{"id":1217,"date":"2017-11-27T21:47:32","date_gmt":"2017-11-27T21:47:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/letscreate.sineadcullen.com\/?p=1217"},"modified":"2025-12-18T18:12:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T18:12:21","slug":"kindicocha","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/letscreate.sineadcullen.com\/index.php\/2017\/11\/27\/kindicocha\/","title":{"rendered":"Kindicocha"},"content":{"rendered":"

In late October as I was heading south towards the Ecuadorian border to renew my Colombian visa I decided I take a detour and see some of Putumayo. This one of the larger provinces in Colombia bordering Ecuador and Peru in the south. I decided to go to Mocoa<\/em> and to stop in Valle De Sibundoy<\/em> (the Sibundoy Valley) on the way. The valley is home to five small towns: Santiago<\/em>, Col\u00f3n<\/em>, tiny San Pedro<\/em>, Sibundoy<\/em> and San Francisco. <\/em>I headed to Sibundoy<\/em> on an overnight bus from Cali<\/em>.<\/p>\n

This was a strange journey through roads that were, until very recently, dangerous to pass due to robberies, even now buses travel in convoy on this part of the Pan American highway. In the dark night from my window I could see buses and trucks stretching way up ahead of me and way behind: a great snake of lights making its way south. And I was reminded that night why I don\u2019t like taking overnight buses: I tossed and turned until the early hours, when, in sheer exhaustion I caught some rest and then over slept my connecting stop!! I had to get out in the middle of nowhere and hitch a ride back to the nearest town to get back to track for Sibundoy<\/em>. I finally got there exhausted and promptly went to bed to catch up on the hours of attempted sleep on the bus.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> Detail from painted wooden carvings in Sibundoy<\/em><\/p>\n

The Sibundoy Valley is an area that was and still is inhabited by the Inga<\/em> people (Inca<\/em>) who speak Quechua<\/em> and the Kams\u00e1<\/a> (Kam\u00ebnt\u0161\u00e1, Cams\u00e1, Kamns\u00e1) whose language is Cam\u00ebnt\u0161\u00e1. I spent a few days in Sibundoy<\/em> exploring this small but busy town. The local culture is evident everywhere: in the colourful paintings in the town hall, the stunning carved and painted wooden carvings in the town square and the colourful craft and jewellery that is made and sold there. This felt like a very special place where the indigenous culture had remained strong and now mixes naturally with our modern world.<\/p>\n

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Wooden carvings in Sibundoy<\/em><\/p>\n

In nearby Col\u00f3n<\/em>, I discovered an eco-community! It was one I had attempted to contact earlier in my journey but it seemed to have changed names. From Sibundoy<\/em> I phoned Kindicohca <\/em>directly. They were not taking in volunteers at the time but to my delight, invited me to take a visit. I spent a morning with Laura (from Argentina) at Kindicocha<\/em> and got to see a little of the project. The description of the place and the dream that it holds really appealed to me, there was something very familiar about the description of it. Laura asked if I would like to spend a few days there. We agreed that I could come back in a week, on my way back from Ecuador.<\/p>\n

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A little bit of magic in Valle de Sibundoy (near Col\u00f3n)<\/em><\/p>\n

I headed to Mocoa<\/em>, to the edge of the rainforest, and on to Ecuador.. and I could write several blogs on how stunning it all was but I will let images of this part of my journey speak for themselves. You can see these images in a separate blog: Mocoa-Otavalo-Las Lajas<\/a><\/p>\n

So, on my way back from Ecuador I arrived at night back to Valle De Sibundoy<\/em> and I asked the bus driver to drop me where I thought I was just a quick walk to the community. I walked in the dark along a country lane but I had a funny feeling that I was not where I was supposed to be. My trusty headlamp began to run out of battery so stumbled in the greyness and wished I had a lighter backpack. But there was a bright moon: the night was gorgeous and I enjoyed the walk despite being relatively lost:  I felt safe in this landscape. At this stage my phone was still working (since then the Colombian mobile-phone-powers-that be decided to block it..) so I called Laura, and after several fun calls in my ‘phone Spanish’, checking landmarks (of which there weren\u2019t many in the dark) I finally arrived. <\/p>\n

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Landscape in Valle De Sibundoy<\/em><\/p>\n

The next morning I awoke feeling tired (its a bit of a theme in this instalment) but there was a yoga class and I was delighted to join. We had breakfast together afterwards and even as I was eating I didn\u2019t feel well. I couldn\u2019t focus on the conversation, I felt stoned; I could have slept standing up! So I went back to bed to rest for a while but I ended up sleeping all day! I got up in the evening for a short while and then I went back to bed and slept solidly till morning. The residents are used to people having strong reactions when they arrive on site; they say it could be the place, or the Borrachero (Brugmansia or Angels trumpet) flowers which are abundant there. Their smell is intoxicating and they are a powerful medicinal plant that are now, like so many stunning plants, officially extinct in the wild. The name Borrochero means ‘to be drunk’: this is the effect its ingestion can have on you and its what I was feeling.  Whatever it was: I felt absolutely zapped of energy, and it ended up lasting three days. I regained my energy and finally I could get out and help out with planting and transplanting in the garden with one of the founders: Camillo Barrero, a biologist with a wealth of local indigenous plant wisdom. I was delighted to work with him!<\/p>\n

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Borrachero (Brugmansia) flowers <\/em><\/p>\n

While I was there I learned about some more about the area and this organisation:  For hundreds of years this fertile region was cultivated using traditional methods and it is just in the last 80 years that industrial agricultural methods have been introduced. The site I was staying on: Dantakunapa means the cot of the Danta which is the  tapir andino<\/em> or el danta del P\u00e1ramo<\/em> (ie the Andean\/Paramo Tapir: a local endangered species). From working on this land, Camillo says that the area was intensively harvested for fruit for decades but within a few years of care and attention, has come back to natural and balanced health. It was interesting to compare the abundance and aliveness of this reserve with adjacent strained looking mono-crops.<\/p>\n

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The garden in Kindicocha<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 Kindicocha<\/em> evolved initially from an organisation called la Fundaci\u00f3n Buenoy Yumart\u00e1n Aldea Ecol\u00f3gica<\/em> (BYAE)<\/em>: formed in 2005 by Camillo Borrera and Juliana Hoyos, with others who had come together to preserve lands in the Andean-Amazonian region. Over the years the organisation has built up a series of six reserves in the valley (described below). BYAE<\/em> has been primarily focused on land preservation but this year (2017) Kindicocha<\/em> was formed. Its focus remains on biodiversity and preservation but now also lies in education, creating a new economy and on starting a living community on one of the reserves. There are currently 12 people involved in this process and it is early days for their emerging community. <\/p>\n

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Kindicocha<\/em> have created a mandala: it is like looking down at a hummingbird within a circular rainbow. The four sections of the Kindicocha<\/em> mandala help describe the organisation: each section represent different aspects of the organisation that is now emerging:<\/p>\n

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  1. Krumi <\/u><\/strong>(the head of the hummingbird) represents the spiritual well-being of the community. The community consciously provides space and time for individual and collective spiritual well being. <\/li>\n
  2. AMA<\/u><\/strong> (The righthand wing) represents education and the proposal to create new type of school that promotes indigenous knowledge. It will focus on the qualification of researchers as regional leaders in the design and implementation of research and technological development projects on Andean Biodiversity. And a Global Intercultural School for supporting and promoting the talent, knowledge and creativity of the region, prioritising local species, indigenous culture and the conservation of natural ecosystems.<\/li>\n
  3. JAN <\/u><\/strong>(the tail) represents the organisations natural land reserves. The upper basin of the Putumayo River is and area with some of the greatest diversity of plant life in the world. 829 species of flower and more than 113 types of wild orchids have been reported there. This initiative is about protecting and using the natural heritage of this region including the cultivation, propagation and community promotion of wild orchids, as an alternative ecological – economic system. A series of reserves have already been created including:\n