Colombia - United Fruit Company Infrastructure

Zona Bananera is a relatively recent municipality, but, traditionally, it also gives its name to a region characterized by an extensive and fertile plain crossed by dozens of rivers and cold water streams coming down from the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta to the Ciénaga Grande or the Caribbean Sea; this region is also characterized for cold nights. From April to November, there are torrential rains in the area. With a hot climate and quiet winds sometimes replaced by sudden hurricanes sweeping the region once or twice a year as well as hundreds of hectares of banana crops and everything on their way, causing damages with the consequent risk for the economic capacity of the middle sized and small owners of said crops. This agricultural exploitation complex located in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta and Cienaga Grande, was developed mostly by the multinational company United Fruit Company (which arrived in the country in 1899), designing and building residential villages, administrative areas, service areas and workers' camps following American models and introducing railways built to transport banana. This opened a path through unknown territories, which have been productive ever since.