# Rivers That Build Peace: Rafting With Former Combatants in Colombia > Discover how former FARC combatants are building a rafting scene on the Pato River and turning tourism into a path to peace. A genuinely inspiring story. - URL: https://langandtrip.com.ua/en/article/richky-shcho-buduiut-myr-raftynh-z-kolyshnimy-kombatantamy-v-kolumbii/ - Language: en - Published: 2024-06-27 - Categories: Historic Sites, Tours, Colombia, Rivers, Relaxation, Canyons --- The water is cold, and the shouts carry down the river. As the raft closes in on the rapids, a roar of "HOLD ON!" goes up, then a cry of "PADDLE!", and six rafters plunge into the churning water in strikingly perfect sync. When they are carried clear of the rapids, barely a splash inside the hull, you would never guess that some of these men and women are more at home with a weapon than with a paddle. The Pato River in the department of Caqueta, in southeastern Colombia, was once one of the main battlefields between the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, People's Army (known by its Spanish acronym, FARC-EP) and the Colombian government. A controversial group seen at times as Marxist avengers fighting for the rights of rural people, and at times as a dangerous criminal organization, it laid down its arms in 2016 after a historic peace agreement. FARC leaders were granted non-voting representation in Congress, while rank-and-file members were given the chance to return to civilian life. ![](/storage/image/prev/august-article-image-86-1-2024.jpg) Thousands of men and women came out of the jungle and, with support from the government's Agency for Reincorporation and Normalization (ARN), moved into ready-made communities built to reintegrate former guerrillas back into society. Clinging to the edge of a cliff above the roaring foam of the Pato River, Miravalle is one of them. Home to fewer than 50 people, this row of single-story concrete buildings with rickety corrugated-metal roofs feels peaceful yet full of life. Parents push children in strollers down the village's only street, while soldiers from a nearby base stop to chat easily with locals sharing a cup of coffee outside their homes. Compared with the other 25 communities across Colombia that house a mix of former combatants and civilians, Miravalle is unique. Here, the community uses rafting to work toward peace. ![](/storage/image/prev/august-article-image-86-2-2024.jpg) ## Recovering From a 52-Year Conflict The FARC's disarmament marked the end of a 52-year conflict that played out mostly in rural Colombia. The bloodshed claimed more than 220,000 lives, most of them civilians, and forced more than seven million Colombians to flee their homes. Miravalle and the Pato River sit in the basin of the El Caguan River, an area roughly the size of Switzerland. This place has a complicated history. It served as the unofficial capital of FARC operations, becoming a FARC-controlled demilitarized zone for three years in the early 2000s, after the army pulled back as part of peace talks. When those talks collapsed, the region fell back into a violent struggle for power. ![](/storage/image/prev/august-article-image-86-3-2024.jpg) It is easy to see how the terrain offered ideal cover for the guerrillas, letting them hold strategic control of the region for so long. These remote and incredibly inhospitable highlands are heavily forested, sitting at the transition point between the Amazon jungle and the foothills of the Andes. Rolling hills, perpetually wrapped in mist, are blanketed with rainforest, while winding rivers cut through the land, carrying away some of the highest rainfall in the Amazon region. Now this nine-kilometer stretch of Class III-IV rapids shows how tourism can help heal deep wounds. Visitors can learn about the conflict from the lips of the former guerrillas themselves and their civilian teammates, who lived through it on the other side. ![](/storage/image/prev/august-article-image-86-4-2024.jpg) ## A New Kind of Tourism On a clear but characteristically humid April day, conditions are perfect for tackling the frothing rapids of the Pato River, a body of water considered one of the best in Colombia, if not in South America, for rafting. There is also a calmer float through the Class I and II rapids in the Fisherman's Canyon. This is an afternoon drift through a narrow canyon whose steep walls have been carved into bulging shapes by millennia of rain and are draped in vegetation. High overhead, macaws nest in the crevices of the rock, one of more than 460 bird species that live in this region. ![](/storage/image/prev/august-article-image-86-5-2024.jpg) In Miravalle itself, you can visit the Local Museum of Historical Memory. Built on donations from community members, its exhibits are nothing short of gripping. One such exhibit is a copy of the manual used to train FARC recruits, showing how to do everything from launching a grenade to setting up an orderly camp. It is a stark yet fascinating window into the world that the guides of Caguan Expeditions left behind. While a look at the logistics of war can be both mesmerizing and unsettling, the guides are careful not to romanticize the conflict. Instead, changing how the region is perceived sits high on their list of priorities. "One of our dreams is to show Caqueta from a different perspective. In some parts of the country, it is associated with violence, danger and drug trafficking. But what about the beautiful landscapes?" says 44-year-old guide Hermides "Profe" Linares, a 30-year FARC veteran. ![](/storage/image/prev/august-article-image-86-6-2024.jpg) ## "Rivers Can Be Used to Build Peace" "Rafting was always on my mind," says 38-year-old Duberney Moreno, captain of the community's "Paddling for Peace" rafting team and a former FARC member of 13 years. He is a warm, cheerful and deeply likeable man, as are all eight of the guides who lead Caguan Expeditions and run the rafting tours on the Pato River. It all began a few years ago, when former FARC commander Hernan Dario Velasquez, better known as "El Paisa," brought rafts into the region and secured help from Colombia's National Training Service (SENA) to get people out on the river. But everything only truly changed when Mauricio Artinano, a researcher with the UN Verification Mission in Colombia, visited the site in 2018. He reached out to Rafael Gallo, owner of the Costa Rican rafting operator Rios Tropicales and one of the founders of the International Rafting Federation (IRF). Gallo immediately recognized the river's potential for commercial rafting and sent two of his instructors to Colombia in August 2018. What followed was a month and a half of intensive training in raft handling, kayaking, river safety and rescue skills. ![](/storage/image/prev/august-article-image-86-7-2024.jpg) "We invited everyone who wanted to join and become part of the team. About 20 people showed up," Moreno recalls. Interest quickly faded. "On the third day three left, the next day two more gave up, until only eight of us were left, the ones who are still here today," he says with a smile. A mix of former fighters and civilians, all eight were certified as IRF guides at an official graduation ceremony attended by members of the UN and the Colombian government. Rafting has taken them around the world ever since. In 2019, the team competed at the World Rafting Championship in Australia under the name "Rafting for Peace," which they adopted after being asked to compete under the newly approved IRF Peace Flag. Before leaving their homeland, the minister of sport handed them the Colombian flag, a moment that symbolized the enormous transformation the region and the community had been through. The rafters did not know it at the time, but using rafting for peace after a long conflict is not a new idea. After all, it is a sport that demands extreme teamwork to keep everyone from ending up in the water. The roots of the rafting federation (IRF) lie at the end of the Cold War, when Russian and American rafters were brought together for a descent in Siberia. Ever since, "the IRF has been interested in seeing how rivers can be used to build peace in different countries," Artinano explains. ## "We Crossed Into a New World" In a country still struggling to heal, inviting visitors into the region for frank discussions about the conflict, its origins and its impact can be a remedy for these wounds. That is the belief of Lizeth Riano, CEO and co-founder of the nonprofit Collective Impulse and former director of impact at the Bogota-based tourism company Impulse Travel. Both organizations have played an integral role in the financial and strategic support of Caguan Expeditions, as well as other peacebuilding projects across the country. When tourists arrive, "the guides tell their stories again and again, they talk about the hardships, work through the trauma and create an incredible sense of empowerment and self-discovery," Riano says. Mauricio Artinano shares this view. He sees tourism projects founded as a result of the peace agreement as offering real opportunities for building peace. "For Colombia to overcome the horrors that took place over more than 50 years, it is important to build bridges of dialogue and reconciliation. Tourism is one way to do that." ![](/storage/image/prev/august-article-image-86-8-2024.jpg) Talking about rural life and the story of how the conflict unfolded is of the utmost importance to the guides. "It is our duty to tell these stories, because they are the root of what really happened," says Frellin "Pato" Norena, a 33-year-old former combatant who joined the FARC when he was 16. Wherever you go in Miravalle, there is a palpable sense of pride in what rafting has achieved. Once a frontier and a battlefield between the FARC and government forces, the Pato River is now a neutral place where civilians, former FARC members and even, at times, the army paddle together. "Before, the river was dark, and you didn't know what was on the other side," Norena says, gazing across the Pato River. He looks visibly relieved as he says, "Now we see through it and we see tourism. It is as if we crossed into a new world."