Araracuara, Colombia

Araracuara is a remote settlement (centro poblado) in the municipality of Solano, Caquetá Department, Colombia, situated on the north bank of the Caquetá River in the western Amazon basin. The settlement lies across the river from the locality of Puerto Santander in Amazonas Department, at a point where the Caquetá narrows into a deep sandstone canyon known as the Cañón de Araracuara or Raudal de Araracuara. The name Araracuara derives from a Tupí-Guaraní word meaning 'macaw's nest', a reference to the large colonies of macaws that inhabit the canyon walls. As of the 2018 Colombian census, the settlement had a population of 165 inhabitants.

Araracuara is accessible primarily by air, through Araracuara Airport, and by river; no roads connect it to the rest of the country. Because of its extreme isolation, the site was used as a federal agricultural penal colony (Colonia Penal y Agrícola del Sur) from 1938 to 1971, a period that defined the settlement's infrastructure and modern layout. Since the late 20th century, the Araracuara region has been an important focus of archaeological, paleoecological, and biodiversity research, particularly studies of pre-Columbian anthropogenic soils (terra preta) and of the distinctive vegetation of Amazonian sandstone outcrops.