Guarinoes

Guarinoes lies in the northern Tolima country near the Magdalena valley, at the place later called Mariquita. Indigenous communities inhabited the region before Spanish prospectors sought its mineral wealth. In 1551 Francisco Núñez Pedroso founded San Sebastián de Mariquita, giving colonial authorities a centre from which to oversee nearby deposits of gold and silver. Mines such as La Parroquia and Cajongora helped make the settlement important in the colonial interior.