Colombia

Canyon road between Pasto and Buesaco

Nariño, Colombia, April 2009

I spent five weeks in Colombia, working with a coffee farming cooperative to develop agro-tourism for their villages. It was an incredible opportunity, to be with genuine people living and really enjoying rural agricultural lives, and also to capture the incredible scenery, faces, and sustainable farming practices. I met several who, after spending some time in Colombia's cities, moved back to the tiny pueblo of San José de Alban because they much preferred that lifestyle. And unlike a great number of agricultural areas, there's a thriving economy that means young people have livelihoods to look forward to. Not only is there coffee trading, well organized by small-farm cooperative and taking steps towards organic and fair-trade certification, there's also artisan-made textiles from a locally grown and processed fiber called cabuya. While coffee and cabuya allow San Jose to tap into international markets, there's plenty of land used to grow locally consumed food crops, as well as livestock, supporting the community and several restaurants in the town center. I'm sure there's problems there, but to an outsider, it sure seemed like paradise.

Check out the full story at www.cafealban.org