The Meta River is a major left tributary of the

Orinoco River The Orinoco () is one of the longest rivers in South America at . Its drainage basin, sometimes known as the Orinoquia, covers , with 76.3 percent of it in Venezuela and the remainder in Colombia. It is the fourth largest river in the wor ...

in eastern

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the ...

and southern

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

, South America. The Meta originates in the

Eastern Ranges The Eastern Ranges is an Australian rules football team in the NAB League, the Victorian statewide under-18s competition. The club is a founding member of the competition (1992) and has produced several players for the Australian Football Leag ...

of the

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

and flows through the Meta Department, Colombia as the confluence of the Humea, Guatiquía and Guayuriba rivers. It flows east-northeastward across the Llanos Orientales ("Eastern Plains") of Colombia following the direction of the Meta Fault. The Meta forms the northern boundary of

Vichada Department Vichada Department ( es, Departamento del Vichada, link=no, ) is a department of the Republic of Colombia in South America. Vichada is located in the eastern plains of Colombia, in the Orinoquía Region within the Orinoco river basin borderi ...

, first with

Casanare Department Casanare Department (, es, Departamento de Casanare) is a department in the central eastern region of Colombia. Its capital is Yopal, which is also the episcopal seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Yopal. It contains oil fields and an 800 ...

, then with Arauca Department, and finally with Venezuela, down to Puerto Carreño where it flows into the Orinoco. The Meta River is long and its drainage basin is . The Meta divides the Colombian Llanos in two different parts: the western portion on the left bank is more humid, receives the relatively nutrient-rich sediments from the Andean mountain range and therefore soils and tributaries are also nutrient-rich, while the eastern portion, ''high plain'' or ''altillanura'', drains not to the Meta river but to the Orinoco, has a longer dry season and soils and surface waters are

oligotroph An oligotroph is an organism that can live in an environment that offers very low levels of nutrients. They may be contrasted with copiotrophs, which prefer nutritionally rich environments. Oligotrophs are characterized by slow growth, low rates o ...

ic (nutrient poor). The major tributaries of the Meta are the Cravo Sur, the Casanare, the Cusiana, the Upía and the Manacacías rivers.

History

In 1531, while exploring the Orinoco river, Diego de Ordáz became the first European to discover the estuarine delta of the Meta. Following indications of a gold country at the headwaters of the river - the "Meta Province" - he and his companions navigated the Meta upstream for 50 days until, due to the seasonally low water level, they could make no further progress and had to turn back without having achieved anything. The first Europeans to reach the headwaters of the Meta at the foot of the Eastern Cordillera were the participants of an expedition led by the conquistador Georg Hohermuth von Speyer in 1536. An 1856 watercolor by Manuel María Paz, of three indigenous people with a boat at

Orocué Orocué is a town and municipality in the Department of Casanare, Colombia, located on the shore of the Meta River. Historically, it went by the name San Miguel del Macuco. It is located 180 km from Yopal, and 546 km from Bogotá. Cl ...

, near the Old Macuco Mission, is an early depiction of life on the river.

Indigenous groups

Living along the Meta are various indigenous groups. In the upper part of the river, close to the foothills of the Eastern Ranges and farther downstream, the Guayupe, Achagua, Sáliva and

Guahibo people The Guahibo (also called Guajibo, or Sikuani, though the latter is regarded as derogatory) people are an indigenous people native to the Llanos or savanna plains in eastern Colombia (Arauca, Meta, Guainia, and Vichada departments) and in southern ...

are living.Indígenas de los Llanos Orientales
- Banco de la República

Economy

Starting at

Puerto López Puerto López (16,000 inhabitants) is a small fishing village set in an arched bay on the Pacific coast in the Ecuadorian Manabí Province. Puerto Lopéz is the Machalilla National Park headquarters. The main industries include fishing a ...

the Meta becomes navigable, and thus is an important component of the trade across the Colombian and

Venezuelan Llanos The Venezuelan Llanos (Spanish: ''Llanos Venezolanos'') also simply known as Los Llanos (English: ''the Plains'') in Venezuela, is a natural region that consists of a very large, flat central depression of approximately 243,774 km2 of extens ...

References

Rivers of Colombia Rivers of Venezuela Orinoco basin Border rivers Colombia–Venezuela border International rivers of South America {{Venezuela-river-stub