Chiribiquete expedition 2024, an expedition to Colombia's cosmic Maloka of the Jaguar

In the first half of December 2024, an international expedition of anthropologists, archaeologists, geologists and speleologists visited the Serranía del Chiribiquete National Natural Park in Colombia with the aim of exploring and studying a new area of rock cliffs and caves characterised by the presence of extraordinary pictorial murals.

The expedition, led by anthropologist Carlos Castaño Uribe of the Herencia Ambiental Caribe Foundation, was also supported by a team of six speleologists, among researchers and technicians, from the La Venta Esplorazioni Geografiche Association. Thanks to the strong collaboration with Colombian institutions, the mission unfolded in an extraordinary adventure that led to unexpected discoveries of great scientific significance.

A three-hundred-meter-long rock cliff was reached for the first time where it was possible to document seven pictorial murals and several small caves containing the traces of the ancestral men who lived in this region since the late Pleistocene. These pictorial manifestations, created over the millennia and spanning different styles and cultures, have been exceptionally preserved and constitute an exceptional site for the knowledge of the first humans to reach the South American continent and the Amazon. The findings are now being studied by Colombian archaeologists, in collaboration with the Colombian National Institute of Archaeology and History. The application of new analytical techniques could finally solve the mystery of the age of these cultural manifestations, undoubtedly among the oldest of South America.

La Venta has also contributed to the discovery of a large quartzarenitic cave traversed by an underground river, explored and topographed for over a kilometre, demonstrating the enormous speleological potential of this massif. The morphological and secondary mineralisation analogy with the quartzarenitic caves of the Venezuelan Gran Sabana and other tepuis of the Guyana Shield raises interesting questions about the spread of these unknown underground ecosystems.

La Venta would like to thank the following for this extraordinary opportunity: Carlos Castaño Uribe with the Fundación Herencia Ambiental Caribe (FHAC), Parques Nacionales Naturales de Colombia and in particular the team of the PNN Serranía de Chiribiquete, the Instituto Colombiano de Antropolgía e Historia de Colombia (ICANH), our ambassador to Colombia Carlos Lasso representing the Humboldt Institute and the Colombian speleological society EspeleoCol. We would also like to thank all the sponsors and supporters who contributed with funding, technical equipment and logistical support to the expedition: Tina Preschitz's Wanted Media Production, Bernardo Alvarez's Maloka Film, Geo Magazine France, Gaibana, Novatek, Tiberino Outfood, Ferrino, FullSky, Miles Beyond, Hennessy Hammocks, Petzl Colombia, Fenix Lights and Primus Equipment.

The results research will be coordinated by the Herencia Ambiental Caribe Foundation (FHAC) in collaboration with the Department of Geosciences of the University of Padua and other international institutes.

Finally, a special thanks to all expedition members, with whom we have forged deep friendships that inspire us to continue this project in the future.

Expedition members: Lars Abromeit, Bernardo Alvarez, Pablo Aristizabal, Santiago Atuesta, Jesús Fernandez Auderset, Daniela Barbieri, Mauricio Bernal, Carlos Castaño Uribe, Alexander Hick, Francesco Lo Mastro, Cristian David Rivera Martinez, Cristian Javier Riveros Prieto, Felipe Mesa, Martin Molano, Alessio Romeo, Patrizio Rubcich, Oscar Sandoval, Francesco Sauro, Jochen Schmoll, Gabriel Veras.

Info: www.laventa.it