Otaez

Otáez lies in the rugged western Sierra Madre, amid the deep valleys known as the quebradas. The Xixime lived in this mountain country before Spanish missionaries sought to gather its people into settlements. In 1612 the Jesuits Pedro Gravina and Hernando de Santarén established the mission of Santa María de Otáez. Rivers and steep ravines made travel through the surrounding mountains difficult, while mining later became important in the wider region.