Off to the jungle!
Colombia borders the Caribbean in the north of the country. As we had heard about a permaculture plantation here and wanted to take a look at the Caribbean, we also travelled to the north of Colombia. We started in the historic city of Cartagena, which showed us a very beautiful side. The old town is beautiful, very well preserved and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We were also very impressed by the old castle, which towers over the city. It is criss-crossed by a huge system of tunnels, through which you could theoretically walk alone and get lost. We only dared to go 100 metres in, after that it was too scary with all the side passages and dead ends.
Emeralds
That's why we went to an emerald museum. Colombia produces around 60 % of the world's emeralds. The finest are extracted in mines near Bogotá, with two of the mines there extracting 90% of these precious stones exported from Colombia. Because the stones were flashing everywhere and we didn't visit a museum in Bogotá, we did so in Cartagena. Colombian emeralds come in different colours, from light yellowish green to deep, dark and even blue-greenish. They are of particularly high quality because they are very clear and shimmer. Emeralds symbolise hope and justice. The gemstones were already an important ornament for ceremonies among the ancient peoples of South America and were incorporated into gold jewellery, among other things. In the days of Pablo Escobar, the then leader of the drug gang from Medellín, there was a war over the gemstones. Escobar's attempt to seize the Emerald Mine in Muzo (near Bogotá) was rejected by the bosses of the Emerald Industry, which is why a bloody war broke out in the area around the mine in which around 3,000 people lost their lives until the drug boss gave up. We would actually have been very interested in visiting a mine, but that didn't materialise. Maybe on our next trip...
Palomino
After Cartagena, we travelled on to Palomino, where we wanted to spend a few days relaxing on the beach. Unfortunately, this didn't quite work out because the sea is so rough at this point that you can only surf there, but not swim. Instead, we hiked to a great viewpoint that offered indescribable views of the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. We weren't the only creatures to hike here either. Take a look for yourself...
We were fascinated by the leafcutter ants and observed them for a long time. As we learnt, they are "farmers". They cut off plant leaves with their mouthparts and carry the cut leaves into a burrow to create a mushroom farm, which they develop and maintain, "feed" so to speak, in order to feed themselves. For many farmers, however, they are a nuisance because they also cut off the leaves of cultivated crops.
Ameisen / Ants
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Flora and fauna in northern Colombia
In Palomino itself, as well as in the neighbouring Parque Tairona, we went on hikes and saw lots of animals, insects and plants. In Parque Tairona there were kilometres of white sandy beaches where you could NOT swim :-/ Unfortunately, there were signs everywhere saying that several hundred people had died here and that swimming was forbidden. The 2 or 3 beaches where swimming was allowed because stone reefs in the sea break the waves beforehand were too crowded for us. That's why we only took a few swimming photos. But more pictures of the landscape 😊
Side note: Have you ever wondered how and where we actually write the blog and how the research takes place? Sometimes we are in extreme situations and under maximum stress when writing the articles and looking for the pictures. One example was in our accommodation at Tayrona Parque 😉
Minca
We continued our journey to Minca. Minca is a real diamond compared to the other villages we visited. There are only a few tourists here, the village is surrounded by greenery, various forests and hiking trails. Minca is well-known among birdwatchers. We were immediately drawn to the village's rustic charm. Among other things, we visited a permaculture farm here and by chance met a local coffee farmer who moved to Colombia from Germany a few years ago to grow coffee. More on that in a moment.
We visited Mundo Nuevo and Plan B. Mundo Nuevo is an ecosystem restoration project (Mundo Nuevo, Colombia – Ecosystem Restoration Communities)which is part of the Ecosystem Generation Community and is directly adjacent to Finca Plan B. Before the restoration project began, the area was used for livestock farming. Grass was sown on a large scale; there was no room for biodiversity.
Ecosystem Restoration Communities are places where people around the world can participate in the urgent and great task of restoring our degraded natural systems and introducing regenerative uses. The Foundation Ecosystem Restoration Communities – Mighty Movement supports the network of restoration partners through communication, knowledge exchange and public education.
Plan B is a project by Annie, from Germany, and Pim, from the Netherlands, who bought a piece of land in Minca and started practising permaculture here a few years ago. Permaculture comes from the English and means something like permanent (agri)culture, i.e. permanent agriculture. It involves looking at the processes in nature and trying to imitate them as closely as possible so that everything is theoretically possible without human intervention. For example, there are trees in nature that have yellow dots on their leaves and look as if a butterfly has already laid eggs there. This ensures that butterflies avoid this area and stay away from beds that they would otherwise use to lay their eggs. The larvae would otherwise eat the leaves, jeopardising the harvest. For example, intelligent combinations of trees and shrubs are used to ensure that the trees provide shade for the shrubs. The guiding principles for permaculture include
- Long-term instead of short-term
- Diversity instead of monotony, biodiversity, genetic diversity, ecological diversity and cultural diversity
- Sustainable optimisation instead of short-term maximisation
- Cooperation instead of competition
According to Pim, who did the tour with us, it's anything but easy. It has taken a few failures, but he and his team operate according to the motto: mistakes are okay and important. You talk about them openly, you don't judge them and everyone learns from them together. Because "making the same mistake a second time is stupid and unnecessary". In any case, we were very impressed by the current status and will definitely continue to monitor the project. We can only recommend the Plan B workshop to anyone passing by Minca! Annie's vegan food is fantastic and the tour with Pim is very interesting! We took away some inspiration for our terrace and our indoor planting and would like to try permaculture on our terrace 😊
Coffee farmer Florian - A German among Colombians
We also met Florian in Minca. He grows organic coffee here and sells it in a small shop in Minca and in Santa Marta. He spontaneously invited us on a short tour of his plantation. Of course, we didn't say no. As we found it difficult to get out of bed that morning, we had to rattle up the mountain on motor taxis. At the top, Florian was already waiting for us in his wellies and we trudged across his finca. A mango tree here, a banana palm there, several coffee bushes and various herbs and other plants in between to attract insects. A major problem that he and all the other farmers in the region have to contend with is the erosion of the humus layer, i.e. the layer that contains all the nutrients. This affects both very dry soil that is eroded by wind and soil that is washed away by heavy rain. Because where there are no more nutrients in the soil, nothing will grow. Conventionally, this means: fertilising... fertilising and more fertilising... but this is not possible in organic farming or with the principle of permaculture. There are already concepts here that are several thousand years old: Terraced gardens! And to be honest... we've seen so many great terraces, you can't imagine! There really are "terraces" being built in the mountains. Everything from small to huge.
With the small terraces, the principle is that the nutrient-rich soil is washed down, but can then simply be shovelled back up to the corresponding plants and thus not lost. In the large terraces, some of which still exist from the ancient civilisations, the soil does not move far at all, as there is a level that is walled in by stones and only defined waterways lead to the terraces further down. A very old, but also very exciting concept. Florian has started to create such terraces on his plantation, but this takes a lot of time and energy. However, he is also very lucky that there are still existing terraces from the ancient civilisations on his property.
From the Caribbean jungle we travelled on to THE JUNGLE, the AMAZONAS RAINFOREST, our last stop in Colombia: Leticia
Leticia - Life at the border triangle
Leticia is the only city in Colombia that lies directly on the Amazon River. The problem? There is only one flight connection there. There are no roads, railways or even ferries from other cities in Colombia. Leticia is on the border triangle between Colombia, Brazil and Peru. There is a bridge over a road between Leticia (Colombia) and Tabatinga (Brazil), which has two small houses signalling that there should theoretically be a border here. In practice, there is also a border here, because when you stand on this bridge, you can hear people speaking Portuguese on one side and Spanish on the other. And the music also changes, blaring out of the bold systems from the shops and cars 😉 People walk and cars simply drive over it as if nothing is wrong. You can also get to Peru on a small "banana boat" for €1-2 and then you're on the island of Santa Rosa. Here too... no border control, nothing... Because these three places are so remote and you have to travel several hours or even days by boat to the next town, which is somehow connected to the countries by transport, nobody here cares whether you are Brazilian, Peruvian, Colombian or a tourist. It only becomes important if you want to continue travelling from here, because then you need the official exit stamp from Colombia and the official entry stamp from Peru or Brazil. Here are a few impressions of Leticia.
We particularly liked two things here. 1) An ice cream shop with organic ice cream made from fruit that only grows in the Amazon, recommended to us by dear Anni from Minca. 2) There is a special phenomenon in the town. Every evening before dusk, thousands of birds (parrots) fly to Parque Santander and stay there for a while until they fly away again. It was a very special spectacle, and Tatjana was particularly lucky for us on our onward journey 😊 (as they say when someone is hit by bird droppings).
Daily bird spectacle
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Puerto Nariño
However, as the jungle animals here in Leticia have otherwise retreated and fled from humans, we travelled to another village 2 hours up the Amazon. The village is called Puerto Nariño and belongs to the Colombian part of Amazonia. Yes, you read that right, we travelled across the Amazon river in several boats! That was very impressive. It was even more impressive to see that we were travelling at low tide and at high tide the waterline would have been about 15 - 20 metres ABOVE us. The big advantage for us was that we were able to see so many grey and pink dolphins that we are still speechless to this day. This is because low tide is the time when the dolphins are best seen. Unfortunately, we didn't see that many animals in the jungle, as the animals come to the areas we were travelling in during the rainy season. But it was beautiful, totally magical and we learnt a lot about the flora and fauna. Hopefully we can please you with a few pictures and ... sigh... after 3 people including the jungle guide walked past a tree, Artur noticed a poisonous snake about 30 cm behind the tree... This one didn't look very friendly and the jungle guide also explained to us that this is his biggest fear, accidentally being bitten by a snake. These animals are actually very shy and hide when people approach, but if someone accidentally steps on them or the snake feels threatened, there is not much "discussion" and it is usually too late to apologise.... So we were very lucky and we all felt very warm when we realised that we were out and about in the wild!
The pictures of the jungle tour and the poisonous snake can be found further below 🙂 The pictures of Puerto Nariño and our journey there can be found below.
Preparations for Perú
As already written, there is actually no escape from Leticia! There is actually no escape from the border triangle of Leticia, Tabatinga and Santa Rosa. The only way to get here illegally is through the jungle. You can either spend several days/weeks travelling through the jungle to Brazil, Peru or Colombia to the next largest city with transport connections, although you have to be lucky not to be bitten by snakes or killed by indigenous peoples who live deliberately isolated from other people, or you can use a plane or one of the boats/cruise ships. As it is currently low water season and it is particularly bad this year, so much so that there are already reports from Brazil that thousands of fish have died here because entire side arms of the Amazon have dried up ☹ there was only one boat with which we could continue our journey. Destination: Iquitos in Peru. So first we travelled to Leticia in Colombia to the airport immigration office to get our exit stamp. Then a 15-minute TukTuk ride to Tabatinga in Brazil to get the tickets for the boat to Iquitos the next morning. Then 5 minutes on the "banana boat" across the Amazon to Santa Rosa in Peru to get the entry stamp. On the way back, we had a Peruvian beer to get us in the mood and an Inca Cola... The drink, which probably contains more sugar than cola and tastes like... like that chewing gum with the water tattoos in the 90s, which somehow cost 10 pfennigs and after chewing it twice the flavour was gone, but the tattoo was ultra cool (statement by Artur ^^ ).
And we would also like to share a video of our trip across the bottom of the Amazon with you here 🙂 The bottom is very uneven...
The next morning we set off on the speedboat to Iquitos (Perú). An 18-hour journey, through the night and with a slightly better torch to signal that we were there. But we made it 😊 and it was great! We were rewarded with a fantastic sunrise over the Amazon, where we saw the river dolphins jumping.
Jungle tours
We did 2 jungle tours. One in San Martin near Puerto Narino in Colombia and one near Iquitos... if you can call a 4-hour journey to the accommodation "nearby". What did we learn on these tours?
The jungle is a habitat for many animals. From very small ants, to very small stingless bees, which loved our sweaty clothes and bodies, to frogs, various other insects, snakes and very large animals such as monkeys, birds and predators. The jungle is a habitat for all these animals, which live together in symbiosis. The small ones feed the big ones, the big ones fertilise the small ones, they all ensure that the soil is either fertilised or loosened up. The weak ones are eaten, the strong ones reproduce, but only as far as the predators allow. A perfect cycle... Until humans intervene.
In addition to serious interventions by companies, illegal gold mines, illegal drug plantations, land occupations and the construction of cities, there are also many small indigenous villages in the Amazon. In fact, even today there are still very traditional communities that deliberately live in isolation. There are also many "modern" indigenous villages.
If we turn our gaze from the traditional to the modern, everything was fine in the beginning, only individual trees were felled, various barks and shrubs, leaves and flowers were harvested for medicinal or decorative purposes. All in symbiosis and with respect for the environment. No more was ever taken out than was necessary... But the villages also grew and grew and grew and grew. This meant more wood for more buildings. The buildings became more modern and in some cases two-storey, because during the rainy season in the lower Amazon region the water flooded the first floor. More boats had to be built for the growing population and, above all, food had to be grown because the jungle no longer provided enough food around the villages. So plantations of cooking bananas, rice, potatoes and other foods were established. The jungle had to give way more and more. But the connection to nature and the jungle remained. However, this changed with the arrival of the colonisers and over time until today. We spoke to various people who grew up in these indigenous villages and were told the same thing by all of them.
Life in the villages is not easy. Even as a very young child, you are taken to work in the fields, go fishing, gathering or hunting. Even if the only reason for this at the beginning is that there are no kindergartens or childcare centres, the little ones learn what it's all about just by watching. After that, the children eventually go to primary school. This is either in the village or in the next village, where the children have to go by boat or on foot. After school, they go home and help their parents with their work until it gets dark. In the evening, when it is too dark outside to help, the children do their homework and continue the next day. When there is no school, at the weekend and when the parents don't need any help, the children get together to play. Catch, hide and seek, the same things we know from Germany. Football is also very popular. They now play with modern leather balls, which have already seen some use. Back then, they were still lumps of rubber that were moulded into ball shapes. At some point, the age comes when primary school is over. Now it depends on how wealthy the parents are and whether they can send the child to a secondary school in the next larger town. This is the latest point at which children see the modern world in all its good and bad aspects. Many children no longer want to stay in the villages. Medicine is available from doctors and pharmacies. You no longer walk into the forest to pick a few leaves and make yourself a tea or a brew. The western image of more, further, bigger and faster is anchored in the children and they want this western life. Running water all day long. Hot water. Electricity all day long. Plus internet access to see what others have and can do. Demographic change has reached the jungle. The indigenous villages are getting older. Knowledge of ancient medicine, rituals and customs is dwindling, the interplay between nature and man, the cycle of life is becoming disconnected.
When Artur heard that we were staying in an indigenous village, the first thing that popped into his head were these stereotypical images: round wooden houses with thatched or palm leaf roofs. People travelling half-naked with loincloths and without any technology or other amenities. What we found in San were: wooden and partly brick-built houses. Most of the roofs are made of corrugated iron, as it is "more durable" and does not need to be replaced every 2-3 years. In most villages, electricity is provided by diesel generators or there was once an attempt by the state to install solar panels, but these no longer work. Nobody wants to try to repair them because they belong to the state. Electricity is usually available in the mornings and evenings or as long as the batteries last. People wear normal clothes, just like us. They have smartphones and are on TikTok and YouTube. Music blares out of large Bluetooth speakers. Sometimes late into the night. There are several kiosks where you can buy the essentials. Anything that is not available there can be ordered and arrives in 1-5 days by boat from the next largest town or the next largest town. We have seen banana boats with huge freezers on them. Washing machines? Fit on a banana boat. Even motorbikes are transported on them. Speaking of washing machines. As the houses generally have 400 - 10,000 litre tanks for rainwater and it only rains from November to April, water has to be used very sparingly during the rest of the year. Washing is done in the river, as is laundry. Those who are wealthier and have a large water tank can also shower at home. If the water in the tank runs out, you can order more water in some villages, but this is very expensive. Rainwater is used for cooking. If you have more money, you have a water filter or can have drinking water delivered in 10 litre/20 litre bottles. Work is done on the family plantations (each family has its own plantation in the Amazon, in so-called "fruit forests"), fishing, in their own supermarket, in the service sector (hairdresser, craftsman, teacher, doctor) and people pay with money as normal. As we walked through the small village of San Martin with around 150 inhabitants, we sometimes completely forgot that we were in the middle of the Amazon, a few hours by boat from the nearest town. The biggest difference was that there were no cars on the road, there are no tarmac roads and the "pavements", let's call them paths between the houses, are anything but age-appropriate. Prams and wheelchairs are also out of place here. Children are carried in the arms or strapped around the stomach/back. The old people in the village also get everywhere. The old people in the village also go everywhere. Very slowly, with plenty of time and without stress, they walk along the paths to go shopping or drink tea. And they also enjoy a cool drink or two 😉
Here is a short video about the challenges of low water: the boats can no longer be so heavily loaded and special care must be taken when travelling.
Now we've digressed a little, sorry 😉 Back to the jungle tours.
Did you know that the Amazon rainforest is divided into several ecosystems? There are the cloud and fog forests, which are located on the eastern slopes of the Andes and which merge into the mountain rainforests, which lie between 1000 and 2000 metres above sea level. This is followed by the lowland rainforest. This can again be subdivided into terra firme forests and várzera and igapó flood forests. But what are the differences? The terra firme forest has a slightly lower tree density compared to the mountain rainforest. It is located around 30-200 metres above the river water level and is NOT flooded and has the highest biodiversity in the Amazon rainforests.
The other two species, Várzera and Igapó, are flooded riverine forests, which can be recognised by the fact that the trees have adapted. For example, they have respiratory roots. The difference between Várzera and Igapó rainforests lies in the type of water with which they are flooded:
Igapó: Water flowing through sandy and mineral-poor soils that takes on a dark colour due to the presence of organic materials; recognisable by dark water;
Várzera: Flooding due to clear or turbid water
We visited all three...
A few impressions
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Based on the water level lines on the trees, we could hardly imagine that in 5 months the water would be up to our necks in this exact spot or that we would still have 5 metres of water above us. A scary idea! Especially when you see what kind of animals live in the water 🙈
We only say piranhas.... They live in warm, low-lying rivers in South America with a temperature between 24-30 degrees Celsius, otherwise they would not survive.
It is true that piranhas will attack creatures that significantly exceed their own size. However, this is usually only the case if the prey is injured and bleeding. However, the reputation of piranhas as man-eaters is clearly exaggerated. In fact, many piranha species would rather eat fruit than humans. According to our research, this is because during a visit to the Amazon by former US President Theodore Roosevelt in 1913, a bleeding cow was thrown into a pool of hungry piranhas for his entertainment. The piranhas pounced on it. As it happens, stories about creepy carnivorous fish quickly spread around the world.
Funfact: Once a year in the Amazon, there is the phenomenon of a giant wave (the "Porocora") of almost eight metres. The piranhas make a valuable contribution to the ecosystem, because without them, many animals that die in the wave would rot and diseases would spread. We didn't see this wave because it was low tide here. We were also unsuccessful in our attempts to catch a piranha... But we're not sad about that!
Iquitos - metropolis in the jungle
We found Iquitos and Leticia to be a complete contrast. Iquitos in particular often pushed us to our limits in terms of noise due to the many tuk-tuks and air quality due to the many exhaust fumes.
Here are a few contrasting impressions from Iquitos and the Belen market.
CREA – Centro Rescate Amazonico
In Iquitos, we also visited the CREA animal sanctuary, which is supported by various partners, including the Dallas World Aquarium and KfW Bank. Home – Centro de Rescate Amazonico
However, most of the funding comes from visitor admission fees. The organisation carries out very important work in the province of Loreto, to which Iquitos belongs. They rescue aquatic mammals, such as manatees, and endangered wild animals and rehabilitate them. The aim is to return them to their natural habitat wherever possible. Many of them are kept illegally as pets or offered for sale at the local market in Belen. The reasons for this are often ignorance, use for shamanic rituals by so-called brujos (evil magicians) or consumption (of turtles, for example). There are regular raids on this market in search of animals that are protected species and/or in need of protection. The authorities often find what they are looking for and the animals end up at Crea.
An important cornerstone of the organisation's work is an environmental education programme that raises awareness of wild animals in the Amazon among the local population. A film is being made that puts the animals in the spotlight. One problem is that children's films featuring African wild animals are predominantly shown on television, meaning that children have little connection to the protection of native animal species. This is exactly where the film comes in; the sets were great! The programme is a contribution to the Amazon ecosystem.
As we are both very fond of animals, we were very attached by our visit to CREA. The images of the animals at CREA and the Brujo stalls at the Belen market are still in our minds today. We would therefore like to expressly sensitise people not to eat exotic animal delicacies. Trying new foods is one of the great pleasures of travelling. However, culinary traditions do not always comply with the principle of sustainability. These include dishes such as whale and shark fin soup or turtle soup, which are often caught illegally. Even if the dishes may be legal locally, the production methods are often cruel.
