Ecotourism innovators: Andes EcoTours leads curious travelers down unexpected paths

Andes EcoTours founders Chantelle du Plessis (l) and Andrés Umaña (r). (Andes EcoTours)

Whether to the top of a 5,000-meter mountain or a TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence, it’s been a steady climb to success for ecotourism innovators Andrés Umaña and Chantelle du Plessis.

Since 2010, the founders of Andes EcoTours have partnered with local communities to offer innovative and immersive tour packages that take visitors beyond the expected experiences.

Recently I spoke to Andrés about the origins of the company, the response of his local partners, and how the company is managing amid the massive uptick in ecotourism in Colombia.

What was the rationale behind Andes EcoTours?

Andes’ first tour group to Monserrate, 2012. (Andes EcoTours)

We felt that visitors to Bogotá were missing out on the area’s natural treasures and we didn’t want that to happen.

Plus, I’m not a fan of cities in general. I try to stay away from them if I can, and I figured there were more people like that out there than just me.

At first we were taking our friends around to the places we liked.

We started with a bike tour through the Botanical Gardens and a hike through Las Delicas in the eastern mountains. We didn’t decide to turn it into a business until later.

Back then you could walk through any nature reserve without paying because no one thought to charge. Ecotourism in Bogotá hadn’t been invented. We stepped in to provide that service.

Who were your fist clients? Have you seen a change in clientele over the years?

Our fist client was a girl from Brazil who was staying in a hostel next to our office and had found us on Instagram. We’d been open for two days.

We worked out of the Candelaria in the beginning and that attracted a lot of backpackers – younger and single travelers.

Our clientele changed when we moved to Chapinero. Now we get a lot of corporate clients and five-star hotels. We don’t get a lot of backpackers anymore.

How did you approach people to participate in your coffee tours? What was their response?

People ask me that a lot. Most of the time I just walked up to the farmers themselves and asked, “Would you mind if I bring people to watch what you do?”

Andes’ Traditional Coffee Tour is a hands-on experience. (Andes EcoTours)

Most people agreed, but they were really surprised that I even asked. They didn’t have a tourism mindset at the start. Most of them said “there’s nothing here for you to see.” Now they’ve come to realize that there’s actually a lot that people want to see.

What surprises people the most on your tours?

I think it’s the way the people live. It’s very basic and they don’t live that way for show. Most of our tours lead people directly into peoples’ homes – sometimes straight into their kitchens. Seeing that impacts people a lot.

Cooking on wood stoves is common on coffee farms outside Bogotá. (Andes EcoTours)

A lot of the farmers are healthy and live in a beautiful environment, but materially they live very modest lives. It can be very shocking for our guests to see people still cooking with wood stoves, or sleeping in 60-year-old beds – the kind of life you typically see only in movies.

Modest mountainside living with a spectacular view. (Andes EcoTours)

You left Bogotá in the 1990s to study. What’s the biggest change you’ve seen since you’ve been back?

The growth of the city. Bogotá was a big town when I left. The buses stopped at 8 PM and the streets were empty. People went to bed early. I could get anywhere in the city in 20 minutes because there was no traffic.

Bogotá was a big town when I left. I rode my bike down the highway.

I rode my bike down the highway. I played soccer in the street because there were so few cars. It was not a metropolis. You’d have to drive 30 minutes to get to a mall.

It’s also safer. When I was growing up, a lot of areas were really tough and everyone knew it was a risk to go through them. I always knew first-hand of someone who’d been robbed within the last month. My friends, my girlfriend, my uncle, even myself a few times. In broad daylight.

Bogotá by night. (Andes EcoTours)

That’s not the case for me anymore. As an adult I’ve been able to visit neighborhoods that I’d never enter when I was younger – places like Siete Agosto and Jimenez.

I’ve biked through Las Cruces in the south on Ciclovia. You’d never do that when I was younger. There were large areas of the city where you’d just never go. For example: Calle 19 or Avenida Caracas with Calle 63. Back then it was a guaranteed robbery. I’m much more relaxed now walking through these areas.

Ecotourism to Colombia has grown tremendously over the last few years. How has that growth changed life for an entrepreneur?

It was easier when we started. Previous governments didn’t pay as much attention to tourism and this led to a lot of companies starting up.

Recently, the federal government has started to regulate tourism, but in a really heavy-handed way. It’s a lot more difficult for new companies to start up. Guides must now be certified and permits are extremely difficult to get. In the last round there were 700 applicants for 50 permits.

Regulations are also having an effect on people’s livelihoods in the countryside. Tour guides who’ve been operating without a license for years now need the same permit as a brand new company. That causes some friction.

The tax scheme for tourism is also challenging – it doesn’t distinguish between large and small operators. That can easily drive people out of business.

What would you want people to know about ecotourism in Bogotá that they might not know?

There are tremendous natural attractions around Bogotá that people still need to discover. Two national parks – Sumapaz and Chingaza – are among the best-preserved natural environments in the country.

Páramo, Chingaza National Park. (Andes EcoTours)

There are at least four ecosystems that you can visit within driving distance. You can be on a mountaintop or on a working coffee farm within two hours. There are very few places in Colombia where that’s possible. There’s breathtaking nature in Bogotá, despite itself.

Sumapaz Páramo National Park. (Andes EcoTours)

In five years, what aspects of Colombia’s ecotourism industry would you like to see change or improve?

My hope is for government at all levels to offer more support to our work. The new regulations and restrictions on access to national parks are starting to make us feel like the enemy. The rationale is that it’s to protect the ecosystems, but there’s clearly a profit aspect.

Local authorities are starting to restrict access or charge admission fees to national parks. Also the taxes have increased without an increase in services. That’s hit a lot of businesses really hard.

Contact Andes EcoTours via WhatsApp at (+57) 315 698 7944 or email.