Tourism cancer

@wwaycorrigan

[For an audio version of this blog story click here.]

Sustainable tourism. Measured by how most travel to a tourist spot — saying nothing of where they stay, what they do and eat — and using carbon neutral as the measure, the term sustainable tourism is really an oxymoron.

Is sustainable tourism practically unachievable? (Click here for info on the photo.)

Like many concepts — or labels, if you will — it can, all the same, make both buyer and seller feel good about themselves. 'Oh this is sustainable, we're actually boosting biodiversity.' (Eh, sorry, but simply by your very existence as another human being you're most likely a net negative for the planet.)

Walk the walk

It's similar to those e-scooter users who seem to think that this mode of transport is particularly green, thus they're doing wonders for the environment. Try walking or using a standard push-bike, guys.

Indeed, if we all had to use our own energy to get to where we want to go, then we would be closer to something more sustainable, in carbon footprint terms in any case. (How we fuel our bodies would also play its part, of course.)

Tourism as we know it would effectively cease to exist in such a scenario, as would many other industries. This may please some save-the-planet activists, although they might just realise that the way the world currently operates gives them many comforts without which life becomes quite a struggle. They'd quickly see how much they've benefitted from these comforts.

"It's not only about environmental concerns that there is the expression, 'tourism's greatest cancer is tourism.'"

The rather unrealistic radicals aside, there are those of us who are concerned about many of humanity's harmful habits yet understand that we can't just stop all polluting practices forthwith and expect utopia to follow.

At a tourism trade expo in Bogotá recently, Colombian President Gustavo Petro spoke about the industry's negative impact, stating how it currently operates is unsustainable. Nonetheless, he also acknowledged that it wasn't going to disappear anytime soon. (Although, he only went as far as referring to its short- to medium-term future. In fairness, looking too far ahead is generally a futile exercise, for politician and layperson alike.)

Planet puppets

Thus, we must continue to strive to engage in the most environmentally friendly tourism and travel available. For some in the comfortable classes, many of whom talk a great biodiversity game but don't necessarily play it very well, this may mean travelling less often, particularly in aeroplanes.

Some tourism hotspots would be doing themselves a favour, perhaps not economically in the short term but for their longer-term prospects in general, in reducing visitor numbers.

It's not only about environmental concerns that there is the expression, 'tourism's greatest cancer is tourism.' I don't know too many people who enjoy going to places that are constantly crowded with visitors. Less can indeed be more in this context.

As with all the great potentially existential crises we face as a species, the hope is that we find the most sustainable, environmentally beneficial way of going about our business.

Of course, while some may think otherwise, we are but puppets on this planet. We shall succumb to it and the universe at large, not the other way around.

Be that as it may, we can at least try to be less self-absorbed as we expend the energy that makes up our current physical form.
__________________________________________________________
Listen to The Corrigan Cast podcast here.

Facebook: Wrong Way Corrigan — The Blog & IQuiz "The Bogotá Pub Quiz".

Hoyo del Aire, La Paz, Santander: Colombia's big hole!

@wwaycorrigan

The sign at the entrance to Hoyo del Aire (literally 'Air Hole' in English) near the small town of La Paz in Colombia's Santander department, says that it is the second-biggest hole in the world.

Hoyo del Aire: Some hole for one hole!

One assumes this means naturally formed and on land as opposed to underwater. Whatever the case, do an online search for the world's biggest/deepest holes and this Colombian wonder doesn't tend to feature on any list.

For the record, from its base to the highest point above, the depth is 220 metres (almost 722 feet for the imperialists amongst us).

Locals seem to be in agreement that it was formed by a meteorite. That may be so; I'm certainly no expert on the subject. One thing that appears undisputed is that the hole was a convenient place to dump bodies — both dead and alive — during Colombia's more violent days. (I heard similar stories during my 2014 visit to the town of Pandi where there's another "convenient" natural hole for such macabre undertakings. See https://wwcorrigan.blogspot.com/2014/11/fine-and-pandi.html.)

That aside, why it's not more internationally known is somewhat beyond me, especially considering the rapid rise in foreign visitors of all kinds to Colombia in the last decade as the country has left those more violent times behind it.

Plus, there are a number of other attractions around La Paz itself, 30 km north of the bigger and easier-to-reach Vélez, capital of the eponymous province in which both towns are situated and one I visited back in 2018 (see https://wwcorrigan.blogspot.com/2018/03/a-rewarding-velez-view.html).

The fact that it's mostly a dirt track from Vélez to La Paz, meaning that the aforementioned 30-kilometre trip takes about an hour to cover by car, is probably one reason why Hoyo del Aire and its surrounds remain something of a hidden gem, internationally speaking at least.

As is usually the case with such sights, photos don't tend to do Hoyo del Aire justice, hence the video below (or watch it at https://youtu.be/OrSHRKhYvuw) for a somewhat better idea of its impressiveness. The aerial shot on the official sign, see photo above, does give some decent perspective, too.

Apparently, rappelling was available as a tourist activity in the past but it's no longer carried out after an "incident". I was told nobody died but the local authority decided to discontinue the practice.

One senses a business opportunity. You read it here first!

_______________________________________________________________
Listen to Wrong Way's Colombia Cast podcast here.

Facebook: Wrong Way Corrigan — The Blog & IQuiz "The Bogotá Pub Quiz".

The Great Reset

@wwaycorrigan

[Listen to an audio version of this blog entry here.]

There's been much talk of the pandemic ushering in a Great Reset. Depending on your viewpoint, it's either a positive opportunity to change how we live or it's an attempt by the controlling elite to exert even more influence over us, to ensure our subservience to the overlords.

The use of mechanically propelled transport will be severely curtailed.

Whatever the case, on the individual level, many of us have been reappraising our lives throughout these hokey-cokey times (by hokey-cokey, I refer to the 'one foot in, one foot out, shake it all about' lockdowns and other such restrictive measures we've experienced of late).

With both a desire by some to live a more virtuous life and a potentially enforced Great Reset in mind — heavy on grand rhetoric but light on specifics as the latter appears to be — here I suggest changes to a few key areas that, if implemented, will surely have us within touching distance of salvation. Until the rules of engagement change again, that is.

Travel and general movement

Good news first. There will be absolutely no restrictions on moving around for those on foot or push-bike (we're not sure about rollerblading and skateboarding — they seem a bit too radical). In other words, self-propelled movement, as in using your own energy to get around, is limitless. No interfering state here (but it will be tracking you, all the same).

For those who feel the need to use transport whose motion is propelled by means other than one's own energy, there will be a daily limit of 20 kilometres. While this may seem quite tight, you will be allowed to accumulate unused kilometres. So, for example, if you didn't use mechanically powered transport for two years straight, in the third year you'd have built up 14,600 kilometres to use. What more could you want?

Needless to say, billionaires and world leaders are excluded from this — and all the following measures — due to the fact that civilisation would end should their ability to operate be curtailed in any way.

Food and drink

Similar to travel, there will be no restrictions on what you can consume provided it is sourced within a — give us a number — OK, 50-kilometre radius of where you live.

To be clear, by sourced I mean grown or reared within that catchment area.

'As we're nearing the end of history, references to the past will be removed from the internet. It's time to look forward guys, not back.'

All other foodstuffs will be subject to very punitive taxes, the exact details of which have yet to be finalised.

Clothing

In line with the previous — can you guess what's coming? — there will be no limit on the purchase of clothing whose raw materials come from inside a 50-kilometre radius and whose fabrication also occurs within that area.

Outside of that, the restrictions are as follows:
- No more than five units of each officially recognised undergarment per person per year, i.e. five pairs of socks, five boxers, five vests, five knickers, five pairs of tights, five bras.
- No more than two upper-body items of clothing per person per year.
- One lower-body item of clothing per person per year.
- One suit per person per year.
- No more than two footwear items per person per year (there will be an associated campaign to get people to walk barefoot more often — think of it as bottom-up toughening up).

Technology

All citizens of the world will be provided with a smartphone that must be kept switched on during one's active hours.

What's more, everyone must have a Facebook account and spend at least two hours per day on it — no problem for many, that.

People can publish whatever material they wish, provided it meets the approval of the moderators. In addition, material can be removed with no prior warning and no reason needs to be given. 

Moreover, users can be banned from posting material should these faceless, answerable-to-nobody moderators see fit to do so. (Please note, the identity of moderators is not revealed in order to protect all of humankind.)

Finally, as we're nearing the end of history, references to the past will be removed from the internet. It's time to look forward guys, not back.

That's enough to take in for now. I'll be back with more later. In any case, it's an impressive blueprint for a better future, isn't it?
_______________________________________________________________
Listen to Wrong Way's Colombia Cast podcast here.

Facebook: Wrong Way Corrigan — The Blog & IQuiz "The Bogotá Pub Quiz".

'Is this the way to Guateque?'

When it comes to quaint colonial towns and villages, Colombia has a plethora to offer. Indeed, you could pretty much spend your whole life going from one to another, exploring the idiosyncrasies of each.

Some say that there's not a big difference between them. Once you've seen the "big" ones — big as regards reputation that is — such as Barichara and Villa de Leyva, that's enough. The rest are just poor imitations.

Impressive setting: The town of Machetá.

For sure, if you're on a short stay and lacking 'algunas palabras' in Spanish, it's probably best to go to the spots that are more renowned and better equipped for tourists and tourism.

Towns less visited

From a personal perspective, while I've nothing against the more popular towns, after over eight years in this country, heading to a place where I'll be seen as just another tourist isn't very appealing.
 

It's why over the last number of years I've opted for destinations that most non-Colombians, and even some Colombians, don't bother visiting or haven't even heard of.

Now, before you say it, yes, in such tourist-light towns and villages I also stand out (although, some have said, before I open my mouth and speak Irish-accented Spanish, that I could pass as a Paisa. Perish the thought!), but it's not in a tourist way. It's more a case of, 'Oh, what brings you here?'

'Machetá, the golden gateway to the Tenza Valley'

So it was with that modus operandi, together with the fact that after five months of not having left Bogotá any place would have sufficed, that I opted for the town of Machetá, an hour bus ride north from the capital.

My experience of rolling into such small towns on a whim is that there's always very reasonably priced accommodation to be found.

This wasn't quite so in Machetá. There were three options, two of them upwards of 50,000 pesos (just over 13 euros, it's all relative) for a room for the night and they weren't for turning on their prices. It was a case of third time lucky with La Playita, a recently opened panadería which also functions as a hotel. I got a nice en suite room there for 30,000 pesos (eight euros).

As for the town itself, the 'Golden gateway to the Tenza Valley' so it goes, it certainly has a very picturesque setting and an agreeable climate for a Northern European, set at an altitude of 2,000 metres — that is to say slightly lower and thus warmer than Bogotá but not overbearingly so, while there's no real need for additional layers at night.

The trademark activity for this mini-escape, as it often is, was walking/hiking the hills around the towns — I say towns as after Machetá I spent a walking-packed 30 hours or so in Guateque, 23 kilometres to the south-east in the Boyacá department.

Basically, if there are hills/mountains around the town, and in this part of Colombia it's a given, I always like to ascend them for a panoramic view of the surrounds.

On this front, while there's an alluring hill overlooking Machetá, the bushy vegetation obscures the view. Hiking further up the mountains for a couple of hours didn't bring better results. It was good exercise all the same.

Three of a kind

Guateque, birthplace of the infamous emerald tsar Víctor Carranza, on the other hand, is, at the risk of overstating it, a hillwalker's dream. The northern point in a triangle of two neighbouring settlements — Guayatá and Somondoco — each delightfully nestled on plateaus overlooking the valley, for a town that appears nondescript on arrival, it pleasantly surprised.

Rewarding: Walking the hills all around Guateque.

Indeed, had I heeded the advice of the receptionist at the well-kept Hotel Tu Refugio (23,000 pesos for an en suite room), I wouldn't have even given Guateque a chance. Having just paid for my room, Monica suggested that I take a bus to Guayatá, 'a much prettier town', and come back in the evening. I decided against it.

On the first day, I stumbled across a mostly unpaved loop road up the hills that gives lovely views of the three aforementioned towns. Motor traffic does use it so it's not quite 'at one with nature', but thankfully it's largely peaceful.

Mount Monsignor

On the second day, taking advice from some locals, I walked to the much smaller, sleepier village of Sutatenza, three kilometres to the north. The idea was to grab a coffee there and then stroll back to Gauteque for the bus back to Bogotá.

Again, though, my penchant for seeking out views saw me head up the only road going towards the hills. Google maps told me it would lead to a dead-end. The road did but there was a path that kept going up, so I followed it. And followed it, until I met a local, a man in his late 60s I'd say, slowly stepping it out to his home, replete with an infected, swollen foot for good measure. Some goer, but a pilgrimage he doesn't think twice about. He has no other choice I guess. 

I asked him if I kept on going up would I eventually get to a point where I'd have a good view of the valley below. He then began to tell me, in a way where he seemed to expect me to know, about the 'famous' Monsignor José Joaquín Salcedo Guarín who, starting in the late 1940s, used to broadcast a 'world-renowned' radio show atop the very hill we were ascending. 'Now there's not even a plaque to honour his memory up there.' Men have been honoured for less, haven't they? 

'From a high, the way back to Guateque looked straightforward'

The old man accompanied me for a bit, even going further than his own house. Considering the state of his foot and slow pace, I tried to tell him I'd figure out the path on my own, but he was having none of it.

We eventually parted ways when the way back to Guateque appeared much clearer. He told me there was no point going back to Sutatenza, which of course made sense.

However, as clear as the route looked from a high, I took a wrong turn and ended back in Sutatenza. Oh well. It wasn't a major detour and it did come with two beers along the way courtesy of a somewhat mysterious emerald dealer, a man reluctant to give me his name even after having given me his mobile number.

He eventually introduced himself as Raul. Maybe he's related to Víctor Carranza and didn't want this random foreigner knowing? A couple of drunken folk in Guateque the night before were less coy about telling me they were cousins of the 'great baron'.

With that little unplanned adventure, my badly needed mini-escape from Bogotá came to an end. It gave another timely reminder that despite their superficial similarities, each Colombian town has its own story to tell. We’ll find out Guayatá's and Somondoco's in due course.
__________________________________
Listen to The Colombia Cast podcast here.
Facebook: Wrong Way Corrigan - The Blog & IQuiz "The Bogotá Pub Quiz". 

All that you can't leave behind

Many people on the outside looking in think our Colombian life is kind of cool. An exotic existence, away from the dreary 9-5 drag with a nice amount of time to travel.

On that score, it is. Our work life is anything but 9-5, Colombia certainly is exotic and we've been able to explore a fair chunk of it.

What's more, a few somewhat surreal 'acting' gigs have come our way that were enjoyable to be part of.

The end of an era?

Nonetheless, when you do the same, economically unstable thing for a number of years, the gloss does wear off. It's not for nothing there's the saying, 'A change is as good as a rest.'

Of course, making that change is not always easy. Plus, it's not always clear when we should make it and what exactly it should be. As we've oft said, that grass over yonder may not be as green as we think.

However, if there's a feeling that progress isn't really being made as regards the current situation, then it's probably a good time to shake things up, even if it is a step into the unknown as such a move often is.

We've become somewhat cosy in our Colombian comfort zone, albeit one that for most other high-income Westerners would be anything but comfortable.

Now, it is easier, in theory anyway, to move on when things aren't going to plan (we do have a rough plan, honestly we do).

So the fact that the goalposts to obtain what is a 'key' fifth consecutive independent work visa have moved should make bidding adieu to Colombia a less difficult decision. (For the record, after five back-to-back year-long visas you are entitled to apply for residency, which itself lasts for five years.)

With official Colombia making it harder for us to stay coupled with our own long-lingering doubts about being here, it could be said it's a no-brainer. Our previous four work visas were obtained with little hassle, thus opting to 'give it a lash' for another year required less soul-searching.

This time around the thinking is, 'If you're going to make it more complicated to stay here, no thank you.' It's not like we're looking to stay in everyone's favourite Latino country, Venezuela. (It's a joke, relax. Although, it does seem our loyalty to Colombia over the years has counted for nothing!)

Yet, Colombia has been home since late 2011. As frustrating as many things have been during our almost seven years here, there have been plenty of highlights as well. 

It's proving to be more difficult than we'd thought to just quietly walk away from it all. (Not having something concrete to go to elsewhere is playing a significant part, for sure.)

In some ways, it's a similar mindset to the one a rather green 'Wrong Way' had back in 2008 before making the decision to leave Ireland and take flight for a period of solo travelling.

Once on the road, the many hiccups aside, it was a case of, 'What was all the fuss about?'

With that as a guide, ten years on albeit and slightly more concerned about our financial situation, leaving our Colombian comfort zone is unlikely to prove fatal. Unlikely that is; things could happen outside of our control.

In any case, while losing our work visa status will be a little bit deflating, the option to stay here as a tourist until the year is out is still on the table.

We don't have to drop everything in an instant. Although, at times, that's the best strategy to adopt. When it's done, it's done. Move on, at haste.
___________________________________________
Facebook: Wrong Way Corrigan - The Blog & IQuiz "The Bogotá Pub Quiz".

Born to run (or at least wander)?

Most of us, those who have the luxury to do so that is, experience times when we question the direction our life is going in. Are we doing the right thing? In the right place? With the right people?

Always out of reach?

These have been things very much on our mind of late. Much of this is down to the fact that we have that aforementioned luxury to ponder about them. 

In other words, owing to our rather simple, independent lifestyle over the last number of years, we've managed to live relatively cheaply and keep a little balance of cash in reserve. 

Enough, that is, to make us feel like we can take the time to discover something in life that we find truly enjoyable/fulfilling, yet not enough, contradictory as it may seem, to allow us take some risks that may provide the key to the former.

One of the things we've discovered we like doing, at this stage of our life in any case, is moving; seeing new places, exploring, observing how people live in different locations. The reality is that since 2008 this is how, more or less, our life has been.

We even put the 20 months we spent working full time in Belfast into this category. This was because the city was new to us, somewhat different from the places in Ireland we were used to, with that novelty taking some time to wear off. 

Also, as our job was poorly paid, trying to put money aside was a challenge, something that we took on with gusto in many ways (well, we had no other choice). 

Despite that, and another reason our Belfast period can go onto the adventure list, we went overseas for holidays on a number of occasions during our stint there — as many times (and for longer) than our 23 years pre-2008.

So, it seems our first global adventure between 2008 and 2009 released the wanderer in us. Before then, an easy(ish) life in an Ireland that appeared awash with opportunities (or so we were told) coupled with decent enough full-time employment at a young age in a professional field that we generally liked, had kept this wanderlust at bay. 

Oh, how things change! Now, especially in the absence of a fulfilling, full-time, well-paid job (if there is such a thing for us), there exists an insatiable desire to move after a time in one place.

Yes, it is true we willingly returned to Bogotá, a city we had already lived in, on and off, for over 18 months, after a three-month spell back in Ireland last year. 

Yet, at a loose end in our birthplace*, Bogotá still seemed an adventure and, paradoxically in a way, a place where we had built up a good number of professional contacts, somewhere we knew we could find some work, sporadic as it may be. And we were (are) slightly concerned about money. Who isn't?

The world is our oyster http://bit.ly/1icklNw?

Now, however, not even three months back, those wanderlust feelings have returned. Yet they are tempered by concerns for the future; our professional progression, our financial well-being. You might call it adventurism constrained by conservatism, an old head on young(ish) shoulders.

Our background has a lot to do with that; the old settling down mentality and way of life of which most of us are products. Find a partner, build a house, start a family, and, hopefully, have a steady job. 

The last (and for us, the first also) of those is quite difficult to pin down these days, which makes the others more difficult to achieve (especially so here in Colombia where the link between money and women runs deep**). That is, of course, if we wanted to settle at this moment in time.

In any case, history is full of explorers and adventurers, those who shunned that settling-down life. It's because of such men (and the odd few women) that the world is how we know it today — for good and bad. 

OK, there aren't too many places left to be newly discovered on this planet, in a land context anyway, but that doesn't stop the personal human desire to explore and to see new things.

So if we could just make a living out of a nomadic lifestyle that should assuage our conservative side and allow us wander (and wonder) worry-free. 

At least for a time anyway; this might be just a phase we're going through. That fanciful million dollar contract might make us stop and think.

_______________________
*For more on that somewhat 'restless' state back home see both Any which way but lose... and No country for young men.

**Our début post, Wages of love, touched on this.

All that you can't leave behind

Every now and again it’s a good idea to cut the crap from your life. To undergo a necessary pruning you might call it. This can be done in a number of ways and in different areas. 

For example, you can streamline your friend database – these days that might involve deleting from your mobile phone and/or Facebook the numbers and contact details of old acquaintances who might now be a source of negativity.* 

There are also the material things we build up over time – in some contexts, these could be seen as no more than clutter or rubbish but they can be hard to let go of all the same.

All that we can't leave behind?

It’s in that latter area where we often struggle – our penchant for holding on to various bits and pieces plays against us. 

Now, if you’re a settled person (whatever that means) with your own house or at least long-term accommodation, such a hoarding trait isn’t that big of a deal really. However, if you still have something of a backpacker lifestyle and mentality, as we generally do, then keeping hold of what are, objectively speaking, non-important things, is far from a convenient practice.

What we’re on about here is the ability to extend the travel light approach to living light. After almost two years of being based in Bogotá but with a necessary break (for how long, we’re not sure) from the city on the horizon, the dreaded time of gathering up our things is fast approaching.

At first glance and without really getting down and dirty in it yet, it appears that we haven’t done too bad in terms of a large accumulation of stuff compared to other places we’ve stayed in over the years. 

For one, we don’t own any big electrical equipment or cumbersome furniture – in any case, if we did, they’d have to stay put unless they were of incredible emotional value. As for everything else, the question is: Can we put what we want to bring with us into one bag that weighs no more than 20 kg? That’s the goal.

Many of us are guilty of having more than we need.

In theory, it shouldn’t be a problem. What more does one really need to travel with other than some basic clothes? Added to that, it’s not like we’ve got any expensive outfits in our wardrobe – a nice, not-that-heavy suit apart – that we can’t leave behind.

Indeed price-wise, the ‘Wrong Way’ set of clothes these days is very much in the value-for-money, practical department.

This is, however, where what might be described as emotion comes into play. What we do have is an assortment of football and rugby shirts of sentimental value. An ever-growing collection we like to have recourse to at any given moment. Individually, of course, these tops weigh next to nothing; collectively, though, is a different story, while they also occupy some valuable room in a backpack tight on space.

Alongside the shirts, but perhaps slightly more acceptable in terms of emotional attachment, we’ve the various little mementoes that we’ve built up over the last couple of years. ‘Important’ paper cuttings, various correspondence, thought-provoking books that we like to keep hard copies of for reference, stuff like that.

But if we’re being tough on ourselves, coupled with a potentially bulging bag, a lot of these things can be scrapped. Sometimes it’s best just to live with the memories – no more, no less. What’s going to be required is German-style efficiency and precision when we’re eventually packing things up.

Living light, the extreme way.

It’s also worth bearing in mind that being in a position to have this as a problem shows the privileged place we’re coming from. There are plenty of people on this planet who are not and never will be able to accumulate a stash of material stuff. 

For them, it’s just about finding sufficient food to survive on from one day to the next. We don’t need to look too far for examples of this – here in Colombia, the gap between the haves and the have-nots is as wide and apparent as anywhere.

So while it’s a good idea to cut the crap from your life, when doing so it’s also wise to put things into an appropriate context. However, both can be quite difficult to do.

___________________
*For more on some of the ‘evils’ of Facebook and its ilk, see http://bit.ly/Rbh9lc. Also, for how some Colombian ladies deal with 'friend clearing' see http://bit.ly/NsJyB5.