Weaving Peace

Itinerary
This is a typical itinerary for this product

Stop At: Parque Nacional, Carrera 7 con Calle 39 Chapinero / La Perseverancia, Bogota 250055 Colombia

After the enormous effort made for the Peace Agreement - that gave an end to a more than 50-year old conflict and its eight million victims- Colombia is in a crucial moment which will define the path for the next decades. To understand the present, heal the wounds from the past, and build a solid peace fabric for the future, it is necessary to look ourselves from a different angle and understand the tremendous complexity of our history and the contradictions that had been part of us.

Our Weaving Peace tour will make you understand key moments of Colombia's history to focus especially on its rebirth and future considering geography, the city, and through the voice and example of true peace weavers who are already working on new paths of hope and memory for the country.

We will start the tour picking you up at your hotel at 8:00 am with your guide.

The first stop will be at Parque Nacional, where you can understand -thanks to a human-scaled map- the complexity of the Colombian geography, which is the main reason for our biodiversity and potential, but also a big handicap for social and political struggles that have labelled our history. To identify the regions, ecosystems, and the most important geographical accidents are the perfect start to understanding Colombia's road towards peace.

Duration: 1 hour

Stop At: Barrio La Candelaria, Calle 10 # 0 15 Bogota, Colombia Llegando por avenida circunvalar preferiblemente., Bogota 111711 Colombia

We will travel through the Eastern Hills towards La Candelaria, the historical neighborhood in which the country was built upon five centuries ago. There we will visit Café Wuasikamas, where the Inga indigenous community serves and sell the price-winner special coffee that they grow in their indigenous reserve in the mountains of southern Colombia. You will enjoy a delicious coffee or agua de panela, while the Indians tell you about why their coffee business, which means Guardians Of The Earth, is a symbol of what the peace agreement is looking for the whole country. You will hear their story and learn about their suffering during the war, and the replacement of illegal crops, such as poppy frog drug production, to fairtrade agro-products which allow them to live from and preserve the rich mountains they inhabit.

Afterwards, we will walk through Bogotá's Historical Center, stopping at Plaza de Bolívar, a microcosmos filled with 200 years of Colombian history. This place contained all polítical, religious, and executive powers during the independence, it also was the setting for La Toma del Palacio de Justicia, one of the most remembered and bloody episodes of the country, and the site where the massive manifestations related to the Peace Agreement signing in 2016.

We will then continue walking a few blocks north to the corner where the charismatic political leader Jorge Eliécer Gaitán was murdered in 1948, giving a start to the six decades of political violence that impacted Colombia's recent history. Here we will talk about the historical event that shook the country's foundations and the heartbreaking consequences that it had over Colombia's population.

Duration: 1 hour

Stop At: Distrito Chocolate, Cra. 2a #17-60, Bogotá, Colombia

We will walk through historical Avenida Jiménez - an avenue that illustrates Colombia's social transformations during the last decades- to arrive at Distrito Chocolate, a coffee shop/chocolate-shop that prepares hot or cold chocolate prepared by a dozen of farmer cooperatives from the country. While we enjoy one of their beverages, their baristas will explain how cocoa has become the main resource for thousands of families that have left coca illegal farming behind. You will also learn why this is a key chapter in the Peace Agreement.

Duration: 30 minutes

Stop At: Centro de Memoria y Reconciliacion, Bogota Colombia

From this place, we will move to Centro de Memoria, Paz y Reconciliación, a space made by the city to rebuild the country's memory and honour the people that suffered the most during the conflict. We will observe the work made day by day by the women of the Costurero de la Memoria, weaving in cloth their stories, dreams, and sufferings as a way to heal the wounds of the past and create visions for the future.

Duration: 40 minutes

Stop At: National Museum of Colombia, Carrera 7 N. 28-66, Bogota 110311 Colombia

If the tour is on a weekend, we will change our stop at of Centro de Memoria, Paz y Reconciliación for a visit to Museo Nacional de Colombia, where we will enter the Memoria y Nación exhibit and observe the price-winning textiles of the Tejedoras de Mampuján, a group of afro women from the Caribbean who received the National Peace Price and who started the tradition of creating woven tales of Colombia's armed conflict victims.

Duration: 30 minutes

Stop At: salvo patria, Cra. 4 #8-13, Bogotá, Colombia

For last, we will have lunch at Salvo Patria, a restaurant with a native-food rescue philosophy that builds value chains with small producers to reactivate the rural areas and improve their inhabitants' living conditions -being this a part of the Peace Agreement. Here you will enjoy a delicious lunch while you chat with Alejandro, the chef and founder of this project. He will tell you about the importance of food in peacebuilding and the huge value of consumption chains among city inhabitants and Colombian farmers.

Duration: 45 minutes