Discover Wellness

There are five main ecological zones in Colombia - tropical rainforests, savannas, steppes, deserts, and mountain climate. The mountain climate are further divided into hot land, temperate land, cold land, frozen land and Páramo (Apline tundra). Because of the Andes mountain range, you can go from tropical rainforest to frozen land in just 60 miles. Mountains are steep, and many crops such as coffee, cacao, banana, and avocado are grown on very steep slopes.

We are visiting Colombia and Ecuador for a reciprocal mentor visit as part of a USDA FAS climate-smart agriculture initiative. We arrived in Bucaramanga, Colombia and spent our first full day exploring a páramo- a type of alpine tundra found in the Andes. We saw gorgeous alpine plants, including the endangered frailejones (Espeletia spp.), which only grows ~1 centimeter per year. It was a wild drive to get there and the altitude gain from Raleigh was rough, but thankfully we had participated in the wellness challenge so we could handle the hike (well, most of us).