In ArteSumapaz we’ve been working on a project with the local communities in the Sumapaz and Tolima region aimed at promote a different way of exploring this land, connecting with people through the languages of art by creating exchanges and experiences with the communities that live in and take care of our territory.
Páramo de Sumapaz, Vereda El Pilar – San Bernardo, Cundinamarca
At the moment we have 5 projects in three of the key ecosystems or eco-regions in Sumapaz : Páramo de Sumapaz, Andean Cloud and Montane Rainforest, and Magdalena River Corridor. Of vital importance, they are highly protected ecosystems, so activities like tourism are not allowed inside those that are either regional or national parks (Sumapaz National Park and Bosques de Galilea Regional Park). We therefore explore the areas surrounding these places, creating exchanges focused on sharing with the local communities who often live isolated on the edges of these parks and even inside them.
Our visits seek to create encounters that promote cultural exchange between communities, support a fair local economy, and share our dream of making art a vital tool to protect these ecosystems and the people living in them, along with their traditions, struggles, and memories.
PÁRAMO DE SUMAPAZ
1. The path of the water
The name ArteSumapaz pays, like the name of the region, a tribute to El páramo de Sumapaz, a sacred land known as Fugunzua or Sunapa by Muiscas and Sutagaos, indigenous communities that inhabited and protected this place, later known as “País de la niebla (land of fog)” and Sumapaz. This extraordinary ecosystem, famous for its water-producing and storage capacity, cradles the Río Negro, the river flowing through ArteSumapaz, and one of the borders of Hacienda Australia, and also between the nearby towns of San Bernardo and Pandi.
Río Negro flowing through Hacienda Australia, the ArteSumapaz campus
By following the path of this river we’ve gained a greater understanding of the town of San Bernardo and its people and discovered the incredible Páramo ecosystem, which we hope to help protect through the shared language of art.
Exploring the mountains of El Pilar with the local communities
Our journey from Artesumapaz up to Vereda Agua Negra takes us to Hernán Velásquez, a farmer working to revive his family’s century-old craft of weaving mattresses from fique, a craft he keeps alive by teaching it. Nearby, in the El Pilar mountains, at nearly 13,000 feet above sea level, near the source of the Río Negro, we also visit Pablo and William, who farm the skirts of the Páramo and share with us what life is like next to the world’s biggest páramo.
Some of the Páramo de Sumapaz’s protected waters flow through a regional park known as Bosques de Galilea, a biodiverse gem in which scientists have discovered species native to the Andean, Amazon, and Pacific regions living together in a dense rainforest. The areas surrounding this park, located between the Tolima and Cundinamarca departments contain countless wonders of a disputed ecosystem also harboring memories of important moments of Colombia’s history, shaped by a very complex socio-political landscape, particularly during the armed conflict that affected the country for decades.
Leader of farmer’s movement in Bosques de Galilea. Photo by Leidy Villamor
Descending through cloud and montane rainforests, we explore the areas surrounding Bosques de Galilea including the towns of Cunday and Villarrica. Once ther, we meet communities promoting forest conservation and preserving the memory of the history of Galilea through initiatives such as Escuela Comunitaria y Centro de Memoria y Acción Integral por el Cuidado del Bosque de Galilea and those of Comunidad Indígena Pijao Pamanche, an indigenous community working to recover its land and culture after being displaced from their ancestral lands in Cunday.
Bosques de Galilea
We’ll explore the Andean rainforest and do community work via art activities such as free workshops, mural paintings, or small concerts to support community projects in this region, which faces issues such as mining and the carbon credits market, which often exploit resources without benefitting the communities that have lived there for decades and are anxious to share their stories.
Sumapaz’s hydrologically rich territory is full of waterfalls that locals explore and protect as one of the great treasures. They are. Below ArteSumapaz lies an ecoregion known as Bosques de Galilea, near where an Indigenous Community, a farmers movement and local citizens work to preserve and protect their land and traditions by welcoming visitors into their homes.
Salto de la Chorrera – Venecia, Cundinamarca
We begin in Venecia Cundinamarca, with a visit to La Chorrera, where we meet the farmers whose El Trébol, restaurant-market, sells their products at fair markets prices and promotes the growth and development of the Zona de Reserva Campesina de Venecia (Venecia Farmers’s Reserve Zone) through tourism and clean agriculture.
Cascada del Alto Ariari – Cabrera, Cundinamarca)
In Alto Ariari, Cabrera, a group of neighbors has started their own tourism initiative to showcase their famous waterfall located next to an ancient indigenous cemetery they claim to have discovered.
Cascada del Alto Ariari – Cabrera, Cundinamarca)
La Cristalina – Cunday, Tolima
The final stop on this trip is La Cristalina waterfall in Cunday Tolima, sacred to the Pijao Pamanche Indigenous Community, who teach us about their traditional arts such as basketry, weaving and cooking.
MAGDALENA RIVER CORRIDOR
4. Waters to Tolima
On this side of the Colombian Andes, most streams flow into the Magdalena River at some point. Others, are interrupted on their way and end up feeding huge dams, such as the one in Prado-Tolima, known to locals as Colombia’s “internal sea”, where some of the waters that originate in the Páramo de Sumapaz end their journey.
Represa de Prado: Canal Trece 2024
We hike the rainforest and follow the rivers that connect the Sumapaz region with Tolima, skirting the Bosques de Galilea ecoregion towards El Prado dam and on the Magdalena River, to interact with communities who share their traditions, dreams, and struggles of living in this rich and diverse territory.
5. Arts of Tolima
Many of the people on this side of the Sumapaz region are originally from Tolima. The historical and cultural importance of this region is unquestionable, as it is the birthplace of rhythms and dances such as the pasillo, the bambuco, or the sanjuanero, and the traditions of the ceramic artisans of La Chamba and the indigenous Pijao hat and basket weavers. And, of course, the famous lechona (roast and seasoned pork) and Tolima-Style tamal that have become central to Colombian gastronomy and can be found in the nearby towns.
La Chamba artisans in Guamo – Tolima.
Explore the Magdalena River Corridor with local artists from Eastern Tolima like La Chamba ceramic artisans and Luis Augusto Cervera, a composer and artist from El Espinal, recently awarded with the Colombian Ministry of Culture’s ‘Trayectorias’ award. This circuit is designed to support local artists and environmental leaders in the Eastern Tolima in their quest to preserve their traditions and territories, by exchanging art and nature-based knowledge and experiences in free workshops, small concerts, and communal cooking spaces that connect people from a variety of global contexts and locations.
Magdalena River in Malecón de la Caimanera, El Espinal – TolimaSome places-activities included in the Waters to Tolima trip
Join us
Let us know about what projects and places you would like to explore, by writing to Andrés Rodríguez (Leader of our Local Community Circle) vía Whatsapp or e-mail to andres@artesumapaz.org.
If you’re currently an ArteSumapaz resident, attend our monthly group meeting to talk about our project. If not, reach out and we’ll talk about how to participate in the experience.
Every month we offer experiences (based on the availability of the communities and their needs), designed to contribute through actions that have a positive impact on the people and places we visit.
Duration, destinations, activities, and routes are flexible and change according to the preferences and needs of local communities and visiting groups (For example, it’s possible to combine a visit to the waterfalls with a pottery workshop in La Chamba ). Visits are also subject to the weather and road conditions and different routes are available to reach the same places, so let us know what you want to explore and we’ll tell you how we can make it happen.
“Más arriba Tripa de Yegua, el verdadero Páramo de Sumapaz, donde nace el río Prado y donde se tocan los departamentos de Huila y Meta con el Distrito Capital de Bogotá. Un lugar maravilloso donde el viento sopla delgadito por entre pajonales. Es el país de los bosques de frailejón, que de lejos parecen un batallón y de cerca también.”
“Further up Tripa de Yegua, the true Páramo de Sumapaz, where the Prado River rises and the departments of Huila and Meta meet the Capital District of Bogota. A wonderful place where the wind blows thinly through the grasslands. It is the land of the frailejon forests, which from far away look like a battalion and up close too..”
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