On our route through southern Colombia, from Bogotá to Cali, we stopped off in Popayan, a must-see in this part of the country. And when you’re in Popayan and looking to discover the surrounding area, you’re bound to hear about the village of Silvia and its “indigenous market”.
Many tourists make the round trip on Tuesdays to discover this market, with the natives in their folkloric clothing. True, it makes for good photos… but most don’t stay, most don’t bother to discover Silvia and learn more about this village, its people and its indigenous Misak (or Guambianos) community. They just come, take photos and leave.
With this in mind, Viviana, a young Misak native, and her partner Victor, decided to set up a local agency to welcome tourists and introduce them to Silvia’s Misak culture and traditions at first hand. We were lucky enough to spend two days with Viviana and Vicotr, for a cultural immersion we’ll never forget.
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Disclaimer: we apologize in advance for any grammatical or syntactic errors, as our native language is not English (we're a Colombian-French couple), so we hope you'll forgive us and still enjoy the information we share with you! Please note that all the information on our blog is based on our own experience, and is checked and updated regularly.
General info Silvia
- Nickname: La Suiza de América
- Founded: 1562
- People: Silvianos
- Region: Andes
- County: Cauca
- Population: 4,200 (32,000 in the territory)
- Altitude: 2620m
- Climate: cold and humid
- Average temperature : 13°C
- Rainy season: October, November, December
Silvia, a quiet Cauca village
Cultural immersion in the indigenous Misak Community
For us, before we went there, Silvia was above all a market. A market whose photos we’d seen on the internet and which made us want to go there. Then, as always, we did our research and got in touch with Viviana, a young Misak indigenous woman, to meet her and discover her community-based tourism project.
Silvia is a village located 50 km north of Popayan, nestled in the heart of an Andean mountain valley at the foot of the Páramos de las Delicias y Moras. We got there very easily by bus from Popayan.
According to colonization records, the village was originally called “Guambia”, and it wasn’t until the mid-19th century that the authorities decided to rename it Silvia.
We knew the natives of Silvia as “Guambianos”, but Viviana quickly explained that Guambia was the name given by the Misak natives to their territory, their land. That’s why there’s so much confusion about the name given to the Misak community.
Silvia is unique in that 80 th of its population is indigenous (Misak or Nasa). There are six indigenous reserves: Ambaló, Kizgó, Quichaya, Tumburao, Pitayó, Guambia and el cabildo de La Gaitana. The remaining 20% is a “mestizo and peasant” population.
It’s Tuesday and market day. The day when most tourists come to Silvia. This new attraction for the village is of course an opportunity, but Viviana explains that it’s also a problem: most tourists come to the market in organized groups, take photos, and leave without having bought anything from the local farmers. “Not even a bottle of water, because they bring everything they need,” Viviana tells us. They leave knowing nothing about the village, its people, its culture..
With this in mind, Viviana decided to offer a different way of discovering Silvia and the Misak culture, and that’s exactly what we wanted!
Live the experience
If you’d like to visit Silvia and share this immersive experience of Misak culture with Viviana, please contact her directly using the button below.
The Silvia market
Best things to do in Silvia
All the guidebooks refer to the Silvia market as “the indigenous market” or “mercado azul” (the blue market), in reference to the traditional clothing worn by the Misak natives.
But Viviana explains that this is a very simplistic description. The market welcomes all local farmers, whether indigenous or not. And while it’s true that 80 th of the local population are indigenous, it’s still a market where all the local producers live together. For her, Silvia’s market is a “mercado de colores” (market of colors).
Located in a hall overlooking Silvia’s central square, the Silvia market is divided into different “themed” areas: fruit, vegetables, sweets, breads, dry goods, handicrafts, hardware, meat and even an area reserved exclusively for offal and carcasses. We’re told that this is a “nothing goes to waste” tradition, and that it also enabled people to buy cheaper cuts. Today, the area is less popular than it used to be.
But what Silvia’s market represents most (and sells most) are potatoes, onions and strawberries, which account for the majority of local production. In fact, you can’t leave Silvia without tasting their famous strawberries in cream sauce.
Silvia’s market is a colorful place where it’s impossible to resist capturing images on film. But don’t let that stop you from :
- asking permission to take photos
- buying something to participate in the local economy
Misak cultural immersion in Silvia
Community-based tourism
As you can imagine, we discovered Silvia accompanied by Viviana, a young indigenous Misak who offers cultural immersion in her native village and community.
Viviana accompanied us for these two days with all her kindness and passion for her culture. We talked at length about her culture and their way of seeing the world. We learned so much!
His message is clear: the idea is not to folklorize Misak culture, but to share its essence, to help make it better known and more alive .
It’s also a tourism project that aims to integrate as many members of the community as possible. It was when we saw the problems associated with tourists coming here just to see the “indigenous market” that we decided to defend the fact that Silvia is much more than just its market.
After a visit to Silvia’s colorful market, we’ll take public transport to the village’s heights to discover various places emblematic of Misak culture.
Live the experience
If you’d like to share this immersive experience of Misak culture with Viviana, please contact her directly using the button below.
Hospital and indigenous pharmacy
We arrive at what Viviana describes as Colombia’sfirst and only indigenous hospital! It’s clearly a point of local pride, and we can see why. It shows just how organized and powerful this Misak community is on its territory.
The hospital offers a combination of “modern” and traditional medicine. The community also has its own drug manufacturing laboratory and a pharmacy open to community members.
All medicines are made on site from medicinal plants traditionally used by the Misak community. The idea is to use modern technology while maintaining traditional medicine.
The Yatul, Misak sustenance garden
We set off along the pretty paths of the Silviana countryside, surrounded by verdant mountains, the landscape is beautiful and peaceful. It’s apparently because of these landscapes thatSilvia is known as “the Switzerland of the Americas”…. In Colombia, you always have to come up with nicknames, but from our point of view, the comparison is risky: Silvia is Silvia. And Switzerland is Switzerland.
We arrive at the “Las delicias” botanical garden project, the community Yatul. Yatul is the name given to the Misak subsistence garden. It’s a tradition that has gradually been lost, not least because of the lack of land. This cooperative project was recently taken in hand by Wilmar, a passionate young Misak, and aims to recover the ancestral knowledge of the Misak culture.
The place is beautiful and Wilmar welcomes us with a smile and invites us to perform a harmonizing ritual before entering the “Tulampi Ya”, the traditional Misak house of thought and reflection. We sit around the fire to take part in a talking circle. Fire plays a central role in Misak culture, symbolizing life, warmth and nourishment, and is the place around which family and community gather to talk.
We talk to Wilmar about Misak culture and our own… Emotion fills our hearts, and we feel privileged. He explains that confinement changed his life. He was a student in Cali, living a city life, far from Silvia and the Misak culture. During the confinement he returned to the village and realized the value of his culture. He started wearing the traditional dress again and took over the reins of this community project initiated by his father and which had been going strong for many years.
After this moment of “palabreo”, we set off for a stroll in the vegetable garden, built in a spiral pattern based on the traditional hat and the Misak idea of the cycle of life. It’s a superb project that aims to preserve the values of this ancestral culture. They do educational work with the village children and are also developing a tourism component to publicize the Misak culture.
We leave with our hearts full of this beautiful and rich encounter with Wilmar.
La casa Payan
We head back down the path to the casa Payan: the community house of the Misak de Silvia indigenous reserve. This traditionally-built house serves as a meeting place, a school to teach Misak children about their culture and tradition, and an interpretation center where visitors can learn about the history of the Misak people and their cosmology.
Casa Payan is built on three floors, each representing a specific dimension of the Misak people. The second floor represents territory, the second authority, and the third spirituality.
We visit it accompanied by the “Taita”, one of the community’s spiritual leaders, who tells us about Misak cosmogony, where the Misak people come from and the foundations of their culture.
The Taita tells us about the various rituals associated with births, weddings and funerals. A very interesting visit.
Piurek, hijos del agua
Misak cosmogony describes the people as “children of water”.
At the beginning of the world live the spirits of nature: Pishimisak, the female spirit who rests in laguna Ñimbi, and Kalim, the male spirit, who rests in laguna de Piendamo.
From the union between the two lagoons, fertilized by the rainbow, a boy and a girl are born. The two children were raised by Kalim and Pishimisak, the spirits of nature, and eventually formed the first Misak couple.
Best things to do in Silvia
Enjoy Silvia and its surroundings
In the evening we meet up at Viviana and Victor’s house, where we’ll be spending the night. We get organized for dinner, having bought potatoes at the market. Victor and I go into the village to fetch a roast chicken and sit down in the kitchen.
The exchange continues, all subjects are open, we talk about everything and anything, there’s no shortage of topics, and Viviana, like Victor, are two people who like to share, give their opinions, exchange views. Victor is also indigenous, but from the department of Nariño.
The next day, after breakfast, we set off for a stroll to the Silvia viewpoint, not forgetting to stop for strawberries and cream! This church perched high above the village is actually privately owned – amazing. The view of the surrounding mountains is breathtaking.
We continue our morning stroll along the mountainside before returning to the village, where we’ll have to pack our bags! It’s time for us to head back to Cali. A final meal together to say goodbye, and we hope to see you soon… here we are, on the bus heading for Piendamo, then Cali…., but that’s another story.
Nature walks
Viviana and Victor don’t just offer cultural immersion. They also offer a wide range of nature walks, particularly to the surrounding peaks and paramos above Silvia.
It’s easy to spend several days in Silvia without getting bored! There’s so much to see and discover.
Conclusion
Misak cultural immersion in Silvia
Viviana and her partner Victor welcomed us with open arms into their home and territory. They shared with us their vision of the world, their view of today’s society and all that defending indigenous peoples and their culture can bring.
The coherence between everything we saw and heard, and the strength with which the Misak people are trying to keep their culture alive, is impressive and beautiful.
Nothing is easy. There are problems in the community. Christian evangelization continues its undermining work. The problems of land shortage remain significant, and there are strong contradictions between the need to be able to work the land and the need to protect natural resources at the same time.
The Misak people have managed to save their culture, and the struggle to reclaim their identity continues with the younger generations.
Contact Viviana
How to get to Silvia
From Popayan
From Popayan, buses run all day every day to the village of Silvia.
- BUS | Popayan – Silvia (1h30)
- Fare: approx. $10.000
- Company: Sotracauca
From Cali
From Cali, you’ll need to take two different buses to get to Silvia. The first bus goes to Popayan and stops at Piendamo.
- BUS | Cali – Piendamo
- Fare: approx. $30,000
- Companies : Velotax
From Piendamo, you’ll need to ask locally for the bus to Silvia.
- BUS | Piendamo – Silvia
- Fare: approx. $5.000
Where to stay in Silvia
Viviana offers accommodation in her small house in Silvia. Comfort is basic, but it’s a great opportunity to spend some time with her and her husband, and learn more about Silvia and the Misak culture.
Of course, other more traditional accommodation solutions are also available.
Silvia
Finca
Homestay in Silvia
Double room : $0 to $100.000 COP
This is Viviana’s home where we stayed during our visit of Silvia. 100% recommended if you want to share indigenous Misak culture and Vivian offers cultural tours so… gogogo!
Silvia
Finca
Posada Nakku
Double room : $0 to $100.000 COP
Posada Nakky offers small self-contained apartments in traditional Silvia houses at very reasonable prices! On the garden side, the view of the surrounding mountains is enough for the traveler.
