Taparcal is a tiny village just 15 minutes from Belén de Umbría. It’s set beautifully on a small mountain ridge with incredible views in every direction. It’s located within the UNESCO World Heritage listed Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia.
A guide on where to eat in Belén de Umbría. With all the places to find food in town, it’s impossible to get hungry. Almost all of the restaurants are located on the main plaza or within walking distance. A few others are just outside town. It’s not exactly world-class cuisine, but there are some very good places to eat.
The small town of Belén de Umbría is my home in Colombia. It is a coffee growing town that sits up in the mountains surrounded by a beautiful green landscape and part of the UNESCO World Heritage listed Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia.
Umbría Valley, located halfway between Belén de Umbría and Mistrató in the department of Risaralda, Colombia, has a couple places to visit.
Ecohotel Spa Caucayá is located in Caucayá, a small rural area outside the town of Belén de Umbría. It sits within the UNESCO World Heritage listed Coffee Cultural Landscape of Colombia.
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.
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.
Marisol, Lina, and I would like to express a heartfelt thanks to every donor who made this project possible. In just over a month, you were able to completely make over a school and change the lives of 30 students.
The school building, as mentioned in the video in the previous post, had several problems. It hadn’t been painted in many years, the roof had huge holes in it and leaked terribly every time it rained, and the school was in bad shape in general.
In Belén de Umbría, a tiny two-room school serves a marginalized community. Andrés Escobar Primary School has two teachers and 30 students from preschool to 5th grade. Many of the students have discipline issues or learning disabilities. Some come from broken families, have just one parent, or are raised by their grandparents. A few students have been displaced by violent conflict in Colombia while others have drug addicts or prostitutes in their families. All of the students come from very low-income families that struggle to afford school supplies, uniforms, and lunches.