Sol de Minca:
Connectivity Through Indigenous Collaboration
Interview with Viviana Jaramillo, Co-owner of Sol de Minca, Colombia
Sol de Minca, a natural reserve and boutique eco-resort on the outskirts of Minca, Colombia, inspires its guests to reconnect with their surroundings in the most authentic way possible. With their indigenous neighbours (the Arhuaco, Kogi, Wiwa and Kankuamo) guiding the way, the family initiative emphasises sustainability, respect for the land and reverence for its people's wisdom.
Sol de Minca sources and grows native crops to feed themselves and their guests, who stay in comfortable rooms constructed with the traditional clay method. Their success is a combination of the family's knowledge and experience together with the literal and spiritual guidance of the area's indigenous leaders. It's a modern business, built with traditional materials and operated with indigenous cultural values in mind.
Sol de Minca welcomes travellers from around the world, inviting them to reconnect with nature. Guests are granted unprecedented access to the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta – Colombia's northern coastal mountainous region, both a cradle of biodiversity and a haven of immense cultural significance.
We spoke with Viviana Jaramillo, anthropologist and Co-owner of Sol de Minca, about their collaboration with neighbouring communities, operating a business with Sierra Nevada indigenous values in mind and what indigenous leaders there are saying about the pandemic.
At what stage of this project did you start to collaborate with members of the local indigenous community?
This project is founded on our collaboration. As soon as we had an idea of what we wanted to do with Sol de Minca, we immediately began to integrate the indigenous perspective and people into our project as we knew that they were the best guides to help us live here in a productive and respectful way. A spiritual leader came onto the property before we started to do any work on the land to conduct a ritual for us so that we could do business, grow food and build structures with nature on our side.
The philosophy they’ve shown us is familiar: everything that you do begins with a thought. With that ritual, we were able to plant a spiritual seed with the land as well as the indigenous communities around us.
We were always interested in sustainable farming. The indigenous community showed us how we could create structures with wood and clay and what foods were native to the area. The clay working technique that we use, which combines knowledge from different regions, has given a unique style to our buildings. We also do our best to stay true to their respect for the land, with compost toilets, grey-water systems that recycle the water we use and a vegetarian kitchen that makes traditional Colombian dishes with local ingredients.
Have there been any surprises working with your sister?
My sister and I weren’t particularly close growing up, and with this project, it's as though we've met all over again. We might argue over small details like paint colour or materials, but we've also learned that our interests are very similar. Both of us like to farm and are committed to growing our own food and working to benefit our community. We’re just learning how our preferences and methods complement each other.
Each member of our family brings proficiencies unique to them. The combination of these skills is what makes this business so special. Trusting and supporting each other are the keys to our success.
There are, of course, challenges, but it can be very beautiful too. It encourages us to keep at what we’re doing when our guests comment on how nice it is to see a family working together. We’re dependent on each other to make this work. If someone is having a hard time, we know that we have our mother to remind us that we’re a team.
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What can we learn from indigenous communities about business and entrepreneurship?
We've learned that profit and sustainability aren't mutually exclusive and that the latter should always come before the former. With indigenous guidance, we grow organic foods and place our structures so they are in harmony with the natural surroundings. These are, of course, the pillars of our business: food and lodging.
More significantly, though, we've connected with nature in ways that we wouldn't have without their inclusion and influence. In our society, it's very easy to become disconnected from nature because we are removed from it. Here, however, we’re constantly reminded of the impact we have on the land because we’re living off it.
We’re also aware of the impact we have on the indigenous communities around us because we’re learning from them. We’re always asking ourselves what we’re doing to nature, what effect our actions have and what the land around us is feeling as a result of our presence. These are questions that are easy to miss when you come from the city and even more if you’re living in a city. We were disconnected, and now we’re reconnecting – all thanks to our friendship with them.
How do you incorporate technology in a responsible way – one that doesn't jeopardise this connection?
Technology can help preserve traditions. We must maintain the balance between living more traditionally and using technology to keep traditional methods – real permaculture – alive. Our business, part of which relies on online bookings, creates awareness around traditional ways.
For example, we offer a tour of the reserve, where we share our interactions with the indigenous communities. We show our guests a video of the Mamo, the spiritual leaders of La Sierra, where the Mamo talk about their culture, history, worries and calls to action. These people have rarely been recorded, and it’s a beautiful thing that they’re willing to share their beliefs and culture with the rest of us.
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Julian Dwinguma holds a hummingbird momentarily, courtesy of En Vogue Photography
Julian Dwinguma holds a hummingbird momentarily, courtesy of En Vogue Photography
We’re always asking ourselves what we’re doing to nature, what effect our actions have and what the land around us is feeling as a result of our presence...We were disconnected, and now we’re reconnecting – all thanks to our friendship with the Indigenous People.
Sol de Minca women at work, courtesy of Sol de Minca
Sol de Minca women at work, courtesy of Sol de Minca
Children on a homeschooling day, courtesy of Sol de Minca
Children on a homeschooling day, courtesy of Sol de Minca
Aside from creating this awareness, how else do your indigenous neighbours benefit from your collaboration with them?
We help each other in more tangible ways as well, where we can. For example, there’s a friend of ours who is a healer – spiritual and herbal. He takes ill people into his home, feeds them and has them near his family.
He wants to continue this work. However, his facility is small, his own family lives there, and he needs to consider their health as well. Along with another friend-anthropologist, we've gathered money so the indigenous themselves can build a house on his land to be used specifically for treating sick people and sharing knowledge.
Also, many in the indigenous communities use the flashlight often. Their batteries are non-rechargeable. They go through them quickly and don’t have an effective system for dealing with this kind of garbage. Some communities have batteries scattered about which are beginning to pollute the soil.
One way that we’re working to help bring some of our technology to them is by introducing solar energy and rechargeable batteries. We’ve introduced compost toilets as well. Technology, when used responsibly, is a powerful tool in spreading the word of your business or culture – it too has its place in taking care of nature.
Also, we have two indigenous boys staying with us at the farm right now so we can both support their education, as well as provide monetary support for their sister and grandmother, since tragically, these boys were orphaned last year. In exchange, they help us with the project.
We are also supporting a young Arhuaco girl's education. She lives at my parent's house, and between my mother and myself, we help her to study and feel at home. Additionally, we provide support for an ethno-touristic project that two young Arhuaco women are running at their farm. Theirs is one of the places where we made a compost toilet since they will have westerners coming in.
They’ve been saying for a long time that the earth is sick – that Mother Earth is talking to us. Now, she is communicating to us with an urgent message, and we must listen.
How has the pandemic affected your business plans?
In a way, we’ve found some breathing room and time to reinforce the plans we already had but which were being put on hold because we had to focus on running the business. We’re now able to make farming our priority – a path we’ve needed to go further down for some time now.
It's only recently that we have begun to make some real income from the project. For the last several years, the business relied on our parents’ funding and our labour. To finally see some income was a great relief, and we look forward to sharing with our guests an even better experience in the Sierra Nevada whenever travel picks up again.
To relieve our parents of any further financial burden, we've reached out to our community for support, both here and abroad, so that we can keep employing our workers while things are slow. We also plan to build a chicken coop and expand our plantation so that we can better provide for ourselves and our community. Moreover, we'll use our social media channels to share this journey with the world in hopes that our community keeps growing.
How are indigenous spiritual leaders interpreting the pandemic?
They’ve been saying for a long time that the earth is sick – that Mother Earth is talking to us. Now, she is communicating to us with an urgent message, and we must listen. They’re encouraging us to be mindful of the words we use to describe this, to disassociate our terminology with any one culture or people.
They’re teaching us that whatever we believe becomes true. We need to think and speak positively and see that because nature is sick, so are we. Unless we change our path and start listening to that which is all around us, the world will not heal.
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