Colombia Afro-Pacific Communities Use Ecotourism to Lure Visitors

Tourism is finally coming back in Colombia after nearly two years of COVID. To take advantage of the opening of the world, 200 families on the Pacific Coast of Colombia have created what they hope will be a very special tourist destination. For VOA News Divalizeth Cash has the story from Buenaventura, Colombia.

‘Mangaña, Miramar, La Sierpe and La Plata’s natural parks and waterfall are considered by many biologists to be the lungs of Colombia’s Pacific Coast.

Local leaders and inhabitants who have lived here for many generations are using ecotourism to lure tourists and create a livelihood for themselves.

Santiago Valencia González, Tour Guide:

“It is a type of tourism that in one way or another involves the ancestral practices of the ‘Malageña’ community and the black or Afro-Colombian groups that inhabit this territory.”

Visitors can meet humpback whales, see the local fauna and flora, taste “piangua,” a mollusk considered the black gold of the Pacific and visit unique places like La Sierpe waterfall.

José Angel Mosquera, Community Leader:

“It’s a waterfall that is approximately 50 meters high. Patients can get in it and when water falls on them it helps them to purify their bodies.”

The reserves include about 38,000 hectares. La Plata has one of the highest rainfall totals in the world, receiving about 8,000 millimeters of water a year, which supports the local farmers.

José Ángel Mosquera, community leader:

“We plant during the first two months of the year, which are dry and the rest of the year we take advantage of the rain and how it can naturally water our crops.”

Food provided to tourists is locally grown and part of the ethos of the reserve is to show tourists a great time and nature’s great beauty in an environmentally sustainable way.

Originally published at - https://www.voanews.com/a/colombia-afro-pacific-communities-use-ecotourism-to-lure-visitors/6466765.html

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Видео Colombia Afro-Pacific Communities Use Ecotourism to Lure Visitors канала Voice of America