the Calima El Darien Municipality are promoting a series of artistic events and fairs to increase the number of visitors to this lake, all of which is intended to encourage the proper maintenance and conservation of all its facilities and preserve the life of its flora and fauna.

Finally, we would like to invite you to visit Lake Calima and enjoy all the natural wonders that this place has to offer, especially its famous winds that keep the whole region cool and make nautical activities very pleasant.

Getting to know this natural space will serve to create memories in one of the many tourist attractions offered by Colombia, the country of a thousand rhythms, among which stand out: cumbia, mapalé, bullerengue, porro, vallenato and calypso, some of which can be enjoyed in the festivals on the shores of Lake Calima.

If you like the information in this article, we invite you to discover more through the following links:

• Lake Titicaca
• Lake Baikal
• Guadalete River
• Magdalena River