EARTH & US — Barichara at last!
There were a few final challenges — like arriving at the Charlotte airport at 6am on July 9 but not being able to board due to a questionnaire I’d neglected to fill out, and realizing only the day before my rescheduled flight on the 12th that Colombia required a round trip ticket. I am so relieved to be finally in Barichara!
Settling in
The area of Santander, in the Andes, has spectacular mountains and a deep, enormous canyon called Canon de Chicamocha. I was met at the Bucaramanga airport by Andrey, who drove four hours through gritty towns, then up through this canyon on winding roads behind many very slow trucks.
We arrived in the enchanting old town of Barichara after dark, around 7pm. I was welcomed warmly by Margarita, in whose mini-hostel I am staying, and by Joe, his wife Jessica, and daughter Elise. Instead of charging me a fixed rate, Margarita says her main goal is for me to be happy. Also in the hostel are Shona, a young Scottish woman, recently separated, and her 3-year-old daughter; and Raffi, a young Colombian man who does some of the work at the place; he just finished constructing a solar shower!
Margarita is married with an 8-year-old son, Luca; her husband is working out of town. She is an amazing woman with a degree in public health, who has been a therapist, has worked for the U.N., and now produces natural foods to sell. Her kitchen is filled with cold-pressed oils, granolas, fermenting foods, and products made from mango pits, moringa, dehydrated locally harvested fruits, and more. She also teaches workshops on natural food production. At Margarita’s place, there are always people — she has many friends, and also she allows her well-equipped kitchen to be used by people who want to make and sell local, natural foods.
She has quite a garden in her courtyard, with many fruit trees including mango and maracuya, as well as moringa, arugula, beans, and summer squash. On the morning after my arrival she gave me coffee, fresh pineapple, hot amaranth cereal with dried fruits and sprinklings of spirulina and moringa, and a toasted corn tortilla with soy cheese. Yum!
Barichara is small and unbelievably picturesque, with its ancient steep hewn-stone streets and colonial architecture of terracotta-tiled roofs, white walls accentuated by colorful doors and deep orange or pink bougainvillea flowers, and tall cactuses. The tropical upa bird, with turquoise plumage and a tail like two spoons, can be spotted in the trees. The homes are usually organized around a courtyard invisible from the street, and the climate is so mild that there are usually no walls between the home and the courtyard. Despite the lack of screens, I have not seen a single mosquito!
There was a film crew and actors for a few days, filming scenes for a telenovela. People were dressed in 18th century garb — long puffy sleeves, boots — and riding horses. I felt like I had stepped back in time!
Shopping for food is fun in Barichara. Most people purchase their fruits and vegetables from produce markets, their bread from a bakery, and other foods from specialty shops.
Moncora Bioparque
The Bioparque is a 20 minute uphill walk from town. Each day, we have gone to the Bioparque, started some 12 years ago by local people. Don Jesus is an older man who works part-time there for a salary in the Bioparque. Signage informs visitors of the names of many species.
Joe has shown me the native plant nursery or vivero, mostly planted and tended by his wife Jessica; a huge pile of invasive grasses that Joe has been digging up to make way for native species; a couple of hand-dug ponds that hold water for the small trees and other plants in the nursery; and an impressive system of deep hand-hewn water channels made by several volunteers to help stop erosion and infiltrate rainwater into the landscape. There are piles of invasive grass composting under tarps, along with food scraps and/or goat manure that Joe hauls up. I helped with watering the young plants with water carried from the pond, and have also worked for hours at hacking out invasive grasses. While we work, little Elise amuses herself playing nearby.
Community
Not only does Joe appear to know everyone in Barichara, but he also understands the corrupt political system and the wealth inequality: hotels with gleaming swimming pools while most people only have municipal water 4 days per week. He pointed out the water treatment system whose water still has to be filtered in order to drink it. There was money set aside for sewage treatment, he said, but a corrupt mayor pocketed that money, allowing the sewage to go untreated into the river below.
I was amazed to hear of all the visionary people Joe knows in the US, such as Joanna Macy, Dick & Jean Roy, Vicky Robbins, Michael Dowd and Connie Barlow — to name a few. Just chatting with Joe gives me enormous respect for his brilliant mind. Did I mention that he teaches Capoeira (a Brazilian martial arts/dance form) three mornings a week?
We celebrated my first full day with quite a feast, which I helped Jessica and Shona to prepare: a traditional stew of potatoes, corn, onions, and greens, served with rice and slices of avocado; and fried plantains, with a cooked tomato-tomatillo salsa. Seven adults and two small girls shared the meal.
Frequently people have the main meal of the day around 2:30 or 3pm, with a light snack in the evening. This suits me fine. There’s a fair amount of beer drinking in the evening here too, on a Saturday night. Since it gets dark so early, I’m typically in bed before 10pm.
Origen del Agua
On Sunday at 7 am we took a “tuk-tuk,” also known as a moto-taxi, up a steep and poorly maintained road. It is a motorcycle with a small carriage behind it that can hold up to three people. Our destination: the parcel of land Joe has named “Origen del Agua” (Origin of Water). These three hectares of degraded land were purchased less than two months ago via many small donations, in order to regenerate it. You can learn the fascinating story of that purchase from seven brothers and sisters, by visiting Joe’s Mighty Networks site: https://earth-regenerators.mn.co. There is also an abandoned school right below it, which Joe imagines may someday become an “Eco-versity.”
This land was once forested, but sadly most of the trees are gone and the land is severely eroded, most of the topsoil lost from its steep slopes, due to poor farming and grazing practices. What grass grows is mostly invasives, and Joe showed us how he has pulled a lot of it out and laid it on the barren ground to dry out, hold back erosion, and slowly build some soil.
Along with another volunteer, Annamaria (a Colombian), we created “gabions” by placing rows of the plentiful exposed rocks of various sizes across gullies. Joe showed us how some of his previously placed stones are already trapping silt behind them. Using his phone, Joe made a short teaching video of the process we were doing. He posts these videos on his Earth Regenerators site, on Mighty Networks (a free app). Here is a link to his most recent newsletter which includes a few short videos: https://earth-regenerators.mn.co/posts/er-newsletter-july-16th-2021
We put bananas out in some hanging bird feeders to attract the birds, although it seemed that a cluster of wasps were the main beneficiaries. The idea is that birds will help to bring in native plant seeds. Then we walked over to a small area that still has some forest, where Joe pointed out a vanilla plant, many bromeliads, and even a few wild orchids. A local botanist, Oswaldo, had saved some orchids from an area being cleared for housing, and transplanted them into the tiny forest. Joe identified a medicinal plant, cat’s claw, growing there too. Its thorns are fearsome.
I wondered out loud how the land could be protected from people wanting to graze animals or throw trash. Joe said it is a matter of having a presence on the land, being seen there working on a regular basis, and also getting to know the neighbors.
We walked back, all downhill, Joe carrying his daughter on his back, along a trail known as “the ancestral path.” It was used to connect small villages for centuries, and has marvelous mountain views. Part of it was delightfully cool and shaded, and we even got to see an elusive blue morpho butterfly! Also a red and black velvety butterfly which I recognized from Ecuador. Still, it was an hour and a half’s steep hike, mostly in the hot sun, and I was completely exhausted by the time we returned to Barichara. This time, taking the (cold water only) shower felt really good! I can scarcely believe that Joe often walks to and from this land to work, comes home for lunch, and then hikes up to work in the Bioparque in the afternoon.
Carbon footprint of travel
You might be thinking how big the carbon footprint of my flight could be. Just for fun, I looked up how many trees would need to be planted in the Amazon to offset my 4036-mile roundtrip flight. Guess. Four! Cost: $11.80. Paid.
Also I’m not driving my car, usually with just me in it. I saw an article that estimates a similar amount of CO2 released per person per mile traveled driving a car with one person in it, to flying in a mostly full plane. My average gas bill for driving around town was $70 in 2 months–about 1080 miles in my 45 mpg Prius. Even with taking the occasional bus or moto, I imagine saving about 2000 miles of driving in 4 months here — making up for nearly half my flight miles. Then, there’s the fact that I might easily plant more than four trees while here, as well as achieving other CO2 savings because of no air conditioning, fans, or heating of water, plus less computer time, less refrigeration due to more frequent shopping, and of course re-vegetation of degraded land with native plants. So, OK: NO GUILT!!