The UTP Botanical Garden (Jardín Botánico UTP) is located in Pereira. It’s operated by the Technological University of Pereira (Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira) and is situated on their campus.
Génova is a small town on the southern end of the Quindío department of Colombia. It’s part of the UNESCO World Heritage listed Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia.
Pijao is the perfect destination if you’re looking to go off the beaten path in Colombia’s Coffee Region.
Early in 2017, my friend Sabtain from Toronto contacted me to ask if we could help coordinate a charity project, Bags for Belén. He was organizing it with his new charity, Creating Change Together (CCT). They raised over US$2,000 in order to buy schoolbags for children in our hometown of Belén de Umbría and wanted to come distribute them in early May.
Parque Los Arrieros is an entertaining theme park in Colombia’s UNESCO World Heritage listed coffee country aimed at protecting the Coffee Region’s culture and heritage. It’s located on the road between the towns of Quimbaya and Montenegro. When traveling through the region, you don’t hear much about it and it isn’t well publicized, but it has been around since January 2014.
After a night of heavy rain, the only road in and out of the village of Columbia collapsed in a landslide. Columbia is just outside of the town I live in – Belén de Umbría. This small agricultural community will be without road access for at least six months. Thankfully, nobody was hurt and no cars or motorcycles were traveling on the road as it collapsed.
We’ve been able to do a few more things for the school in Belén de Umbría since our last update in March. Once the construction finished and supplies were given to the students, we decided to look at the smaller issues affecting the school.
Not too far outside Pereira is a great park for both kids and adults. Parque Consotá is a huge recreational area with sports fields, several swimming pools, a spa, nature trails, fishing ponds, paddle boats, a small zoo, restaurants, and a hotel. We took Marisol’s 6 year old nephew, David, to enjoy the park for a day.