Quibdó

History

In prehistoric times the Chocó rainforest served as a major barrier isolating the Mesoamerican and Andean civilisations, and the extremely humid climate also failed to attract the Spanish colonists. The region was eventually granted by the Emberá Indians to the Franciscan order in 1648, but subsequent attacks by hostile tribes meant attempts at settlement were abandoned, only to be established again six years later.

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 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; however it was eventually shelved in favour of the Panama Canal. At the same time research on using the Chocó to connect the Pacific and Atlantic was being carried out, gold and platinum 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 movement of freed black slaves into the Chocó, primarily engaging in shifting cultivation to cope with the extreme leaching from the super-humid climate, though fishing and the collection of forest products also helped these groups maintain their livelihood; 1853 watercolors by Manuel María Paz document two mestizo or European men with an Afro-Colombian street vendor, and depict the dress of Afro-Colombian and European women in the town square. These black communities established trade with highland cities such as Medellín via rough mule trails that lasted until the 1950s, after which a combination of population growth and declining values for the region’s natural resources gradually led to an economic downturn for the region and especially Quibdó.

Climate

Quibdó has an extremely wet and cloudy tropical rainforest climate (Köppen Af) without noticeable seasons and by a large margin the heaviest rainfall in South America and of any city of its size or greater—the wettest city of larger size, Monrovia in Liberia, receives 3,050 millimetres (120 in) less than Quibdó. The extreme rainfall cause is because the Andes to the east of the city block the westerly winds driven by the Intertropical Convergence Zone which throughout the year, owing to the Humboldt Current off the west coast of South America, remains 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 and as it cools it gives up enormous quantities of moisture.

Rain precipitates almost every day from clouds in intense thunderstorms with a eternal wet season year round; that means 309 days (84%) of days are rainy, and sunny periods seldom last more than a few hours after sunrise. Quibdó only has 1,276 hours of sunshine annually, making one of the gloomiest cities on the world, with the sunniest month is July, with 135 hours of sunshine.