Mocoa

Mocoa was founded by the Spanish in the mid-16th century. Under the name San Miguel de Agreda de Mocoa it suffered frequent attacks, and it was moved to its present site on the Mocoa river, where the Mulato and Sangoyaco rivers join it. For centuries it remained a remote outpost on the edge of the Amazon, linked to the Andes by mountain trails.

Mocoa became a municipality in 1953, as part of Nariño, and was separated from that department in 1957 under the military junta. It grew as the administrative capital of Putumayo and the commercial centre of a department based on farming and cattle. In 2009 a new road corridor from San Francisco to Mocoa was planned to link the Pacific coast with the Amazon; work on a 42 km section with 46 viaducts began in 2012.

In the early hours of 1 April 2017, after an unusually wet March, torrential rain made the Mocoa, Sangoyaco and Mulato rivers overflow, sending flash floods and mudflows through the city. More than 300 people were killed, hundreds were injured, 17 neighbourhoods were affected and the Independencia neighbourhood was entirely destroyed; it was the worst catastrophe in Mocoa's history. President Juan Manuel Santos declared a state of emergency, and thousands of soldiers, police and aid workers joined the rescue.

Mocoa sits where the cultures of the Andes and the Amazon meet. Its Kamëntšá name is Shatjok, and the Kamëntšá and Inga peoples of the Sibundoy valley above the city, along with other Indigenous peoples of Putumayo, shape the region's crafts, languages and ceremonies. In Sibundoy, Indigenous residents wear long blue and violet ponchos, carve masks, and have carved the fallen tree trunks of the town park with symbols from their mythology. The Inga descend from a Quechua-speaking settlement founded under the Inca ruler Huayna Cápac, and both their language and Kamëntšá are still widely spoken there alongside Spanish.

Yagé, the plant brew known elsewhere as ayahuasca, is central to the healing traditions of Putumayo. Its use in ceremonies for visitors has become commercialised.

Nature is the city's other identity. The rivers, waterfalls and rainforest around Mocoa draw walkers, and local operators offer adventure activities such as rappelling down the Fin del Mundo waterfall. The Centro Experimental Amazónico cares for wildlife rescued from trafficking and explains Indigenous culture and Putumayo's history.

Mocoa had about 38,500 people at the 2018 census, up from about 27,000 in 2005. The municipality covers about 5,600 square kilometres of mountains, rainforest and flat farming and grazing land in the Caquetá river basin.

As the capital, the city is the economic centre of Putumayo, whose economy rests on agriculture and cattle; government offices, commerce and services provide many of the jobs, and several universities run campuses or distance programmes here. The city lies just off the highway between Pasto and Puerto Asís, and buses and colectivos tie it to the rest of the department.

Life follows the rain. Annual rainfall is very high, most of it falling from April to July, and the mountain roads out of the city are prone to landslides. The 2017 disaster struck hardest at the neighbourhoods built along the riverbanks, and it remains the defining event of recent memory. Days are busy around the bus terminal, the market and the main square, where street food is sold and motorbikes are the usual way around.

Mocoa's table draws on the rivers and the forest. Freshwater fish from the rivers of the Amazon basin are the local speciality, served in the small restaurants around the main square. Almuerzos, the set lunches, are notably cheaper here than in Colombia's larger cities, and street food is sold around the square.

The forest supplies fruit, and juices made from jungle fruits are sold across the city. The large market beside the bus terminal is the place to see the produce of the surrounding farms and rivers — fruit, vegetables, fish and meat.

Out on the waterfall trails, hostels and stalls along the Fin del Mundo walk serve lunches and dinners to walkers, at higher prices than in the city. One hostel, about halfway along the trail, also serves meals to walkers and offers dormitory beds and private rooms. Cold drinks are welcome after the climb, and fresh juices made from the fruits of the forest are sold across the city.