port of Valle del Cauca departamento, western Colombia, on Cascajal Island, where the Dagua River reaches Buenaventura Bay. Although founded in 1540, it remained relatively unimportant because of the warm, humid climate and poor transportation. In the 1930s inland connections were improved, resulting in the growth of road-borne traffic; modern port facilities and an airport were also built. Buenaventura is now Colombia's main Pacific port, handling much of the nation's coffee, as well as sugar and cotton from the fertile upper basin of the Cauca River valley, sawn wood from coastal forests of southwestern Colombia, and most of the gold and platinum of the Chocó region to the north. A major fishing port from which frozen shrimp are exported, it is also the terminus of an oil pipeline from Puerto Berrío via Cali and of a spur from Cali of the Puerto Berrío–Popayán railway. Pop. (2007 est.) 304,206.