La Cienaga

It was difficult to get on the road again after spending so long at La Fruta.  When we arrived in Santa Marta, the city adjacent to La Fruta, we stayed at the apartment of our friends Helmi and Carolina.  There, we found ourselves at home and comfortable with a couple we had known for only a short time, enjoying a friendship that grew ever faster the less time we had left. After five days (we had planned three) we went to the bus station late at night to catch the last bus to Medellin – and our next adventure!  When we arrived, all the buses had left, and after a recovery period in the bus station (during which time Claire suggested we could just sleep there…) we called our friends, and sulked back to their apartment. 

They were glad to have us back, and the event proved another ‘lucky mishap’ on our path, as we were invited the following evening to join Helmi and Carroll with their Shaman, John, to participate in a ceremony in his 'casita' in the mountains.  We arrived around sunset, after walking up the dirt road, and collecting wood for the fire for the evening.  We spent the night talking and meditating around the fire, enjoying the pristine view of the Palomino River as it winds witlessly around itself before pouring its secrets into the Caribbean.  The night was quite profound, especially for Claire who really delved into herself and her relationship with the world, and we left the next morning more in tune with ourselves, one another, nature, and the road upon which we have embarked.

After that we finally did catch the bus to Medellin.  The 20 hour ride was windy and heavily air-conditioned, but we made it with a solid amount of sleep and only a few crinks in our necks.  There, we met our friend Daniel, who we had met at La Fruta and who offered to host us in Medellin.  Daniel welcomed us to his apartment, and after a nice afternoon meal, he whisked us off to his family’s mountain house in the forest.  Called La Mafafa because of the massive plants of the same name which grow all around its base, the house is built into trees with stilts, overlooking a dense forest and a pristine creek which flows below.  We spent three beautiful days doing yoga, eating wonderful food, and wandering the woods and creek in the pristine wilderness.  We enjoyed the power of standing under a massive waterfall, seeing the reflection of the third-eye of a strikingly green colibri (humming-bird), and even visits from incredibly friendly butterflies happy to land on our shoulder or hand to catch a ride and whisper their secrets.

After three days at La Mafafa, we returned to civilization and the city of Medellin.  We found an American guy named Jason through couchsurfing who had an extra room and let us crash at his place.  The place was in a nice part of town, and Jason was nice, intelligent, and interesting to talk with.  While we share very different worldviews, and walk very disparate paths, meeting and spending time with Jason was a wonderful reminder that many of those who see things differently and have different goals for their lives still want the good for the world.  We stayed up several nights debating the different approaches that we saw for reaching ‘the best for people’, and while we never did find agreement, it was great and refreshing to have a debate about the United States which escaped the dangerously shallow political discourse, and to have both parties listen with mutual respect rather than closing their minds along ideological lines. 

After a few days in the city, we were itching to move on to the South and resume our WOOFing at a Finca in San Agustin, where we had agreed to start on the 1^st of March.  Unfortunately, (certainly, more for those involved than for us), the main road south – and the only route by road to reach neighboring Ecuador – was closed due to a blockade and subsequent protest held by both the coffee workers and the transportation workers simultaneously.  The implications of this strike had been quite serious for those involved, and the Finca which we had planned to visit had all but closed as no traffic could reach it.  We called around for a few other Fincas in the area, but had no luck finding anything.  Good thing Jason was so warm and willing to host us – we had nowhere to go.

It was hard not to feel a bit disappointed – we had just had such profound experiences in the Sierra Nevada, and we were eager to continue learning and progressing.  More time in the city is not what we had expected.  Once again, the obstacle presented yielded a more brilliant result for Claire and I.  A friend of Jason’s, named Viviana, told us that she had a friend in the city with a sustainable farming project near Medellin.  Three days later, we sat down for a drink with the kind, warm face of Jaime - an accountant by trade, who took out his laptop and gave us an hour-long introduction to the project he was working on.  It sounded perfect.  He let us know that he would be heading up to the Mountains that weekend to work on the project, and that we were welcome to join, and stay in the house as long as we wanted, provided we could provide ourselves food.  We readily agreed.

As we drove the winding, mountainous roads west from Medellin, we were greeted with incredibly beautiful mountain views and sheer, steep valleys flowing to the River Cauca at their depths.  Jaime filled us in more about the project as we drove.  He is working with a retired University Professor of Indigenous pottery and art named Jorge, who is being assisted by the community in which they live – La Cienaga – and particularly by a young man named Eihder who was born in the area and is the lifeblood of the project.  The idea of the project is to help local farmers, all of whom have indigenous ancestry and still use some practices revolving around indigenous tradition, to recover their ancestry and relearn some of the ancient farming practices, culture, and religion that has been lost during the past three hundred years.  Furthermore, the project aims to combine these goals with new approaches to agriculture, including Permaculture techniques, the inclusion of native and non-native seeds, and farmer-to-farmer collaboration.  The project is, more or less, exactly what Claire and I are trying to do once we return to Zambia.  To work with, learn from, and collaborate with the people who live off the land, in tune with the earth; the people who serve as a reminder that real wisdom comes not from textbooks, laboratories, and technology – but rather from an understanding of the Madre Tierra that feeds, shelters, and provides for all beings on this planet.

We arrived after dusk from a steep climb of about 40 minutes, offering views which would have stolen our breath, if only we could have caught it first.  At nearly 6,000 feet, the community of La Cienaga was a big change from (easily) less than 1,000 at La Fruta.  We arrived first at the house of Jaime’s parents, who offered us some wonderful food, cooked over a wood stove with all the love of a warm home.  We chatted a bit with Ruth and Hernando, Jaime’s parents, and quickly found where he got his geniality and kindness.  After dinner, we climbed to the project’s central house, and met Gorge – the project director, a man who has more knowledge than we could possibly hope to absorb, and the love and patience to teach it – and Eihder – a Campesino of about our age with whom we quickly became friends. We stayed up chatting for a bit, and then prepared to see La Cienaga the next day in the daylight.

The following day we met the rest of the community – about 6 or 7 families living relatively near each other, each with their own garden and fields and tracts of land.  We quickly found the people incredibly amiable and eager to share.  We had more smiles, food, and warm Agua Panela than we could have hoped.  We felt immediately at home, and couldn’t help noticing the similarities between this community, in the heart of Colombia, and the communities in which we lived across the globe in Zambia.  Here, like there, it is still the people who come first.

Of course, not all things in the Community are so perfect.  There are many problems mounting because of the presence of a Canadian-owned Gold mine which is nearby, which has (surprise, surprise) succeeded in polluting water supplies and brought social problems regarding the employment, lodging, and integration of the miners.  Furthermore, illegal mining activities at the mine seems, performed by women, children, and men all without proper protection or tools, increase the already high danger of fatality or injury in the mining area. 

This lesson is one that has hit hard, but as La Cienaga is removed from the mining, we have not witnessed it with our own eyes – only through the sorrowful words of the friends we have made here.  However, another environmentally destructive practice has been more evident.  The second day here, we went walking up the mountain to find sources of water – it seems that water has been incredibly short for the communities further down the mountain in recent years.  The area of La Cienaga was once a cloud-forest (paramo), meaning that while there were not always periods of rain, the forests were able to trap and absorb moisture from the clouds, and thus return it to the soil and streams of the area.  When we climbed to the top of the mountain, we huge tracts of land felled completely of trees in order to open space for grazing cattle.  Subsequently, the trees can’t trap the moisture from the clouds, which now blow hastily over the peaks without depositing the water so essential for the area’s survival.  What makes matters worse is that the ‘gentleman’ who owns the land doesn’t live in the area, but rather in the city, and in the fifteen years since the trees have been cut, not a cattle has been seen on the barren slopes.

How anyone could act with such callousness and insensitivity to nature is difficult to comprehend.  How anyone could do so with the knowledge that this action would negatively affect hundreds of people and leave them without their basic needs of survival is inexcusable.  But, after all, it is ‘his land’…

Luckily, projects like the one that Jorge, Jaime, and Eihder are working on are offering a different, more reasonable way forward.  The group found another water source nearby (apparently with a more sensible owner, who left trees to gather water), and some of the water in the stream will be rerouted to offer water to the parched riverbeds below the clear-cut.  Hopefully, this will hold the community over until the rains fall again.

Working with Jorge and Eihder, and spending time with the other families in La Cienaga, has taught us an incredible amount about the humility and knowledge of the people here, as well as lots of practical knowledge about organic agriculture.  We have been working in the gardens and fields, as well as spending time preparing and processing seeds and roots which have been used ancestrally but recently forgotten in the community.  In order to restore enthusiasm in these practices, Claire has been using the oven at the house (did I mention we have electricity!?) to combine creative recipes and love to offer some unique cookies with truly distinct ingredient variations including Quinoa, Chia, Amarantho, Achira, and other native grains. 

Throughout this time here, we are constantly grateful for being received so well, and being lucky enough to work with and learn from such genuine, open, and caring people.  Often, people within the community offer us thanks for visiting with them and talking, and we feel a pang of guilt that we can’t offer more than conversation, friendship and cookies, as these wonderful friends have opened their homes and their hearts to us.  I suppose we are still collecting positivity and love from around the World, so that once we finally have a home, we can open it to those who pass by with equal warmth, compassion, and freedom.