Annual Agro Expo in Bogota

The annual Agro Expo in Bogota is the most important agricultural trade show each year in Colombia and lasts 11 days (much like the Toronto Winter fair and similar events across Canada). This year the show ran from July 11 to 21, and I visited last week Wednesday on invitation of one of the Canadians who started an export/import business 4 years ago in Colombia.

Nicolas Mendoza, a Canadian-Colombian who lived 7 years in Halifax before coming back to Colombia recently, picked me up in his 60 year old VW "beetle"... what an old-timer....one of these was my first car 36 years ago...sweet memories... and here they still keep them on the road...

At the expo the Canadian government organized a significant pavillon with expositors from Canada and local representatives for Canadian exporters. The Colombian Canadian Chamber of Commerce plays an important role during the organization of such commercial events.

Cameron Glass who invited me at the event, his Colombian business partner (whom he met years ago in Holland of all places, both being active in the flower business) and Nicolas Mendoza in the middle.

Lots of cattle business, an important industry in Colombia. Just like at the shows in Canada, there were many competitions taking place....

The largest public University in Colombia had a number of stands displaying their programs as well as some very innovative applied research projects...

The Brazilians were very much present based on their huge agriculture sector. They had a nicely designed and impressive pavillon on their own...

And of course the Argentinians have to be at these shows. One of their companies exports fruit packing machines, an essential investment for even smaller scale agri-businesses...

I noticed a group of students from SENA and they referred me to a stand of SENA of one of their provincial agricultural training centers. They were hosted in the French pavillon where they promoted fair trade and eco certified products.....!

A few Colombian cowboys drove around on beautiful work-horses...

And there were many mechanized horse power machines on display as well....

A final photo of the Expo with Tarik Khan, one of the important Canadian colleagues at the local Embassy who also supports our EFE program. Here he addresses guests at a reception co-hosted by the Embassy and the Colombian Canadian Chamber of Commerce. An interesting day....

The coming three weeks no posts. I will be in Canada doing some work from home as well as having some family time in a cottage. More again in August...

Archeology in Tierradentro

On Sunday we drove over a beautiful rural road to one of the main archeological sites of Colombia called "Tierradentro" which has unique displays of pre-Incan burial sites. The views along the rivers in the region during the two hour drive never bored one minute...

 

We arrived at the national park and archeological site and visited the two small museums, one with explanations on the pre-Incan culture and one on the current indigenous communities populating most of this region. While beautifully structured, much remains to be done for international visitors.

The region is declared a UNESCO heritage site (one of four in Colombia together with the nearby San Augustin pre-Colombian site with the many statues, the salt cathedral near Colombia (see one of my previous blog posts of May) and the historic city of Cartagena).

You can make from half hour treks up to four hour treks to the various burial sites. We took one of the shorter trails but it was a stiff half hour uphill...

The reward was an assembly of twelve burial sites. The pre-Inca communities had a very strong belief in the "after-life" and they put a lot of work in the creation of the burial sites of their loved ones. They carved out in the rocks burial shrines which one can enter via pretty steep stairs. A few impressions below: most of the sites are covered by structures and horizontal doors to protect them from the natural elements (and from robbery).

We went down in a few of the burial sites and it amazed me to imagine how long and hard they had to work to create these burial sites in those long ago times...

One more view of the site on top of a mountain....

Tourism development in rural Colombia

Saturday morning we started early with two of Natalia's colleagues from the province. On our way we crossed one of the many rivers originating in the mountains of Huila. For example the large Rio Magdalena (which covers a lot of the region where we work our EFE program in the south of the Bolivar province and ends in the Atlantic Ocean in the city of Cartagena) starts in Huila. These rivers have a powerful stream and are ideally suited for the rafting kind of tourism. Training and proper industry standards for that sector still lack...

The first B&B style operation we visited was started three years ago and hosted us for breakfast.

July 20 is Colombia's "birthday", so you will see a lot of "yellow" which is the main national colour (like the Dutch like to wear their "orange" during special events and the Canadians their "red/white"). The B & B was nicely decorated and the service was super friendly.

The place also offers wedding receptions and parties for which they use a traditional style open oven. The owner was proud to show us around and then made us a delicious local-style breakfast...

We then walked through town and witnessed some of the day's festive events plus we met a few local tourism students. Many people dressed in the popular yellow national team soccer shirts...

We completed the visit to this specific town with a meeting with the mayor and most of his town councillors. Much remains to be done to make this town a more effective partner of the regional efforts to develop a "tourism corridor/destination". Wish I could send professor Damian and some of his Niagara College students here (if only they spoke fluent Spanish.....).

Another small hotel in a next town. Always lots of green and...... hammocks....!

A few impressions of the mostly well maintained traditional streets in this town....

The entrance of another small hotel which was decorated with wonderful local artist work and the most amazing fresh local tropical flowers...

And of course the hammocks...... We had a great chat with the owner who is a woman with vision and spirit, but for whom the investment in making her hotel a place to international standards was a clear burden and worry.... Wish her luck!

On our walk through town I noticed this sign: "Peace begins with a smile....". Colombia needs that after suffering from 50 years of serious internal conflicts.....

A third town we visited had just completed the national birthday's events. Here my fellow travellers talk to the mayor of the town, a young fellow with an excellent vision who invited us for lunch at a local "hacienda" (a local coffee farm) in the mountains.

Before we went for the lunch we walked around a bit. These two buses are the types which are used a lot in typical Colombian tourism souvenirs. I learned that these buses originated in this town. We met with a group of youngsters who volunteered in the maintenance and promotion of local heritage sites. The organizers are three young local entrepreneurs who started an eco-adventures company this year. Very inspiring to listen to their plans & dreams....

And then it was time for lunch. Local BBQ...! The owner sits here with some of the local guests..

... and even though this photo does not do it justice, his family's daily view is spectacular!!

This farm also uses a traditional style open oven and they made some local sweet deserts in it. With our stomachs full we thanked the local mayor and the others for their hospitality and wished them luck in further developing a promising role in the regional tourism developments.

To the right of the mayor is Alveiro, a local tourism expert who can tell you 1001 stories on the province's rich history, cultures, arts, flora & fauna. He is also a remarkable practical business developer and works as a consultant for HOCOL, a local mining company doing a number of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) projects in the region.

The last town we visited on Saturday is famous for its cathedral and local religious festivals. On an annual basis this small town of 5,000 attracts 300,000 (mostly Colombian) visitors. Colombia is 95 % catholic, so the religious festivals play a very important role in the country's culture.

The town is on top of a mountain with again spectacular views (hard to capture in a photo)...