Colombia is the only South American country with coastlines on both the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea. Three mighty north-south Andean cordilleras separate the western coastal lowlands from the almost empty eastern jungles, with 54 percent of Colombia's land but only 3 percent of the people. Most Colombians are of mixed ethnicity; about 20 percent claim European descent. Native Indians, about one percent of the population, live in the eastern jungles.
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