Experiencia Cafetera was born at a very special moment in Colombia's history, for coffee and for travel.
In cities, coffee culture was moving up a level, as baristas specialised and their craft became popular. At the same time, something was spreading through the countryside and reaching more and more coffee growers: specialty coffee.
Fair trade, hand in hand with the grower
Our proposal is to sell local, responsibly grown coffee by connecting farmers directly with the people who visit our country. We designed a model that uses those global trends to improve the lives of farmers and coffee growers in Pijao and Buenavista, two coffee towns in the mountains of Quindío.
We offer tours and travel packages with everything you need to meet producers for real, on their own farms. Our flagship is the WakeCup Tour.
From 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., it gives visitors a full immersion in how a coffee town works. We introduce you to several people who make their living from coffee, each in a different job, and we try to build a story out of what they tell you.
The history that must not repeat itself
Fernando told me that whoever doesn't know their history is condemned to repeat it.
He doesn't only mean the history that ends up in textbooks. He means the one that matters most: the story of thousands upon thousands of people who were victims of Colombia's armed conflict and are now ready to live in peace.
Génova: living history
At the high-mountain battalion in Génova, Major Prieto said this to five European travellers whose hands were sweating:
"If I don't have my hand on my rifle right now while I'm talking to you, it's because this country is changing."
Tourism for peace
Many parts of Colombian society have been touched by the conflict, and now we're ready to move forward. Tourism done with care can help towns recover an identity that the war left its mark on.
In my region, coffee is what lifts our self-esteem. But every town has to find what defines it and make those stories its own, and then use them to create travel experiences that build value chains in the community, the way the WakeCup Tour has.
Written by Juan David Agudelo, founder of Experiencia Cafetera.