Legendary revolutionary Che Guevara once championed subsistence farmers. His power lives on today in Bolivia, through an outstanding eco-tourism trail improving the lives of Guaraní indigenous people through historical and cultural tourism.
“Through this door one man walked out to eternity” is the inscription on the former schoolhouse - now a museum - in Bolivia's remote pueblo, La Higuera. It was here that Che Guevara, emaciated and bedraggled, was captured and killed on 9 October 1967. The lifeless body of this Argentine-born doctor, Marxist revolutionary, and liberator of campesinos or subsistence farmers, was taken the next day to a hospital in nearby Vallegrande, before being dumped in an unmarked grave. In 1997, long after he was hailed as a revolutionary hero, his corpse was unearthed and returned to Cuba.
Thirty seven years after Che’s death – in the same year that the hit film The Motorcycle Diaries was released – Ville Grande and La Higuera officially became part of a tourist attraction, the Che Guevara trail. The new trail covers an area of 180 miles in central Bolivia and follows the route of Che's last days. Designed to retain rugged appeal and minimise environmental impact, it represents one of the largest ever initiatives to bolster the country's beleagured tourism industry.
This eco-tourism initiative in Bolivia, nominated for the 2004 Guild of Travel Writers Award, aims to improve the lives of impoverished people in the remote Santa Cruz and Chuquisaca south-east areas, through the creation of spin-off small-scale tourist based enterprises. The intention is that this will contribute towards improving health and communication services in the area, which is among the poorest in the country and populated mostly by indigenous Guaraní farmers.
The 36-month project was supported by global humanitarian organisation CARE International, and funded by BLCF alongside the Bolivian Ministry of Tourism.
Guaraní, which originally meant ‘warrior’, is now the Brazilian Portuguese name for the culturally related indigenous peoples of South America who were one of the first contacted when Europeans arrived 500 years ago. They are deeply spiritual and emphasise land above all: land is the origin of all life and is the gift of the 'great father', Ñande Ru. The trails include a number of Guaraní villages, where visitors can learn about and sample local Guaraní culture, thereby supporting local livelihoods and bringing business to these isolated communities.
Since inception, three tour routes across seven remote Bolivian municipalities have been developed, in a region which has changed little in the last 40 years. They allow the visitor to travel just as Che and his comrades once did – by mule or on foot through rocky forested terrain – or in four-wheel drive along unpaved roads. One of the trails begins in the burgeoning Bolivian city of Santa Cruz de la Sierra via Samaipato, where the sacred rock of El Fuerte marks one of Bolivia's most famous Inca sites, and leads by road onto the villages of Vallegrande and La Huguera.
Visitors are encouraged to act responsibly while travelling along the trails, respecting the natural environment and making use of the locally-run and owned simple lodges, cabins and campsites. Other beneficiaries include restaurants, snack stands, small handicrafts businesses selling locally produced items, and a Che Guevara Trail museum. Local employment roles and opportunities include transportation to the start of the trail and the services of local guides providing cultural and historical information.
It is estimated that around 3,000 people will benefit directly and 12,000 indirectly through the development of the trail, with the 500 local Guaraní families playing a key role in determining the future of the project, and in this way, promoting self-empowerment. In the past, the only means of sustainability for these impoverished local communities was traditionally agriculture. This project offers them an alternative and a means of improving their quality of life.
The project's commitment to open roads, maintain them and place signage along them has also had an enormous impact on the communities' economies as they now have year-round stable access through which to sell their products and access education and health centres.
To facilitate coordination between the various private sector tourism businesses, the local grassroots organisations and local government have together created a management committee or fundeche. The municipal resources from Camin, Legunvillas, Vallegrande, Sampaita and Monteagudo are committed to maintaining roads, paths and signage at their own cost. The tour operators are also required to reinvest a percentage of the income back into the project budget for continuous operating costs such as publicity, guide salaries and transportation.
Such has been the success of the Che Guevara Trail that, on the 40th anniversary of Che's death, tens of thousands of his disciples of made the pilgrimage to Ville Grande in the Bolivian jungle for a five day festival of music, film and art which rounded up, in true South American style, with festival-goers contesting ‘the Che cup’ in a football tournament.
For more information contact BLCF fund manager, the Emerging Markets Group at this address