Boyacá
El Cocuy NNP
Administrative headquarters and the Pozo Azul and Sisuma checkpoint cabins. The Sierra Nevada del Cocuy; first major KfW contract.
About · History
From the provinces of Boyacá to Colombia’s National Parks.
MARA Limitada was incorporated in Tunja, Boyacá, on November 26, 1987. It began as a provincial public-works contractor and, over nearly four decades, built experience across almost every field of Colombian civil works: roads, water and sanitation, buildings, electrical networks and, most recently, specialized construction inside protected natural areas.
This is that story. We tell it through what we have built, and for whom, rather than as a timeline.
Roots in provincial public works
In its first decades, MARA built where it was needed most and where public contracts demand the strictest compliance: in the municipalities. It has taken part in more than two hundred construction contracts for over forty municipal governments, most of them in northern and eastern Boyacá (Guacamayas, El Espino, Belén, Chita, Sativanorte, Miraflores, Ramiriquí, Sutatenza, Socha, La Uvita and El Cocuy, among many others), as well as in Cundinamarca, Santander and Casanare.
That work spans almost the full range of public civil works: rural and urban roads (concrete wheel-track roads, paving and maintenance), water supply and sewer systems, water treatment plants, rural power lines, schools, health centers and health posts, rural housing and public spaces.
This is MARA’s technical foundation, and also its discipline: meeting deadlines, formal records and public budgets, project after project. Everything else was built on that foundation.
From the municipality to the national level
Over time, MARA moved from the municipal level to the departmental and national levels. It worked for the department governments of Boyacá and Casanare, and for national agencies such as the National Roads Institute (INVIAS), the civil aviation authority (Aerocivil), the Boyacá power company (Empresa de Energía de Boyacá), the Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia (UPTC) and departmental utility companies. Larger projects from that period include:
Orocué municipal utility company
Orocué drinking water treatment plantCasanare, Eastern Plains (Llanos)
Boyacá department government
Five schools (Güicán, Boavita, Chiscas, Panqueba, Paz de Río)Boyacá
Casanare department government
Aguazul boarding schoolCasanare
INVIAS
Maintenance of the Yopal–La Cabuya road (Route 65)Casanare
Aerocivil (civil aviation authority)
Works at the San Vicente del Caguán airportCaquetá
National Calamity Fund (Fondo Nacional de Calamidades)
Rehabilitation of the Belén–Encino road (La Niña emergency funds, 2011)Boyacá–Santander
Municipality with national co-financing
173 rural homesSan Juan de Rioseco, Cundinamarca
The specialization: building inside protected areas
In 2018, MARA delivered its first project within the National System of Protected Areas (SINAP): the administrative headquarters and checkpoint cabins of El Cocuy National Natural Park, funded by the German development bank KfW through Patrimonio Natural. It was the start of the line of work that sets the company apart today.
Since then, MARA has built and maintained infrastructure in close to fifteen national parks and protected areas, in some of the country’s most fragile and remote regions: high mountains and páramos, Pacific and Caribbean islands, the rainforest of the Chocó biogeographic region, the Llanos savannas and the rock formations of Catatumbo.
Building in these places is nothing like building in a city. Logistics run by sea or over high mountains, materials are often carried in by mule or by boat, and the work follows strict environmental management plans alongside local communities. It is slow, careful construction, and that is exactly the kind of work MARA came to specialize in.
The parks and protected areas where it has built
Chocó–Antioquia
Los Katíos NNP
Reconstruction of the Sautatá field station. A UNESCO World Heritage site in the Darién, on the border with Panama.
Pacific
Gorgona NNP
Maintenance and infrastructure in the Poblado sector: roofs, electrical networks and park headquarters. An oceanic island with maritime logistics.
Cundinamarca
Chingaza NNP
Timber glamping units in the Monterredondo sector, with Conservation International, in the páramo that supplies Bogotá’s water.
Caribbean
Corales del Rosario and San Bernardo NNP
Docks on Isla Grande and Isla Múcura and the Isla Grande field station. The only marine-coastal park, among coral reefs.
Meta
La Macarena NNP
Fit-out of the new administrative headquarters. Home of Caño Cristales and the Guayabero River.
Boyacá
Iguaque Fauna and Flora Sanctuary
Furachiogua visitor center, staff welfare module and electrical works. Andean forest, close to the company’s home base.
Coffee Region
Los Nevados NNP
Studies, designs and works; fit-out of the regional office in Manizales. High mountains and glaciers.
Norte de Santander
Los Estoraques Unique Natural Area
Studies, designs and works. Rock formations of the Catatumbo.
Chocó
Utría NNP
Fishers’ cabin. Pacific coast, work with fishing communities.
Cauca
Puracé NNP
Field station. Volcanoes and the Indigenous communities of Puracé.
Santander
Guanentá Fauna and Flora Sanctuary
New administrative headquarters, in the upper Fonce River area (Alto Río Fonce).
Boyacá
Pisba NNP
Expansion of the Socha headquarters. A páramo on the Liberation Route (Ruta Libertadora).
Organizations it has worked with
MARA’s experience was built with demanding public clients and conservation funders:
International cooperation
The German development bank KfW, through its “Protected Areas and Biological Diversity” program (Phases I and II), channeled by Patrimonio Natural; and Conservation International.
National agencies
Colombia’s National Natural Parks (PNNC), the Colombia en Paz Fund (post-conflict resources), INVIAS, the civil aviation authority (Aerocivil), the National Institute of Legal Medicine and the Colombian Geological Survey.
Departments and regions
The department governments of Boyacá and Casanare, the Boyacá power company (Empresa de Energía de Boyacá) and departmental utility companies.
More than forty municipalities
Hospitals and public health providers (ESE), public universities, rural water boards and irrigation user associations.
Thirteen departments, many biomes
MARA has worked in at least thirteen departments and two marine-coastal areas. Its historic base is in Boyacá, but its work reaches much of the country and, above all, many of its ecosystems.
High Andean mountains, páramos and glaciers
El Cocuy, Los Nevados, Puracé, Pisba, Iguaque, Chingaza
Oceanic islands
Gorgona (Pacific), Corales del Rosario and San Bernardo (Caribbean)
Pacific rainforest / biogeographic Chocó
Utría, Los Katíos
Transitional Amazon rainforest
La Macarena
Rock formations of the Catatumbo
Los Estoraques
Llanos savannas
Orocué, Aguazul and roads in Casanare
Páramo and inter-Andean valley
Provinces of northern Boyacá (historic base)
Today
Today MARA combines the two lines of work that brought it here: civil works for public and private clients, and specialized construction in protected areas for environmental authorities, conservation funds and international cooperation.
It is still a Boyacá company, based in Tunja. Far from being a limitation, that provincial origin is what taught it to build well where logistics are difficult, and it is the same discipline it now brings to a ranger station on a Pacific island or a dock among Caribbean reefs.
A few milestones
1987MARA Limitada is incorporated in Tunja, Boyacá.
Decades of municipal workOver two hundred contracts for more than forty municipalities, mostly in Boyacá.
2011Rehabilitation of the Belén–Encino road after the La Niña floods.
2015–2018Orocué drinking water treatment plant and schools for the Boyacá department government.
2017–2020Yopal–La Cabuya road (INVIAS) and works at the San Vicente del Caguán airport.
2018First project within SINAP: El Cocuy NNP, funded by KfW.
2018–2025Works in nearly fifteen national parks and protected areas.
2021 · 2025Docks and field station in Corales del Rosario NNP (Caribbean).
2022–2023Works in Los Nevados, Iguaque and Los Estoraques funded by the Colombia en Paz Fund.
2025Reconstruction of the Sautatá field station in Los Katíos NNP (Darién).
To see these works in detail, browse the portfolio →. To talk about a project, contact us →.
Let’s talk
Want to learn more about MARA?
Browse the full portfolio, meet the team or contact us. Our headquarters are in Tunja, Boyacá, and we work throughout Colombia.