Carmelo Fernández Furatena Strait Journal — 1850 Comisión Corográfica Notebook

In 1850, a Venezuelan artist named Carmelo Fernández stood at the edge of the Furatena Strait in the Minero River valley of Santander, Colombia, and painted what he saw. He was there as part of the Comisión Corográfica — Colombia’s first comprehensive scientific expedition, led by the Italian-Venezuelan geographer Agustín Codazzi — tasked with documenting the geography, natural resources, and cultures of a young nation still learning the shape of its own territory. What Fernández captured in watercolor was not merely a landscape: it was a place saturated with legend, the strait named after Fura and Tena, the mythical Muisca guardians of Colombia’s emerald mines, whose story of love, betrayal, and transformation had been woven into the landscape for centuries before any European cartographer arrived.

The front cover features Fernández’s 1850 watercolor of the Furatena Strait — the Minero River winding through the tropical landscape of Santander, rendered with the precision of a scientific illustrator and the sensitivity of an artist who understood that geography and mythology are inseparable in Colombia. The back cover presents a companion view from the same expedition — the same river valley, the same light, the same landscape that Codazzi and Fernández were the first to document with scientific rigour — rendered in the style of 19th-century Latin American expedition watercolor at its finest.

Product Details

• Format: 5.5 × 8.5 inches (14 × 21.6 cm)
• Pages: 150 lined perforated pages (75 sheets)
• Binding: Casewrap sewn — lays flat, flexes for comfortable writing
• Cover: Matte laminated full-wrap, Carmelo Fernández 1850 Furatena Strait watercolor
• Weight: 0.1 kg

Perfect For

• Colombian history and geography enthusiasts celebrating the Comisión Corográfica’s pioneering scientific expedition
• Lovers of Latin American exploration art drawn to Carmelo Fernández’s 1850 watercolor tradition
• Admirers of Muisca mythology and the legend of Fura and Tena, guardians of Colombia’s emerald mines
• Cartography and expedition history collectors fascinated by Agustín Codazzi’s mapping of 19th-century Colombia
• Thoughtful gift seekers looking for a beautifully designed journal celebrating Colombian cultural and natural heritage
• Anyone who finds beauty in tropical landscapes and inspiration in the stories embedded in South American geography

Read more: The Landscape and the Legend: Carmelo Fernández, the Comisión Corográfica, and the Myth of Fura and Tena