Piranhas and pink dolphins lure visitors to remote Lake Tarapoto

A protected wetlands system in Colombia's Amazon with Lake Tarapoto at its heart is home to thousands of rare animal species and fascinating tales of tribal gods turning men into dolphins.

(CNN) — Pink dolphins, piranhas and black caiman. It sounds like the stuff of legend, but in fact they're the inhabitants of a protected wetlands system in the Amazon, home to thousands of rare animal species and fascinating tales of tribal gods turning men into dolphins. Storytelling is part of the culture for the indigenous groups who live in the Amazon rainforest, and the wetlands play an important part in the yarns that have been spun for centuries. The stories told by the Ticuna people are no different; one in particular involves a pink dolphin disguised in human form who attends the tribe's traditional festivities to enchant women who become enamored by this tall, strange man. He then takes her down to the river, and turns her into a dolphin, too. But the waters of the Lagos de Tarapoto aren't just home to tall tales. They're such an important habitat for animal species that they were granted protected status in 2018, following a five-year battle to petition for the wetlands region to be internationally recognized by the Swiss conservation body Ramsar.