Learning Tour 2010: Peru and Colombia

We were met by Grazia Testa a representative from Pachamama the tourism branch of CIAP.  CIAP is the Peruvian Artisans Interegional Headquarters and was founded in 1992.  CIAP is made up of 350 families in which 700 artisans earn direct profit and 2,300 people benefit indirectly. CIAP includes COOPAC, the financial entity, PACHAMAMA that promotes alternative [...]

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Our day began early in the morning with the beautiful sounds of the church bells ringing through the square in Chulucanas. The weather was very different from the night before when we arrived, today it was overcast and cooler, which was a relief for many. After breakfast we headed to the workshop of Jose who [...]

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Learning Tour Peru: Monday April 26th Monday morning revealed the first effects of traveling in foreign lands. There were a few casualties but nothing that stopped us all from being ready to venture out into Lima’s rush hour traffic. As Bev nervously fretted about catching our flight to Piura, Luis made sure we had just [...]

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Yannina and Mario from Manos Amigas

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Luis from ALLPA collected us from the hotel and took us to ALLPA’s head office in Lima. There we met with founding members Maria and Nelly who have been working with ALLPA for the past 25 years. We had a chance to share with them about each of our stores and how beautiful and well [...]

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We’re actually here! arriving in a city at night,wait make that morning, 2.30 in the morning by the time we got through customs, is a mysterious yet exciting event. Mario and Janina from Manos Amigas were at the airport waiting to take us to the Bayview hotel in Miraflores district of Lima. By 3.30 we [...]

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