Let's travel to the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta

We know that you like to travel as much as we do, which is why we want to invite you on a journey, through our eyes, through the magical Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, using only your imagination and your heart. We invite you to Nabusimake.

  • After flying from Medellin to Santa Marta and traveling by road for about 6 hours to Valledupar, we took a detour to reach Pueblo Bello, the closest town to Nabusimake, our final destination.

    Pueblo Bello is a place where many cultures of the Sierra converge. The peasants [1] Bonachi are its main inhabitants, but from here we begin to find the culture of our older brothers: The Arhuaco people, walking silently through the streets of the town.

    We spent the night in Pueblo Bello to get up early to what we call: our home in the sacred mountains.

  • To get there by motorbike, we need approximately 1 hour and a half, on a steep and muddy road, a real adventure on two wheels. Along the way there are always things to see: mountains that meet before your eyes, majestic trees and suddenly a family of indigenous people walking along the "road" in their daily routines... it is always a privilege to pass them by.

    When the landscape finally opens up and you see the Sierra, you can feel its vibrations, it is at that very moment that you forget everything, nothing matters anymore. Being there is experiencing freedom first hand, the ultimate connection with the heart of the world… at this moment we know that we are almost there.

  • Do you know why the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta is called "The heart of the world"?

    It is called this because the Sierra is the only place on the planet where there are mountains with snow-capped peaks so close to the sea. The Sierra has almost all the ecosystems that exist in a relatively small space. It is because of these conditions that it represents the functioning of the entire planet on a scale; what happens here, happens to the planet as well.

In the distance we see the house of the Villafañe family, Oliverio and Aty Seynekun. We have arrived. Little Aty Seinebia greets us with a warm smile. There is no better feeling than being welcomed by them; they are calm, genuine, sincere souls, people who from the first moment welcomed us as part of their family.

  • That afternoon, upon our arrival, we decided to go for a walk around the family's fields and pick some things from the harvest to feed us for the rest of our days in Nabusimake. In the Sierra, food comes mostly from the organic gardens and fields that each family has on their land; they grow corn, yucca, potatoes, beans, grains and some vegetables, among many other things. Coffee is also a fundamental crop for the indigenous people of the Sierra and is one of their main sources of income.

    That afternoon we collected Totumos, the Totumos are a kind of pear-shaped gourd with which the natives make some utensils, mostly they use it to transport water and with it they make the Poporo: a sacred object. Only men use it, where they carry lime, made from burnt and pulverized seashells, which they use to [2] chew together with the ayu (coca leaves).

  • At the end of the afternoon we arrived home to prepare the corn we had collected on our walk. Everyone in the family participated in the process: shelling the corn, grinding it, and making the buns that we would later eat during all the days of our stay.

    Night falls halfway through our work, but that doesn't mean we have to stop. In Nabusimake there is no electricity grid, but cooking at night continues, accompanied by lanterns and candlelight, as well as a small, dim light bulb that charges with solar energy.

    The fact that there is no electricity does not mean that there is no technology in Nabusimake. Almost the entire community is connected to their cell phones, which they charge using solar panels.

After all, we cannot expect indigenous communities not to change certain things. They are living communities just like us and we "evolve" over time. Only one telecommunications company receives a signal in Nabusimake (luckily it is not ours, for us the Sierra is a place of disconnection, or rather, of deep connection?)

The next day we plan to visit Pueblito. Little Aty Sei is our guide and also our weaving teacher. At 6 years old, Aty already knows how to spin and weave. She doesn't speak Spanish, but she tries to teach me with signs and laughter (she has laughed at my strange clumsiness in keeping up with her weaving rhythm).

It is important to clarify that, in the indigenous communities of the Sierra, the trade of wool weaving, especially backpacks, is an ancestral trade owned by women. They transmit the knowledge of the technique from generation to generation, and learn at a very early age, in this way, over the years and with practice, they acquire the necessary expertise and knowledge of their cultural traditions to honor and preserve them over time.

  • After 40 minutes, or a little more walking, we arrived at Pueblito, in the heart of Nabusimake, a village of Arhuaca architecture surrounded by a small stone wall. It is not always possible to enter, to do so you must ask permission, and do so respectfully. (It is important to clarify that entry to all of Nabusimake is restricted and controlled by the Arhuaca authorities, not all Bonachi are allowed and you cannot always enter.)

    And since we are talking about Nabusimake "The land where the sun is born" literal translation of the word into Spanish, I will tell you a little about this place: Nabusimake is the spiritual capital of the Arhuaco people, one of the 4 indigenous communities that inhabit the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, in the department of El Cesar, Colombia.

    Nabusimake is a place where one feels different, its energy is special, its mountains and landscapes surprise at every step taken. Nabusimake is also a place bathed by rivers and ravines,

  • The rivers that come down directly from the snowy peaks are crystal clear and icy cold (we love to bathe in the frozen river). This place is magical especially because of the care that the indigenous people give it, since they firmly believe that humans, plants, animals, stones, water, stars; the entire universe is interconnected and we all depend on each other. Each being fulfills a mission within the balance of the universe, and our mother is the earth, she is the one we must take care of as the most sacred being. Everything we take from the earth must be with her permission and in exchange we must give something back to her, mother earth is not an inexhaustible source, everything we take, we have to give back.

    Because of this Arhuaca worldview, Nabiusimake is the place it is today. If our worldview were like theirs, it is most likely that planet Earth would not be in the condition it is in today.

  • Oliverio Villafane

  • Aty Seynekun

This time our journey ends here, but first I invite you to think about what you would like to ask of the Earth and what you will give in return for this.

My last invitation is for us to be thankful together and to start connecting more with our surroundings, to live as our older brothers do, aligned with Mother Earth and all the beings that inhabit her. After all, we are only 1.

__________________________________________________________________________________________

[1] Bonachi is the name for us, who are not indigenous.

[2] Mambear: is the action of chewing dried coca leaves mixed with lime. The lime activates the chemical compound of the leaf. It is used spiritually to unite the word with the heart.

Photographs: Sebastian Villegas.

Photo from left to right: Teiku, Aty Seynebia, Verónica Franco, Aty Seynekun.

Our family from the Sierra.