Quibdó () is the capital city of

Chocó Department Choco Department is a department of Western Colombia known for its large Afro-Colombian population. It is in the west of the country, and is the only Colombian department to have coastlines on both the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. It ...

, in Western

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 is located on the

Atrato River The Atrato River () is a river of northwestern Colombia. It rises in the slopes of the Western Cordillera and flows almost due north to the Gulf of Urabá (or Gulf of Darién), where it forms a large, swampy delta. Its course crosses the Ch ...

. The municipality of Quibdó has an area of 3,337.5 km² and a population of 129,237, predominantly Afro Colombian, including

Zambo Zambo ( or ) or Sambu is a racial term historically used in the Spanish Empire to refer to people of mixed Indigenous and African ancestry. Occasionally in the 21st century, the term is used in the Americas to refer to persons who are of mixe ...

Colombians.

History

In prehistoric times the Chocó rainforest and mountains constituted a major barrier dividing the Mesoamerican and Andean civilisations. The high rainfall and the extremely humid climate did not attract the Spanish colonists. The Emberá Indians ceded much of their territory to the Spanish

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order in 1648. Subsequent attacks on colonial outposts by hostile tribes discouraged attempts at settlement. Six years later, the Spanish began again to colonize the region, eventually establishing some

lumber camp A logging camp (or lumber camp) is a transitory work site used in the logging industry. Before the second half of the 20th century, these camps were the primary place where lumberjacks would live and work to fell trees in a particular area. Many ...

s and plantations where they used enslaved Africans as workers. It was not until the nineteenth century when there was interest in finding a shipping route between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans to avoid traveling via the

Straits of Magellan The Strait of Magellan (), also called the Straits of Magellan, is a navigable sea route in southern Chile separating mainland South America to the north and Tierra del Fuego to the south. The strait is considered the most important natural pas ...

that the Chocó region again became of significant interest to European colonial powers, as the Atrato River Valley was thought the best possibility for this purpose by the explorer

Alexander von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 17696 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister ...

;Kelley, Frederick M.; Kennish, William; and Serrell, Edward Wellman; ''The Practicability and Importance of a Ship Canal to Connect the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, with a History of the Enterprise''; published 1855 By George F. Nisbett however it was eventually shelved in favour of the

Panama Canal The Panama Canal ( es, Canal de Panamá, link=no) is an artificial waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a condui ...

. At the same time research on using the Chocó to connect the Pacific and Atlantic was being carried out,

gold Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au (from la, aurum) and atomic number 79. This makes it one of the higher atomic number elements that occur naturally. It is a bright, slightly orange-yellow, dense, soft, malleable, and ductile ...

and

platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Pla ...

were discovered in the Atrato Valley and this ensured Quibdó’s growth and status as the chief town in the region. Another crucial development at this time was the migration of freed black slaves into the Chocó; they were primarily working in shifting cultivation to cope with the extreme leaching from the super-humid climate. They also fished and harvested forest products. The 1853 watercolors by

Manuel María Paz Manuel María Paz Delgado (July 6, 1820, Almaguer, Cauca, Colombia - September 16, 1902 Bogotá) was a Colombian cartographer, military officer, artist and watercolorist. Biography Manuel María Paz Delgado was born June 6, 1820 in the town o ...

document two

mestizo (; ; fem. ) is a term used for racial classification to refer to a person of mixed European and Indigenous American ancestry. In certain regions such as Latin America, it may also refer to people who are culturally European even though thei ...

or European men with an Afro-Colombian street vendor, and depict the dress of Afro-Colombian and European women in the town square. The Afro-Colombian communities established trade with highland cities such as

Medellín Medellín ( or ), officially the Municipality of Medellín ( es, Municipio de Medellín), is the second-largest city in Colombia, after Bogotá, and the capital of the department of Antioquia. It is located in the Aburrá Valley, a central re ...

via rough mule trails that were used until the 1950s. A combination of population growth and declining values for the region’s natural resources gradually resulted in an economic downturn for the region and especially Quibdó.

Climate

Quibdó has an extremely wet and cloudy

tropical rainforest climate A tropical rainforest climate, humid tropical climate or equatorial climate is a tropical climate sub-type usually found within 10 to 15 degrees latitude of the equator. There are some other areas at higher latitudes, such as the coast of southe ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (born 1951), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author and ...

''Af'') without noticeable

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and ...

s. It has the highest amount of rainfall in South America and of any city of its size or greater. The wettest city of larger size,

Monrovia Monrovia () is the capital city of the West African country of Liberia. Founded in 1822, it is located on Cape Mesurado on the Atlantic coast and as of the 2008 census had 1,010,970 residents, home to 29% of Liberia’s total population. As t ...

Liberia Liberia (), officially the Republic of Liberia, is a country on the West African coast. It is bordered by Sierra Leone to Liberia–Sierra Leone border, its northwest, Guinea to Guinea–Liberia border, its north, Ivory Coast to Ivory Coast� ...

, receives less rain annually than Quibdó. The extreme rainfall occurs because 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 ...

, to the east of the city, block the westerly winds driven by the

Intertropical Convergence Zone The Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ ), known by sailors as the doldrums or the calms because of its monotonous windless weather, is the area where the northeast and the southeast trade winds converge. It encircles Earth near the thermal ...

. Throughout the year, owing to the

Humboldt Current The Humboldt Current, also called the Peru Current, is a cold, low-salinity ocean current that flows north along the western coast of South America.Montecino, Vivian, and Carina B. Lange. "The Humboldt Current System: Ecosystem components and pro ...

off the West coast of South America, these winds remain centred in the north of the continent at Quibdó’s longitudes. The result is that the extremely unstable, ascending air from the Intertropical Convergence Zone is consistently forced to rise over the Chocó plain; as it cools, enormous quantities of moisture precipitate as rainfall. What is more, due to the exuberant nature and biodiversity in the region, a

biotic pump The theory of a biotic pump pertains to the importance of forests in the water cycle, specifically, in determining the levels of rainfall a region will receive. It states that an increased amount of evaporation or transpiration will cause a reduc ...

phenomena causes the Chocó low-level-jet, another important factor in driving atmospheric moisture from the Pacific into the Colombian Andes.https://usclivar.org/sites/default/files/meetings/2015/presentations/Sierra-J-IASCLIP.pdf Rain falls almost every day from clouds in intense thunderstorms; the region has a

wet season The wet season (sometimes called the Rainy season) is the time of year when most of a region's average annual rainfall occurs. It is the time of year where the majority of a country's or region's annual precipitation occurs. Generally, the sea ...

year round. Some 309 days (84%) of the year are rainy. Sunny periods seldom last more than a few hours after sunrise. Quibdó has only 1,276 hours of sunshine annually, and it ranks as one of the cloudiest cities in the world. Its sunniest month is July, with typically a total of 135 hours of sunshine for the entire month.

Transportation

Quibdo is served by El Caraño Airport with flights by three commercial airlines.

Notable residents

Jackson Martínez Jackson Arley Martínez Valencia (; born 3 October 1986) is a Colombian former professional footballer who played as a striker. He started his career with Independiente Medellin in 2004 and becoming the league's top scorer in 2009, before be ...

(b. 1986), former professional footballer who played as a striker * Elvis Rivas (b. 1987), footballer * Wbeymar Angulo (b. 1992), professional footballer who plays for the

Armenia national football team The Armenia national football team ( hy, Հայաստանի ֆուտբոլի ազգային հավաքական, ''Hayastani futboli azgayin havak'akan'') represents Armenia in association football and is controlled by the Football Federation o ...

Edwin Mosquera Edwin Mosquera may refer to: * Edwin Mosquera (weightlifter) * Edwin Mosquera (footballer) {{hndis, Mosquera, Edwin ...

(b. 2001), professional footballer who plays for

Atlanta United Atlanta United FC, commonly known as Atlanta United, is an American professional soccer club based in Atlanta that competes in Major League Soccer (MLS) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference. Founded in 2014, Atlanta United began pl ...

References

External links