Water, Towpaths and Tourism

Water is an enormous asset for tourism in almost any environment. It provides a dynamic flow of scenery and audible experience, recreational opportunities, a broad array of plants and animals and in this hot climate a chance to cool down.
Aracataca has a mixture of fortune and forethought bringing water to many of the neighborhoods. Gabriel García Márquez opens his novel 100 Years of Solitude describing Macondo (Aracataca). “At that time Macondo was a village of twenty adobe houses, built on the bank of a river of clear water that ran along a bed of polished stones, which were white and enormous, like prehistoric eggs.” This hot, flat and seasonally parched valley is crossed by a series of rivers originating in the glaciers of high sierra in the east to the giant Cienaga (swamp, inland estuary) to the west. Rio Frio, Rio Tucurinca, Rio Aracataca, Rio Fundación run a parallel east to west course and help to define where towns form, crops can be irrigated and people can escape the heat by swimming.

Aracataca, working with the national government built a network of canals more than fifty years ago diverting water from Rio Aracataca to the city and to farms and orchards around it. The map below shows the river (dark blue), Tolima Canal (light blue) and Bremen Canal (green). The more urbanized barrios are colored as well. Some of the points of interest are highlighted with icons. If you click here, you can play with the maps, zoom in and learn more about Aracataca’s assets. These maps were a part of the work I did my first month here.

Aracataca Infrastructure

Development along the rivers and canals varies a great deal. Some areas have become important social centers with stores, small restaurants and bars. These areas fill with people on weekends, with kids splashing in the water, men playing dominos and cards, families having picnics, loud music and beer.

Kids on a Bridge	Fiesta de la Reina

In some outlying sections of the river and canals there are tow-paths accessible for walking, bicycling and the ubiquitous motorcycles. Some sections are characterized by open farm fields and shady African oil-palm orchards.

Canal Path	Flowering Tree
River Path

Other areas are in much worse shape. Otherwise scenic rural sections are often choked with plastic bags, bottles and other household, human and animal waste. Area residents and some unscrupulous waste haulers dump their garbage on the edge of the canals, with some being pushed into the water to wash through town, clogging culverts and some traveling many miles to reach the Cienega and Atlantic Ocean.

Litter on the Canal Path

Litter on the River Path

Some paths along the river and canals are also considered too dangerous for casual walking due to fear of armed robbery, called atraca.  It is paradoxical that some of the most scenic locations near the water are also the most dangerous. One explanation is that this land is the most vulnerable to flooding, and a poor choice for building permanent structures. I visited a riverside Barrio today (on a different river) where this was clearly the case. They were petitioning the town to extend the flood protection wall as their community continued to grow (through land invasions) down the river. Unfortunately the walls also create an out of sight-out of mind opportunity and a great deal of trash is thrown over the walls toward the river.

As such, the rivers and canals present great opportunities for tourism, scenic walks, daily exercise, flood protection, crime prevention, environmental restoration, civic pride and more. The challenges are big too, particularly changing a culture from one that litters profusely to one that carries garbage out and disposes of it through a solid waste stream. The municipality has to pony up too, providing functioning trash bins at trail heads and parks at least until the culture has developed a stronger environmental ethic with respect to litter. I’m also working on creating recycling streams for the ubiquitous plastic bags and bottles, though the market is weak due to very low fuel prices.

One of the steps I’m taking is to present examples of successful river trails from in the US. One of my favorites is the Bucksport Penobscot River Trail. It’s a classic example of remaking a littered and obsolete river shoreline into a scenic corridor.

There are many great examples of revived canal towpaths from the US as well. Right-of-way along a watercourse is critical.
Any interruption in path greatly increases the cost of the project. Colombian property rights laws are similar to the US making property takings a difficult process. Most of the canal system has public right of way, though documentation is hard to find and encroachment has happened in many locations. It takes the form of walls build too close to the canals and in rural areas includes cattle gates with barbed wire.
Other barriers are less tangible, but significant. Donna and I walked along one canal and had a great time meeting the farmer as we passed by. The next time we passed on bicycles his dogs, numbering about six, attacked us. Donna got through, I received a minor bite. Most dogs in Aracataca are very docile as a matter of survival, but these were bigger, healthier and more aggressive. That may be all it takes to hold up development of this tow-path. Asking the farmer to tie up his dogs may be difficult given his need to protect his home and cattle.
A more common barrier is fear of robbery. Though I think the actual level of violence and robbery is quite low, the level of fear is quite high. The town folk are wary of going into isolated areas where they aren’t in plain view of others. Less than 20 years ago Colombia was in one of its historic periods of “violencia” when guerrilla fighter on the left, paramilitaries on the right made travel in remote areas particularly dangerous. The current government of Juan Santos is negotiating with FARC, the largest guerrilla organization, to end fighting, but they have outstanding issues to resolve.
On a local level people in one barrio are sometimes wary of going into a neighboring barrio, and the feelings may be mutual. Aracataca has one walled-in barrio, like a gated community. People feel quite secure, but nevertheless are requesting that the municipality install razor wire on top of the walls to keep bad people out. Virtually all windows have iron bars, doors are locked, yards are fenced or walled in.

As in the US robbery and theft are associated with drug use. What drugs are being used is still unclear. Common belief is that smoking marijuana is the core of the crime problem. It isn’t difficult to detect the odor of marijuana in some parts of Aracataca. I suspect that some people are also smoking cocaine or abusing opiates and pharmaceuticals. I was surprised to find small, glass pipes with artificial roses associated with smoking crack as well as other powerful drugs in a local Aracataca convenience store. Alcohol is widely used and abused and also associated with crime, though alcohol is tolerated to a great extent.

Opening the river and canal walks will require a change in the social environment in some neighborhoods, changes in attitudes about litter, new job opportunities for young adults and a MAJOR investment of public resources. The trails might be a catalyst for change.