El Tuparro National Park

El Tuparro covers a stretch of the Orinoco floodplain in the far east of the country, where the llanos savanna meets gallery forest and granite outcrops push up through the grass. The set piece is the Raudal de Maipures, a wide series of rapids where the Orinoco breaks over a granite shelf for several kilometres, loud enough to hear well before you see it. In the dry season white sand beaches appear along the rivers, freshwater dolphins work the eddies and turtles nest on the bars. Caiman, capybara, giant otters and anteaters live here, and the birdlife is very good.

What you actually see

• Raudal de Maipures - kilometres of rapids where the Orinoco crosses granite.
• The river beaches - white sand bars exposed in the dry season.
• Savanna wildlife - capybara, anteaters, caiman and giant otters.
• The granite outcrops - rock domes rising out of flat savanna.

When to go

December to March is the dry season, when the beaches appear, the rapids are at their most dramatic and the tracks are usable. In the wet months from May to November the savanna floods, biting insects multiply and access becomes almost entirely dependent on boats and flights. Trips are arranged locally and take time to organise.

Honest expectations

This is remote and logistically awkward: flights to Puerto Carreno are limited and expensive, the overland route is a two-day drive on rough road only passable when dry, and everything inside the park runs on boats and local guides arranged in advance. Facilities are minimal. Heat, sun and biting insects are constant, and there is no phone signal.

Nearby

Puerto Carreno on the Orinoco, and the llanos plains running west towards Villavicencio.