Going on the Colombia J-term trip was more or less a result of acting on a whim. But like all the other journeys I went due to a whim, this trip turned out to be an amazing one too. And like always, what made this trip great was the people, both the ones I went with and the ones I met there.

The team I went with is a collection of the most considerate and lovely people. I felt that every single day I spent with them throughout the trip, as they interpreted Spanish into English for me, taught me Spanish and encouraged me to use it, took care of me when I wasn’t feeling well, and recognized the limited amount of contribution I could make to the team as I don’t speak Spanish. It was a blessing to have this team.

Minca is a small town filled with super kind, friendly and generous people, and these characteristics came through despite the language barrier.

Luis,  Cristian, and Miro were our local guides who direct us around the town when we were out interviewing people. Luis was the guide for my team so I got to know him a little bit better. He barely speaks English and I speak very little Spanish. But we still managed to chat for a bit, with the assistance of body language and a dictionary. He also patiently taught me Spanish, grabbed a chair for me every time we went in somewhere to interview people, broke ice cubes and melt them for me to refill my water bottle. Although I didn’t spend much time with Cristian, but from I saw and heard, he’s a very mature, responsible and intelligent young person. Miro is a very funny old man, but he’s also like a child. Every time he saw me, he would give me a big hug with a big smile, and used the few English words he knows to say hello to me. Thanks to his pharmacy, I got the medicines I needed for my allergic skins.

There were also my awesome host mom, who’s an artist and a great cook; a policeman whose name I don’t even know but went out of his way to get my medicines and kept checking on if I was getting better; an Irish hostel owner who told me “For God’s sake, take care of yourself, alright?” when I was leaving the town.  This list can go on forever. I may or may not see these people again. But I shall never forget them.

Thank you all for making this trip wonderful.

Its hard to believe we are starting our last week here in Minca! Time is running short and we are working hard to synthesize all of the information we collected to present back to the community and work together to come up with some strategies for how to further develop tourism here. Some major observations we have derived from our interviews:

• 100% of the residents we surveyed enjoy having tourists in their community, many of which also believe tourism is one of the best avenues for economic development for Minca
• We asked residents and tourism interest groups (businesses, hotels, tour operators etc) what they saw as some of the positive and negative impacts of tourism in the area and found:
  • Positive impacts: increased income, cultural exchange, increased knowledge and learning of nature
  • Negative impacts: increased pollution/trash, congestion, potential for increased crime
• Obstacles Minca faces in developing sustainable tourism practices are:
  • Infrastructure: roads and paths can be difficult to navigate
  • Services: water systems and public services are in need of development
  • Controls: Minca lacks leadership and control systems for standardizing any sustainable initiatives

Today we are finishing up our presentation that includes what we have found from the community and some suggestions we have for a potential action plan. The purpose of the meeting will be to work together with the community to come up with what they believe is the best strategy for sustainable development of tourism as well as what next steps need to be done in order to achieve their goals. It will be important for us to not impart on what we think is best but allow the community to prioritize and strategize with our insight.

number crunching in paradise

signs for the meeting painted by the lovely Nayibe

In assessing local conditions, such as the strengths and weaknesses of methodologies, systems, and structures, we have discovered that appearances can be deceptive. Underlying apparent fragility, we have discovered incredible strength. “Blanco”, one of the recent additions to our research team, is a case in point–his message is self-explanatory.

A land beyond time
Weightless wanderers’ distant shores
Brothers

One of our local guides, Miro, getting a lift across the river

Atras tierra y tiempo
Viajeros livianos–la orilla distante
Hermanos

This post is a little delayed due to our limited internet connectivity 🙂 From last Tuesday Jan 7th….

Thankfully, this morning was a little bit cloudy when Cristina and I left Minca’s city center to do the hike up to Montecristo again.  It seemed a little bit harder this time knowing what lay ahead, and the extra weight of our backpacks did not help either.  Still, somehow we made it in record time—43 minutes, without stopping once.  What is more incredible is that the family Orozco Vargas does this all the time several times a day, with or without a heavy load, and barely ever even breaking a sweat.
Once safely to our destination, we rested over a glass of panela (juice made from sugar cane extract) before setting off to tour the farm with Señor Angel (the owner) and Elianis llineeth (his youngest daughter) as our guides.  They showed us all of the different things that grow on their land, and we began to collect an inventory: coffee, bananas and all other kinds of fruit, varieties of flowers, etc.

Sr. Angel using a machete to clear a path

The rest of the afternoon we spent brainstorming ideas for a potential business model, as Angel’s other sons helped to finish off the cabaña.  They built this little cabin to provide a spot for incoming tourists who want to stay overnight to take a break from city life and surround themselves in the nature and culture.  The result is a cultural exchange in a unique place (unlike any other place that either of us has ever been in any other part of the world), and we were honored to be the first two who will ever get the chance to stay there.

Manu finishing the cabana

The cabaña was ready just in time to catch a breath-taking sunset.  A blanket of red and orange masked the sky as a burning orange sun slowly moved its way down out of view, illuminating the full majesty and depth of the mountains across the horizon.  To the right, the lights of Santa Marta appeared through the distance, and farther away to the left you could just make out the outline of Baranquilla.

-Arianne

no caption needed 🙂

We left Taganga with our guides early Sunday morning for Minca. Shortly after getting into our van, we understood why we needed to leave so early: it took us nearly 40 minutes to cover 14 kilometers!  The road to Minca is steep and winding, and we were all impressed with the amount of traffic the road withstood. Upon arriving in Minca we met our host families, then spent the rest of the day hiking through the jungle to get to know the area. We wound our way up through dense forest to the farm “no hay Como dios”, where señor Angel and his family prepared us lunch and shared their rich history with us. Our task for the day was simple: to observe and understand the potential threats and potential for sustainable tourism development in the area. We spent more than 12 hours working– yet happily finished our day listening to some local musicians at a popular outdoor cafe in town.

The team at cafe Minca

entrance to pozo azul

learning about coffee at Finca No Hay Como Dios

As Winter Storm Hercules takes over the northeast, we are determined to get to sunny Colombia! Teryn escaped Ohio in the nick of time, re-routing a few times in order to catch her flight out of San Fran tonight. I’m posted up in Queens, NY crossing my fingers that I can fly out of JFK in the morning! Meanwhile other group members prepare to converge from all parts of the globe – from Colorado, to Brazil to China! See you in Cartagena!