The Human Cost of Your Mother's Day Flowers

All photos by Juan Arredondo. All names (apart from Beatriz Fuentes) have been changed to conceal identities

Lorena never wanted to work in the cut-flower industry. But when she gave birth to the first of two daughters at the age of 19, she understood she needed the money. In the region of Colombia where Lorena has spent her entire life—known as the Bogotá Savanna—cut flowers are king. “There’s no other work, no other industry here,” she told me when I visited her this spring. As a single mother, Lorena had few alternatives but to enter the vast farms and factories, where she cut, trimmed, and arranged carnations, alstroemerias, and roses for export to flower-hungry US consumers.

Almost 20 years later, Lorena’s two daughters have managed to avoid working with flowers—one is a student, and the other does missionary work—but Lorena still works in the same plantations, pulling a minimum-wage salary of $333 per month. Years of difficult and dangerous work have wracked Lorena’s body, leaving debilitating injuries in their wake. Lorena traded her youth and health to support her family. “I don’t want the same for my daughters,” she told me.

The National Retail Federation estimates that this Mother’s Day weekend, Americans will purchase more than $2 billion worth of flowers. Almost 80 percent of those flowers come from Colombia, where impoverished mothers like Lorena toil long hours to produce tokens of affection for more fortunate mothers elsewhere. While the provenance of the peonies we buy last minute at gas stations, supermarkets, and corner store bodegas remains a mystery for most Americans, for the women that produce these bouquets the cut-flower industry is a harrowing reality, and Mother’s Day is a cruel joke.

The Elite Flower, a major plantation on the outskirts of Facatativá

Work in the cut-flower industry is notoriously dangerous. Flowers are fickle and sensitive to pests and disease. To protect their investments, companies pump highly toxic pesticides and fungicides into the greenhouses where flowers are grown. Twenty percent of these chemicals are so toxic and carcinogenic that they’re prohibited in North America and Europe. As a result, workers often suffer from rashes, headaches, impaired vision, and skin discoloration. Women, who make up 70 percent of the cut flower workforce in Colombia, report substantially higher instances of birth defects and miscarriages.

In the high season between Valentine’s Day and the summer wedding season, work conditions deteriorate as companies cut corners and rush to get their flowers to market. During these months, women oftentimes wake at three of four in the morning in order to finish chores and prepare meals for their families. By dawn, they are already at the plantation, where a workday can last from 16 to 20 hours. After a few hours of rest, the marathon starts over again.

In early March, I traveled to Facatativá, Colombia, to meet Lorena and others workers responsible for our Mother’s Day bouquets. Located an hour and a half outside Bogotá, Facatativá is a sprawling, dusty city that sits in the heart of the Savanna. Thousands of acres of flower farms, blanketed under gray plastic tarps, stretch from the city’s borders like spider webs.

Discarded bouquets in the Facatativá cemetery

When I met Lorena in front of her home, she was visibly nervous. If her employer found out that she’d spoken out against the industry, she said, there could be serious consequences. Just over five feet tall, Lorena has the petite build of a young girl. But her body, she laments, has been broken by countless hours of huddling over flower beds, trimming stem after stem. Years of cutting, bunching, and arranging bouquets in massive factories. She rattles off a list of injuries: tendonitis, carpal tunnel syndrome, a spinal column disability, a torn rotator cuff. Though the company provides minimal health care, Lorena has to fight to see a doctor. “Every time I go they say there are people with more serious problems, and they push me to the back of the line.”

Does the company where she works offer any precautions to protect her and her colleagues from the dangerous pesticides sprayed on the flowers? “Yes, they give us masks and gloves,” she told me as we sat in the living room of her cinder-block home. “But you can still feel it on you when you come home. Whenever anyone falls sick, the company investigates it thoroughly, attempting to shift the responsibility from the company to the workers.” Lorena recounted the story of a co-worker who’d recently collapsed in the middle of his shift, his face turning purple. “The company says that it was just a heart attack. But there’s a rumor that he’d succumbed to the chemical sprays.”

Carlos, Alejandra, and their daughter at home

Given the arduous conditions I asked why she continued to work in the industry. Lorena nodded toward her daughter, flitting between other parts of the house. “The most important thing,” she said, “is to have a home for my family.”

A week later, I attended a meeting to discuss the role of women and labor rights within the industry. “What we’re looking for is to form and organize the flower workers' sector,” Beatriz Fuentes, one of the event’s organizers, told me afterward. Fuentes worked for years in the cut-rose plantations before becoming a union leader.

Workers listen to speakers during a meeting to discuss the rights and roles of women in the cut-flower industry.

“Women are chosen to work in the flower industry because they have agile hands—they can go through the motions smoother and more efficiently,” Fuentes explained. “Their hands aren't as heavy, and so they can manage the flowers and arrange the bouquets faster.”

But in exchange, they’re often taken advantage of. “Women are regularly paid less than men for the same jobs,” Fuentes said. Because of limited alternative employment—Colombia regularly has the highest unemployment rate in Latin America—female workers are hesitant to assert their rights. Companies commonly require female employees to take pregnancy tests in order to weed out workers who might be eligible for maternity leave. A 2008 International Labor Rights Forum report suggested that more than half of all women in the industry have suffered from sexual harassment.

As the meeting wound down, I struck up a conversation with Alejandra and her husband, Carlos. Between the two of them, they’ve spent almost 50 years on the plantations. Like Lorena, both Carlos and Alejandra have torn rotator cuffs—Carlos in both arms. Because of her injury, Alejandra can no longer work. Carlos, only 53, walks with a cane. He can only work sitting down.

Carlos, Alejandra, and their daughter at home

The next day, I came to their home for a cup of coffee. The couple have two daughters—Camila, who’s just a child, and Mariana, who’s of high school age. Mariana wants to escape the industry and go to college in Bogotá, but the family can’t afford the $5 it costs for her to travel to the capital and back each day. Now she’s picking up spare shifts on the plantation.

Carlos and Alejandra are involved in an effort to unionize flower workers for better conditions. It’s an uphill battle, they say. Increasingly, companies are veering away from permanent employees in favor of temporary, three-month contracts brokered by employment agencies. Known as tercerización (or third-party hiring), the practice is illegal but rampant.

“With an indefinite contract, you have much more security—I can plan on taking care of my family,” Carlos said. Unlike the younger generation of hires, he still has a permanent contract.  “If my job wants to get rid of me, they need to do it for a just cause, like showing up to work drunk. But with these temporary contracts, they can work you to the bone and toss you aside.”

A dumpster's worth of discarded flowers and wreaths in the Facatativá cemetery

Carlos called his 25-year-old neighbor, Sofía, to come over and testify to life as a temporary contractor. “In the farm where I work,” Sofía said, “no one works for the company—everyone works on contract. The companies keep track of whether we’re good or bad workers. If you’re bad, they won’t hire you. And if you’re part of a union, they won’t hire you either.”

Without stronger labor rights and greater visibility, Carlos and Alejandra believe the conditions in the cut-flower industry are unlikely to improve. Meanwhile, the backbreaking work and long hours are having a destructive ripple effect throughout the community.

Flower beds in the Elite Flower plantation

“There are so many mothers in this industry who have to work all day and can’t take care of their children,” Alejandra told me, her young daughter cradled on her lap. “Kids go to school and get out at 1 or 2 in the afternoon, and their parents don’t come home until 1 in the morning. So what do these kids do during that time? How can our kids grow up and be cared for when their parents are gone?”

“In the United States,” Carlos added, “people love flowers. But they have no idea what goes on here. A husband might give his wife a bouquet of flowers, and it’s a beautiful gesture. But he doesn’t know about the pain it took to get it there. People in the United States just don’t think about all this.”

Source: Vice.com

The Devil's Carnaval Returns to Colombia

The devil is everywhere in Riosucio, Colombia. He walks the streets in broad daylight, his pink-tipped dreads falling over a blood-red cape. At night, she sits barefoot on a corner, playing her Andean flute and sipping chica—a murky, artisanal corn liquor—from a two-liter Coca-Cola bottle. And in the lower plaza, next to the church La Señora de la Candelaria, he looms 20-feet high astride a black, serpent-tailed bull, presiding over his subjects with a great golden trident.

It's Tuesday night, and for another day, at least, the devil will enjoy total dominion over this small town on the eastern slopes of the Andes' Western Mountain (or Cordillera Occidental). This, after all, is the Carnaval del Diablo—the Devil's Carnival—and from the menacing, toothy look on his face, His Majesty the King very much likes what he sees.

Locals assure me that tonight marks a low point in the biannual, six-day festivities. Much of the crowd has left, returned to their mundane, God-fearing lives in Bogotá, Medellín, Cali, and beyond. Those still remaining are drained from countless hours of music, dance, and almost perpetual excess.

"Before, the rumba never used to stop—ever—not even so that people could sleep," one elderly resident told me disapprovingly.

Photos by Mcleoud unless otherwise noted

Maybe so, but an off night in the Devil's Carnival still drags on until after the sun has come up the following morning. The cuadrillas—extravagantly costumed carnival troupes—are still out and up to no good, albeit in reduced numbers. Craftsmen and street vendors from across the country still line the main plazas, selling books, popcorn, bead jewelry, knit clothing, paintings, toys made from scrap parts, chorizo sausage, flower seeds, and, in one case, baby rabbits and chickens. Musicians still lead salsa and cumbia parades down the dim side streets. The guarapo—made from fermented sugar cane—and chicha—from fermented corn—still flow with abandon. And public fornication, if not altogether encouraged, is at the very least not frowned upon.

"That spirit, which is pure love and joy, you have to obey it, you have to serve it, you have to live it in your soul and in your body," Nicolas Lerma told me. "That's the only way to please His Majesty and bring His peace to the people."

Lerma would have good reason to know. As a matachín—a carnival jester—he is one of a host of mortal servants enlisted to ensure the continuance of this sacred and time-honored tradition. The carnival itself involves six months of ceremony and ritual preparation before the actual six-day festival, and a central organizing body—including a president, mayor, and other functionaries—and small army of round-the-clock cleaning and logistical personnel are all called on to pull off what has become one of the more famous cultural spectacles in a country whose calendar is overflowing with them.

The Devil's Carnival traces its roots back to 1819, before there was such a thing as Colombia, according to the organizing council's website. At the time, Riosucio consisted of two distinct, antagonistic mining communities, one descended from Africans and one indigenous. As a result of a peace accord negotiated by the communities' respective priests, the two towns built their main plazas within one block of one another and began hosting an early version of the carnival, which loosely coincided with the Spanish Día de los Reyes Magos (Three Kings' Day).

Riosucio—comprising the city itself, the dozens of informal settlements that surround it, and the Cañamomo y Lomaprieta indigenous reserve—has maintained much of its ethnic makeup and traditions. In its fusion of African, indigenous, and Spanish myth and custom, the Devil's Carnival is a celebration of "brotherhood, peace, and happiness" and of the unique history of this tiny corner of Colombia's impossibly diverse cultural landscape.

It is also a sweeping sacrament to the universal magic of booze. Traditionally used as a drinking instrument, the gourd, or calabaza, is the carnival's other major symbol. At the closing ceremony, it's laid to rest alongside its master in the hopes that both will soon return. Presiding over the rite, the vice president of the organizing committee eulogizes, among other things, the "exquisite, celestial taste" of the "burning, aromatic, and sensual" cane liquor that is guarapo, legendary for its exuberant drunk and proportionally demonic hangover.

The Spanish influence is most obvious in the correlajas, or bull-runnings. Unlike in Spain or parts of the Colombian Caribbean, where the bulls for the Devil's Carnival are shipped from, there is no official matador. (The bulls don't die or suffer serious injury, either.) Instead, residents come down with their families to the makeshift bamboo arena on the outskirts of town to drink aguardiente and jeer while successive bulls are unleashed, one at a time, on anyone brave or stupid enough to jump in the ring with them.

Photo by the author

A 24-year-old was killed on one of the first days after a bull impaled him through the groin. But that didn't stop the town from showing out for the next two days. The Riosucio gentry, many of whom, I'd been led to understand, are big in the local gold-mining industry, held prime seats in the shaded upper deck, fanning themselves in the mid-afternoon heat and throwing empty beer cans at the bulls when they passed while offering up harsh critiques of the runners' bravery. The rest of the town picnicked on the neighboring hillside or crowded behind the cage walls, which runners climb desperately whenever the prospect of lethal goring seems imminent.

Nicolas Lerma, the carnival jester, was there, decked out in full matador garb as he was led, stumbling, through the rink by fellow jester Hector Mario Ramírez and shouting slurred proclamations to his adoring public. The two of them, Ramírez being the straight man to Lerma's buffoon, would be back in new costumes later that night, this time in the upper plaza at the front of the devil's funeral procession.

Satan's reign on Earth, or the small patch of it that is Riosucio, Colombia, is a brief and tragic one. The carnival, ushered in with pomp and lavish frenzy, ends with a somber, if drunken, parade through the streets.

"Devil, how could you leave us?"

"Devil, stay with us. Please, stay with us. We beg you."

" ¡Que dolor tan hijodeputa!"

These are some of the cries that punctuated the steady chorus of salsa emanating from the plaza. Behind the ceremonial calabaza marched a hooded sect of apparent Satan worshippers and weeping "widows," chanting dark prayers into the warm night. At the head of the line, ringing a large funeral bell carried on a post by two satanic minions, Lerma and Ramírez called out to heavens, accepting occasional shots from onlookers impressed by their performance (as judged by the jesters' ability to produce genuine tears).

"Why, Devil? Why? Does it seem fair to you that after five nights with us, you leave us for no reason? Why?"

The devil didn't offer an explanation for his sudden, albeit not unexpected, departure. But he did deliver a lengthy closing speech reinforcing the values of joy and love just before his likeness—along with that of one of his wives, a 30-foot yellow demoness—went up in a billow of flame and black smoke in the heart of the town square.

"I may be gone," said the devil, speaking through yet another vassal. "But I inhabit each of you. And I will return."

Source: Vice.com

Aphrodisiacs in Cali, Colombia

Photo via Flickr user Mario Carvajal

I meet Guillermo at a pizza parlor in San Antonio, the colonial part of Cali, Colombia, popular with young gringos and Europeans. As we get to talking, it turns out Guillermo lived in NYC for four years, he's into heavy metal, and he's a dealer. After finishing our pizza we walk over a few blocks to his apartment in El Centro where we enter through a small dry goods store. While he opens up drawers and pulls out different-sized plastic envelopes containing acid, ecstasy, cocaine, pot, and opium, Guillermo's mother walks back and forth, attending to customers who've come to buy sugar, chocolate milk, beer, and cigarettes.

I buy a gram of near-pure coke for $5 dollars, though it's mostly out of politeness. The fact is, I'm after another drug that's a lot harder to come by, and Guillermo is one of the only dealers in Cali who stocks it.

After Guillermo packs up the recreational drugs, he reaches over, grabs a knapsack and starts pulling out dozens of exotic little pillboxes. He gives me the lowdown on the effects of each of them and in the end I choose a black bottle (for $20 dollars) with its brand name written in Chinese, Korean, Arabic, and Russian and illustrated with silhouettes of two golden kangaroos. Inside, there are ten golden pills in the shape of Australian boomerangs. The instruction pamphlet in the box explains that these pills "...trigger love fire through expanding and comfortable swelling...."

It's not that I need "love fire" in a pill (I'm still a hard-working man with plenty of piss and vinegar in me), but I'm up to giving it a run with my local lady friend just for kicks. According to Guillermo, when he first started selling sex stimulants there was a stigma attached to the pills that only sexually inadequate men needed them, but now men of all ages and sexual preferences are popping pills in front of their lovers as part of a normal, healthy sex life.

It's hard to generalize about cities and cultures, but there are several reasons why caleños might very well enjoy more, better sex than people in most cities around the world. The fact that Cali enjoys intense year-round tropical heat, allowing locals to strut around in their skimpiest clothes; that even strangers call each other papi, mami, and amor; that most everyone learned to dance salsa when they were children and are thus great movers and shakers; that the cocaine produced here is pure and cheap; the fact that prostitution is legal and there are dozens of whore houses for all wallets; and that there are affordable, extravagant love motels all over the city, surely ups the level of sexual activity in this town.

In addition to the traditional places where people make love, sex in and around the city is so common that there is a name, desnucadero, for the myriad places, such as abandoned buildings, construction sites, dark alleys, etc, where people sneak in for a quick hump; a local term for quickies in public places, bluyinear, which means fucking with your blue jeans on; and a new trend called dogging, where young people agree on the internet to meet in local parks for sex.

These natural sex pills are mostly made in Asia, but they also work wonders for the racially diverse men in this tropical, sexually-saturated city. Caleños have long consumed their own local aphrodisiacs including natural products such as bananas, coconut, a fruit named borojol, and the homemade sugarcane alcohol named viche (one variety of which is called tumba catres, bed-breakers). In addition, local markets sell magic products, such as powders, sprays, lotions, and candles (one in the shape of a large black dick with balls) designed to help both men and women dominate their lovers and give them superpowers in bed.

Nonetheless, these days, global corporations peddling pharmaceuticals engineered to increase blood circulation in male genitals have penetrated sexual activity across the globe, including way down here in the southwestern corner of Colombia. Men in Cali increasingly look to modern corporate chemistry to give their sex life a lift.

Although men in the West seek help from pharmaceuticals, in the East there are hundreds of products that claim to be composed of natural ingredients that traditional healers have been prescribing for thousands of years to keep men and women happy, healthy, and sexed-up. China's ancient herbal and animal aphrodisiacs repackaged in modern pill form have recently become a huge export industry, and in the last decade sales of natural sexual enhancers have tripled.

Photo via Flickr user Julian Fong

Nearly every drugstore in Cali sells Viagra and half a dozen cheaper generic varieties over the counter. While local sex shops in the city sell some alternative Viagra, few sell natural sex products from Asia, leaving Guillermo a window of opportunity. In the 90s, inside an upscale mall, Guillermo tells me he ran one of the city's only sex shops in Cali, selling inflatable dolls, handcuffs, and remote controlled vaginas (there are sex shops all around town servicing the city's population of two million). Although he no longer has a sex shop, Guillermo still sells a long line of lubricants, delayers, dilators, and dildos, as well as more than a dozen varieties of Asian sex stimulants he says are smuggled in from Hong Kong through the coastal town of Buenaventura.

Asian sex pills claim to be made from natural products that include a wide variety of plants, such as wolfberry and saffron, though ginseng, which often grows in exotic seductive shapes that resemble curvaceous women and worth their weight in gold, tends to be listed as the main ingredient. My gold pills, however, announce that they contain not only plants but also powder derived from some very sensitive parts of some very exotic animals, including "testicle of yak, sea horse penis, sea dog penis, snow deer penis, tiger penis, snake penis, Tibetan mastiff penis, Tibetan goat penis, and Tibetan donkey penis."

It's hard to know what these pills really contain since there is no industry oversight of herbal treatments. Many of them start working their magic in under half an hour, basically the same as Viagra and other pharmaceutical stimulants. Pfizer, the manufacturer of Viagra, has long accused Asian natural sex stimulants of being laced with sildenafil, their wonder pill's main ingredient, and the powerful pharmaceutical lobby applauds when the FDA bans or recalls "herbal" pills containing active substances found in patented sex products.

According to NBC, a study by Pfizer estimated that 69% of more than the 3,000 Asian sex pills they tested were laced with patented lab compounds, but it's hard to swallow such statistics knowing that pharmaceutical corporations will go to great lengths to crack down on competition, especially natural, lower-priced alternatives.

Even when they are not adulterated, laboratory-produced chemical compounds that enhance the functioning of the male sexual organ are known to produce such side effects as headaches, flushed faces, nasal congestion, nausea, irregular heartbeat, tremors, changes in blood pressure, visual disturbances (such as difficulty distinguishing between green and blue), chest pain, and can lead to more serious complications when used in conjunction with other pharmaceuticals or stimulants.

With so much uncertainty surrounding the ingredients of both over-the-counter and under-the-radar pills, and with so many cultural, social, and economic concerns, what's a man to do? Obviously, go for the cheapest ones in the coolest bottles designed with the most potent images (one box has an image of Godzilla and Mothra going head to head in battle), accompanied by the most evocative results ("to quicken blood flow to cells in male cavernous body").

In the end, despite possible health risks and risks to endangered species, for me it boils down to whether these pills work. The golden pill I pop has me up and ready in about 20 minutes, and keeps my member standing at attention for hours of great sex. It's exciting to achieve the much announced "bigger, stronger, harder, longer," though I'm quite aware that a big boner doth not a great lover make. Although I've probably just consumed some form and quantity of pharmaceutical substance along with other ingredients of unknown origin, I am grateful that by merely swallowing a miniature golden boomerang from a bottle decorated with kangaroos and beautiful Chinese characters I was able to achieve what my pills' instructional and poetical pamphlet guaranteed in five different languages, the "infinite tremendous."

Source: Vice.com

Cali: Travel Guide

Vacations to enjoy with the Spirit of Youth

Cali's Salsa is known all around the world, another activity to enjoy during your vacations

Get to know Cali, Colombia thru this travel guide; where you will find culture and top tourism activities.

Cali is known in Colombia as the capital of fiestas, street partying, dancing, and salsa as Cali's Salsa Clubs are among the most famous in the entire continent. Among many other things you can experience on your vacations, the people from Cali have developed a playful and hedonistic culture in harmony with the natural surroundings and country life.

Cali is a great place for tourism and leisure. The capital of the department of Valle del Cauca has become a mecca for tourism thanks to the beauty of its women, its historical sites, and a multitude of spots for day and night entertainment. Cali is one of the major economic and industrial centers of the country, and the main urban, economic, industrial, and agrarian city of southwest Colombia.

In Cali, salsa dancing is more common than walking

On Sundays, the caleños worship rivers. They go en masse to bathe in the cool streams and rivers that flow down the hills, the favorite being the Pance river. The daring walk upstream to the campgrounds of the Fundación Farallones, where guides are always ready to tour the park with visitors. Lodging is available for extended stays in the park.

Cultural activities for holidays

In the evening, the devotion turns to dancing. In Juanchito, Cali's Salsa hotspot, humble mulatto floorboards have become “dance-o-dromes”, where tourists and locals come together to dance until dawn. The climax occurs during the Feria de la Caña and the Bullfighting Season, at the beginning of the year.

Cultural activities flourish around centers like the Instituto Departamental de Arte y Cultura, the Instituto Popular de Cultura, the Teatro Municipal, the Museo de Arte Moderno La Tertulia, the Sala Beethoven, the Escuela Departamental de Teatro, and the Universidad del Valle.

The traditional cuisine of Cali and the department of Valle del Cauca can be easily identified. It is a fusion of the region’s Spanish, Quechua, and African heritage with the culinary secrets of Antioquia. Favorites are the sancocho de gallina (hen stew), arroz atollado (pork sausage, beef ribs, and oxtail in a rice stew), tortilla soup, aborrajado (ripe plantain with melted cheese), toasted green plantain with hogao (a stir-fry of onions and tomatoes), and tamales. Sugarcane plantations inspired a variety of desserts such as cookies, manjar blanco, gelatina de pata (cow’s hoof gelatin with molasses), coconut sweets and champús, a beverage made from corn, the pulp of the lulo fruit, pieces of pineapple, cinnamon, and brown sugar syrup.

Basic tourism tips for your vacations:

Climate

The climate of Cali is equatorial tropical hot. The west branch of the Andes blocks the cool, humid air coming from the Pacific Ocean. Average temperature is 26º C (79º F), with an average low of 19º C (66º F) and an average high of 34º C (93º F). The dry seasons go from December to March and from July to August; the rainy season go from April to June and September to November.

Altitude

1003 meters (3290 ft.) above sea level.

La Ermita Church, Cali

Location

Cali lies on the west bank of the Cauca River. To the west, the city is guarded by the Farallones de Cali, which are part of the western Andes mountain range. The city is located in a strategic position, linked to the west with the Pacific Ocean and to the northeast with the industrial city of Yumbo.

Airport

Cali has one of the main airports in Colombia, the Alfonso Bonilla Aragón International Airport (CLO), located in the municipality of Palmira, a fifteen minute drive north of the city. CLO is the second busiest airport in number of passengers and the fourth in freight traffic in Colombia.

How to get there

By plane, through the Alfonso Bonilla Aragón International Airport. An extensive road network, which includes the Pan-American Highway, connects Cali to the rest of the country.

Mass Transport

Buses, taxis, and vans add up to 43,000 public service vehicles. All taxis are yellow. The names of bus companies go by colors, Blancos y Negros, Azul Plata, Rojos y Grises (white and black, silver blue, and gray red).The capacity of vans ranges from ten to twenty passengers. In the near future, a bus-lane based transport system, the MIO, will begin operations.

Contact

Oficina de Turismo Cali
www.caliturismo.com
Phone: + 57 (2) 885-8855

The Basilica of the Lord of Miracles, Buga

Escapades near the city

While in Cali, Colombia the traveler should not miss visiting the Hacienda Piedechinche, in the municipality of Santa Elena. This is where the sugarcane museum is housed, actually a theme park for displaying of the evolution of sugar mills. It offers rides on a sugar train and horseback rides through fields of sugar cane.

Another must is a visit to Hacienda El Paraíso, the house where writer Jorge Isaacs and his cousin lived. Isaac’s cousin was the inspiration for María, the name of the main character, as well as the name of the book, that epitomized Colombian romantic literature. The rooms with his personal effects, the blooming rose garden, and the wishing stone are carefully preserved.

For Catholics, there is a pilgrimage to the city of Buga, the site of the Lord of Miracles

An essential pilgrimage takes Catholics to the town of Buga, with its Crucified Christ — known as “the Miraculous” —, which lies in the Basilica. Another reason for traveling to Buga is a visit to the well-preserved 75-hectare tropical dry forest of El Vínculo. Situated at the foothills of the central mountain range, it shelters a wide variety of local fauna and is the seat of a biological station by the same name.

On the way to Madriñal, visitors can admire the Sonso lake, which covers an area of 2,045 hectares that provide sustenance for fishermen and their families and food for migrating birds coming from the northern hemisphere.

The road that goes west to connect Buga with the port of Buenaventura, on the Pacific coast, crosses areas of notable interest for tourists. The Calima lake, for instance, is the reservoir with the third strongest winds in the world, a water-sportsman’s paradise.

This is also an area of considerable archaeological interest. The Calima archaeological museum merits a tour to admire the figures, pottery, and burial urns of the Yotoco, Sonso, Malagana, Buga, and Bolo, or Quebrada, cultures.

And there are many reasons to go north. In the village of Roldanillo, the Omar Rayo museum exhibits the pictorial work of this artist and other Latin Americans. Following the visit, you can visit the vineyards of the municipality of La Unión. In addition to the wineries, there are two hotels, one in the style of a luxury vacation center and the other, more discrete, in a typical house of the region.

Calima Lake near Cali, Colombia

Travel guide along the Pacific Coast of Valle del Cauca

Read the following travel guide to get more information onCali , Colombia’s surroundings.

Empty boats bob up and down at the tourist wharf in Buenaventura; when they fill up, they go northward without delay to the place where the bay ends and the coastline of Valle del Cauca is lined with spectacular beaches bathed by the Pacific Ocean.

Travelers accustomed to sailing take the seats at the stern; they know that the fury of the ocean continually lifts the prow of the boat causing a difficult journey. Besides, sitting next to the helmsman is an opportunity for listening to the stories of the area.

Málaga Bay — home of a naval base — has 32 islands and islets that constitute the archipelago of La Plata and offer humpbacked whales food and the ideal temperature for mating. At the northern end of Buenaventura bay is La Bocana, a village inhabited by Blacks and bathed by the Dagua and Anchicayá rivers, which form freshwater pools and cascades along the Santa Clara path.

Not far is Paradise Island, a floating islet with beaches that are red due to the huge number of red crabs that inhabit them. Piangua is a hamlet where gentle waves and solitary beaches allow visitors to be at one with nature.

Another appealing place in the Valle del Cauca is its Pacific Coast, which has destinations such as Málaga Bay, Paraíso Island, Isla Palma Park and Cangrejal Island

The attractions of Juanchaco are not so evident and, paradoxically, this makes the village memorable. It is the gateway to Isla Palma park, a large forest-covered rock that is the feeding ground for a large population of aquatic birds and is surrounded by a sea of many shades of green — surprising hues that result from the absence of rivers spewing sediment into the sea.

From Juanchaco you can travel to Chucheros, a beach of black sand bathed by a green sea, where a crystal-clear waterfall tempers the saltiness of the ocean. Close by is the 65-meter Sierpe waterfall, part of the Bonguito river, in the rainforest north of Málaga bay.

However, the best thing to do is to take the path that goes from Juanchaco to Ladrilleros, a hamlet where life moves to the rhythm of the tides and most houses serve as hotels, restaurants, or crafts shops. At high tide, the place becomes a reef with streams that enter the forest, forming freshwater pools and waterfalls; at low tide, it becomes a romantic place that inspires you to walk along the seashore or spend the entire afternoon in a lounge chair.

Another charming destination is Cangrejal island, located to the south of Buenaventura bay. The beaches there are narrower, but the water is very clear. Estuaries and watercourses like the Yurumangui River take you to where the Emberá Indians live.

Boyacá: mountains for rural tourism

Boyacá is a sea of fertile mountains on the Eastern Range, decorated with thousands of colors that witnessed the battles for independence that gave shape to South America. Its rich topography exhibits the aromas of a vast agricultural production and landscapes as majestic as the desert of La Candelaria and El Cocuy snow peak, around which many picturesque colonial villages attract quite a number of tourists.

A turquoise sea amid mountains

Who would think that amid the Eastern Mountain Range, over 3,000 meters above sea level, an imposing lake is hidden? It is a lake that descends from an inner Andes sea from the Mesozoic and Paleozoic eras. Tota Lake is the largest body of natural water in Colombia, covering an area of 44 km², with turquoise-colored waters and white-sanded beaches that recall icy oceans.Tota Lake is Colombia’s largest body of natural water.

The largest tourist attraction is sports fishing, especially for excellent rainbow trout. It is also an attractive setting for engaging in water sports and sailing. A fishing and nautical sports championship is held annually.

There are three islands in Tota: San Pedro, Santa Helena, and Cerro Chiquito,the smallest of the three.  They may be reached by motorboat and offer a landscape worth admiring. South of the lake, is Playa Blanca, a white-sanded beach, where the Muisca Indians revered their gods and which is also a good place for camping and enjoying the menus of a good restaurant area.

Tota means “farmland” in the indigenous language.

A good plan is to spend the day in the surroundings and to visit villages with traditional architecture that mix peasant and colonial styles. These villages are: Aquitania, an industrial city, and Iza, Cuitiva, and Tota.

This magical destination is located three and a half hours from Bogotá by land. “Farmland” is its meaning in the Indigenous language.  Due to the altitude above sea level, it is important to use a sunscreen and a warm jacket for the cold.

Tunja, historical architecture and religious tourism

A tour of the capital of the department of Boyacá includes an architectural walk of the Tunja Cathedral, with its Gothic-Elizabethan style and plateresque details from the Spanish Renaissance.  There are temples and convents in the Spanish Mudéjar style, as well as the spectacular temple of Santo Domingo, considered by many to be the “Sistine Chapel of Hispanic-American Baroque art”. The typical Andalusian style may be found in the houses of Juan de Castellanos, the city founder, and Don Juan de Vargas, an illustrious scribe.

The main square in Tunja is the largest built in America during Spanish colonial times.

Since the churches and temples of Tunja exhibit the best of the beautiful architecture inherited from the Spaniards, it constitutes an excellent option for religious tourism. Among others, the temples of Santa Clara La Real, San Francisco, San Laureano, and Santa Bárbara stand out.

Tunja’s Plaza Mayor, the main square, is the meeting place for the city’s inhabitants. Framing the square is the largest number of colonial buildings in the city. The Christmas celebrations by the name of aguinaldo boyacense also are held here. The main square in Tunja is the largest built in America during Spanish colonial times.

Black earthenware vessel on Guacamayas sisal placemat

Desert landscape in Boyacá

Boyacá marketplace

Boyacá peasant

Paipa Convention Center

Boyacá landscape

Central Plaza, Tunja

Puente de Boyacá the bridge where the last battle for independence was fought

Handicrafts exhibited on Ráquira facades

Health and beauty facilities, Paipa

Facades in Tunja’s historical center

Villa de Leyva central square

Villa de Leyva: a town of fantasy

Villa de Leyva is a town for relaxing, resting, and having fun.

One of the small towns that better preserves memories of old colonial times and expresses the best of Spanish influence is Villa de Leyva. Its main square is enormous: 14,000 m² of space for bringing together tourists and locals around colorful, interesting festivals that are celebrated throughout of the year.

Main church in Villa de Leyva, Boyacá.

During the low season, it is a place for relaxing, strolling cobblestone streets, and enjoying small, yet pleasant, restaurants that offer both typical and international food. During the high season, it is a place for entertainment and the enjoyment of local festivities, such as the Festival de Viento y las Cometas, the Festival de las Luces, Astronomía, and Cine (wind and kites, lights, astronomy, and film festivals, respectively).

Aside from an excellent hotel infrastructure, there is the possibility of leasing houses with lovely facades and gardens that bring the freshness of the surrounding green mountains into their midst.

There are numerous sites to visit in the outskirts of Villa de Leyva, the main ones being El Museo del Fósil, a museum with a gigantic 120-million year old fossil; El Infiernito, a Muisca astronomical center; the Periquera waterfalls; Iguaque Lake; and the desert, ideal for mountain and BMX biking. Other sports include canyoning, ecological hiking, caving, and horseback riding.

Boyacá, artisan hands of clay and sisal

Ráquira is Colombia’s handicrafts capital.

Due to a vast ceramics  tradition dating back to pre-Hispanic times, Ráquira is the handicrafts capital of Colombia. In addition to pots, pitchers, coffee cups, and kitchen utensils, there are anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines, pieces for Nativity scenes, piggy banks, etc.

Perhaps for this ability of Ráquira inhabitants, the name of the town in the Chibcha language is “City of Pots”. These indigenous peoples used them to prepare chicha (a fermented corn drink), store their food, and prepare their meals.  Artisans work with black, white, yellow, and red clay.

Black earthenware vessel and Guacamayas sisal placemat.

Guacamayas is another town in Boyacá, where many of the prettiest and colorful sisal handicrafts used for decoration or as household utensils are manufactured, the main ones being, placemats, fruit bowls, and baskets.

One material that has gained a lot of popularity is the taguanut, used for making jewelry and decorative items. It is in the town of Chiquinquirá where this material – known as “vegetable ivory” – is transformed more creatively.

Although found across Boyacá, ruanas are made specifically in Nobsa, a town in the east of the department. A ruana is a poncho for the cold country, made from thick, warm virgin wool, and excellent for chasing away the cold temperatures of the Boyacá mountains.

Health and wellness tourism, in Paipa

Paipa is a health tourism destination thanks to its hot springs.

Paipa is a very appropriate city for rest, relaxation, andhealth tourism thanks to its ample hotel infrastructure and reservoirs of hot springs with medicinal properties. Surrounding these hot springs, various centers for hydrotherapy, mud therapy, saunas, steam baths, and massages have been developed - excellent for relaxing, resting, and beautifying.

Hydrotherapy, mud therapy, saunas, steam baths, and massage centers have developed around the Paipa hot springs.

The architecture of Paipa evokes the colonial, fusing it with the modern. The handicrafts street is in the town center, just the place for purchasing lovely handmade objects that represent all the expertise of the inhabitants of Boyacá. The city also stands out for its infrastructure for corporate tourism, conventions, conferences, and incentive trips.

Other plans could include visits to the Pantano de Vargas, the site of a famous battle; the Monumento a los Lanceros, a half hour ride from Paipa; and the Sochagota Lake, with plans for families, friends and even couples. By land, Paipa is located three hours from Bogotá; it is also possible to travel by air, landing in the city airport.