Tomas Johnson, of Cloudforest Initiatives, a Minnesota based nonprofit cooperative that buys and markets fair trade coffee, invites you to join him on a tour to Chiapas. Tomas lives in St. Paul, MN and San Cristobal de las Casas, in the state of Chiapas, and has organized and lead many trips to this area of Mexico. His long association with leaders and the indigenous Mayan people gives visitors a truly unique and informed picture of the political and cultural life in Chiapas. Jan Sigmund, friend and frequent traveler to Mexico, will assist him for the fourth time.
Highlights
Numerous visits to local Mayan indigenous communities where we will meet families in their homes in face-to-face encounters to hear people tell about their lives and their hopes. These visits provide ample opportunities to meet, learn, ask questions and to buy beautiful crafts directly from organized women's groups. Participants will visit a cloud forest and an orchid museum to see the diversity of regional plants found only in Chiapas.
In addition, the program will include visits with nonprofit organizations to
hear about the challenges and conflicts facing women, communities and the environment.
Extraordinary highlights will be a visit to the mountain village of
Acteal for a memorial service that memorializes the victims of the December 22, 1997 massacre and a visit to a coffee plantation. Indigenous growers will explain coffee production, processing and the alternative Fair Trade/Organic export market.
Travel Program Cost: $1450.00
A $200.00 tax deductible down payment should be sent as soon as possible to
reserve your place in the program. The remaining $1250.00 should be paid in
full by November 30, 2010.
Cancellations: The $200.00 tax deductible down payment will be retained as a donation to Cloudforest Initiatives with the remaining $1250.00 returned.
Your Program Payment Covers:
* Lodging, double occupancy. Single rooms are available for an additionalfee.
* 2 Meals/day, breakfast and the afternoon meal.
* Airport Pick-up, January 19th, and January 30th departure, from airport in Tuxtla Gutierrez (TGZ), the State capital of Chiapas.
* All ground transportation.
* All entrance fees for museums, parks and reserves.
* Interpretation/translation for all presentations and speakers.
Trip is in progress
Cloudforest Initiatives developed an educational travel program...
for the United Theological Seminary of New Brighton, Minnesota. Twenty five Master of Divinity students, professor Cris Smith and Cloudforest board member, writer and educator, Teresa Ortiz, will come to Chiapas, Mexico, for 10 days in June, 2010 and will participate in a variety of formal presentations, indigenous community visits, and nonprofit briefings to see and hear directly the conditions and conflicts that exist in this beautiful yet contentious place on the planet.
We will be scheduling other educational travel programs for the winter of 2011. We invite you to contact us if you might be interested in participating in one of our programs or want to work with us to design a special program for your group or organization.
