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The Tatamá National Park is part of the natural treasures of this town immersed in the mountains of the Western Cordillera and whose territory is watered by the waters of the Totuí, Cañaveral and Monos rivers. Its slopes, the coffee crops and the Ecological Park are scenarios for tourism. In La Celia the celebrations of the Virgen del Carmen and the Integration of the Celian Family that take place during the month of August are traditional.

Historians say that: ´´The descendants of the Sima or Tatamá indigenous groups expanded in pre-Columbian times to form the dialect area of ​​Alto San Juan, which is one of the five major groups of Emberá dialects ... ´´

Even the meaning of the name given by the natives to its hill has not been found; Some scholars affirm that the tatamáes belonged to the Anserma Indian people, and in their dialect ´´Tatamá´´ would mean ´´The highest earth or stone´´; while other researchers say that the name comes from the indigenous people of the Chocó of Caribbean influence and then ´´Tatamá´´ would mean ´´The grandfather of the rivers´´. But, its only name is enough legacy of those natives who for centuries inhabited its slopes and left us their history buried in the silence of the humid forests waiting to be rescued from oblivion and raised their name, their bravery and their pride. , because before accepting the submission to the invaders they chose to abandon the land of their elders, their sanctuary, their Tatamá hill.

Communities present in the area

The region is currently populated by Black communities, and Indigenous Embera Chamí Pacific Center (San Juan River Basin) and Mestizos in the Coffee Region (Río Cauca). According to the sociocultural characteristics of the inhabitants, there are marked differences between the two flanks of the Western Cordillera, with respect to the management and use of natural resources.





Access roads: Pereira - Cerritos - Virginia - Santuario (64 kilometers of paved road).

Among the municipalities of San José del Palmar in the department of Chocó, Pueblo Rico, Apia, Santuario and La Celia in the department of Risaralda and el Águila in the department of Valle del Cauca, on the Western Cordillera, in the biogeographical Chocó region .



Fauna: In mammals there is an endemic presence of the Andes (spectacled bear, páramo borugo, bush mouse, Central American tapirs and páramo tapirs, pumas and porcupine).

The diversity of birds is very high. There are the Comprapán, the Solitude, the Tangara, the Mountain Toucan, the Woodpeckers, the Cock-of-the-Rock, the Barranqueros and Hummingbirds.

The number of species of frogs, lizards and snakes is also high. The abundance and diversity of small environments offers, in the different altitudinal floors, many niches available for these forms of life.

Vegetation: It is typical of the Andean jungle with a cold climate, and it is also present on the eastern slope of the Park, a paramose vegetation of special importance and rarity.

In the Park we find species such as encenillo, carob, yarumo, chontaduro, naranjuelo and cedrillo.

Soils: most of them have been developed from the ashes derived from the quaternary volcanic actions of the Central mountain range; they are moderately evolved and desaturated.

Climate: it presents zones of average climate, until moor.

Ecosystem: virgin wasteland, Andean natural forest

Topography: very steep slopes, generally between 50 and 70%, deep valleys and sharp edges.

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