In Colombia’s Eastern Cordillera, the farming families of San Juanito and El Calvario have found an innovative solution to overcome geographical limitations and improve their quality of life: cableways. These are aerial transport systems built and operated by the inhabitants themselves, under the guidance of endogenous engineers such as Juan Domingo García. Thanks to this model, a significant transformation has been achieved, drastically reducing transportation times for goods and agricultural products and eliminating the need to build expensive roads.
In addition to facilitating access to hard-to-reach agricultural areas, the cableways also promote cooperation among community members and contribute to environmental conservation. The Alto Guatiquía experience demonstrates how technological innovation, combined with local knowledge and community participation, can create sustainable solutions to complex challenges.
Alto Guatiquía farmer´s cableways
Cableways, small aerial transport systems, are a key tool for farmers in the region. These systems not only help to avoid the proliferation of small roads that are now unnecessary, but also fulfill the dream of many farmers: to be able to access and productively use farms and plots of land that were virtually inaccessible due to difficult or non-existent road access.
In the last five years, the number of cableways in the region has increased significantly, not only because of their effectiveness, but also because of what they avoid and how affordable they are to build and operate. Moreover, because they are owned by the farmers themselves, these systems are carefully maintained, especially when they are the result of community efforts.
San Juanito and El Calvario are the two main towns of the basin, whose inhabitants are dedicated to mountain agriculture, and over time many of their forests have been converted into pastures for cattle ranching, an activity that is now in decline. About 17 years ago, the state managed to open a small road that connects the two populations, allowing them to travel up the basin through the Chingaza páramo to Fómeque, the original village of some of the families that colonized the area. This road, which descends through the basin, connects to the main Villavicencio-Bogotá highway.
Lots of movement
The eastern Andean mountain range, in the midst of its geological youth, is characterized by frequent earthquakes and landslides, which, together with torrential rains, have always affected land transportation. In fact, San Juanito had a small airstrip for small planes before the road was opened. This relative isolation forced the peasant families who settled in the region about 100 years ago to preserve certain cultural forms and to develop a subsistence agriculture based on native products, taking advantage of the variety of thermal soils that can be covered in a few hours on foot or on horseback.
The farmer´s cableway is based on a simple but ingenious system: a steel cable stretched between two wooden, metal or concrete posts and firmly anchored to weights buried at the ends. A movable pulley is attached to the cable and baskets, cages, platforms and even tanks are suspended from it. A much thinner and more flexible cable, which holds the pulley, is wound and unwound using a motor and brake, allowing the load to be raised or lowered from the higher end. The basic system consists of one mast at the top and another at the bottom, although it can also be used between two points at the same height, as in the case of crossing rivers, cliffs or ravines.
Local wit
What do you think? Do you give enough room to local ingenuity and creativity, or are you quick to rely on the “seemingly” easier technological solutions?
Flying cargo and farmer engineering
A few years ago, bean cultivation experienced a boom that required large quantities of stakes, poles, ropes, and wires through which the plants climb and hang to grow and bear their precious fruit. The movement of all these materials was a considerable effort, previously carried out by mules and horses to reach the plantations. Thanks to cableways, however, this process has been greatly simplified. Today, the crops are not only limited to beans; tomatoes, sugarcane, coffee, corn and sago can also be found in places that were previously inaccessible. It is impressive to see bundles of corn, bundles of sugar cane, sacks of fertilizer and boxes of freshly made panela (processed sugarcane) “flying”. It is even more surprising to know that many young farmers have decided to stay in the countryside, taking advantage of the cableways to realize what once seemed like a dream: farming in areas where it was unthinkable before. This has not only improved their quality of life, but has also prevented the deforestation of forests, which are now preserved without the threat of expanding the agricultural frontier.
The “barefoot engineer,” as he is known, shares a workshop with one of his sons, who decided to stay in the countryside instead of migrating to the city. This workshop, located far from the town of San Juanito, produces not only the elements for the cableways, but also bean and coffee shellers, sago grinders, mills and micro hydroelectric plants, among other things. In addition, Juan Domingo is an active leader in the region, promoting and practicing agroecology, community work and peasant higher education.
The first cableway
The history of cableways in the region dates back to the 1930s and 1940s, when residents began to use several-meter-long cables to cross the turbulent waters of the river, especially when the river was rising or when part of the bridle path collapsed. However, in the late 1990s, the Alto Guatiquía Program of the Villavicencio Regional Government, in collaboration with German cooperation, discussed the possibility of installing a cableway between the villages of San Francisco and San Luis de Laderas, in the municipality of El Calvario. A study was carried out and the idea was disseminated among the inhabitants of these villages, but the proposal went beyond this sector and spread throughout the basin.
Eventually, a cableway was built that gave access to a place called El Hoyón, whose name says it all (deep pit). At 120 meters above sea level, two families survived in El Hoyón, producing some panela (processed sugarcane) , but extracting the product was a heroic task: The transfer meant two hours on the back of a mule, on an unstable, steep, horseshoe-shaped road, without rest, always going up. Today, thanks to the cableway, 100 kilos of panela can be transported in 5 minutes and seven families live in El Hoyón. The groceries and all the necessary supplies are brought down by the cable, while the product from the two sugar cane mills goes up just as fast.
Long distances
Sustainable Mobility
Do you think it is possible to prioritize transportation and human mobility solutions that are more sustainable and that favor environmental preservation? What steps do you think should be taken to make this a reality?
In San Juanito, there are currently 19 cables in operation, one of which is mobile or “portable” and serves three farms. This portable system is installed by carrying the poles and counterweights, tensioning the cable and attaching the necessary accessories to raise and lower the loads during the planting and harvesting seasons. In addition, four cables are under construction and ten are in the design phase. In El Calvario, a similar number of cables are operational, many of them installed by Juan Domingo’s “students”. This phenomenon is causing a small revolution, more aerial than terrestrial.
The revolutionary
The cost of building one kilometer of roadway, not including additional infrastructure works such as drainage, culverts and ditches, would be sufficient to install about 40 cableways with an average length of about 200 meters. Taking into account these additional works, the number of cableways could reach 90. This model, promoted by the Fundación Cosmopolitana and Campus Universitas with the support of Misereor, is characterized by low environmental impact, high community participation and the involvement of young farmers with a vision for the future as well as old farmers proud of their tradition.
Peasant Pride
: How do you think the inhabitants of the area see the cableways: as an external technological solution or as a conquest achieved through imagination and local recursion? The identity of the territory, and with it the culture, is built on what is lived in the place.
Advantages from all points of view
Cableways offer a number of notable advantages. They provide access to difficult and even inaccessible terrain, connecting communities with minimal environmental impact. They are highly energy efficient, help reduce congestion on roadways, and operate with low accident rates and constant speed. In addition, they generate reduced operating costs, transport goods and products without the typical jolts of unpaved roads, and are a visual attraction that promotes tourism.
Of course, there are some drawbacks. These include limited capacity and adaptability for certain types of cargo, limited available routes, the need for specialized maintenance, and dependence on imported materials such as cables.
What other tips do you have for promoting pioneering innovation at the local level? Leave us a message on our social networks to share with the community !
Messages to the Future
1
Local engineering and technology adaptation are key to solving specific challenges. Rather than seeing technology as an obstacle or a headache, Juan Domingo Garcia and other local leaders have shown that, when properly adapted, it can provide practical and effective solutions. Their ingenuity and creativity have allowed them to develop innovative transportation alternatives in hard-to-reach areas.
2
Cableways offer a more sustainable alternative to road construction, as they have a much lower environmental impact and contribute to the conservation of forests and other fragile ecosystems. By avoiding deforestation and soil erosion, they promote biodiversity conservation and facilitate ecological regeneration.
3
Although the local initiative was fundamental, the support of the state (through the Alto Guatiquía Program, the Governor’s Office of Meta, and the municipalities of San Juanito and El Calvario) and of non-governmental organizations (such as the Fundación Cosmopolitana, Campus Universitas, and the cooperation of Misereor, Germany) has been crucial in making the cableways a fundamental part of the rural identity of the region.
The text was elaborated based on conversations with Juan Domingo Garcia, Luís and Ángel Machado from Campus Universitas in San Juanito, Meta in Colombia. Both Campus Universitas and Fundación Cosmopolitana, both collectivities advising and accompanying the cableway issue, receive support from Misereor-Germany. The visits in November 2024 were made by Mauricio Gnecco (main facilitator of Campus Universitas -Sistema de Educación Superior Campesina en proceso de construcción-) and Jorge Krekeler (coordinator of the Almanac of the Future – facilitator of Misereor on behalf of Agiamondo), taking advantage of the participation in an event of Campus Universitas in San Juanito. We would like to thank each of the people interviewed as well as the circle of people participating in the Campus Universitas event in San Juanito for their time and interest in our curiosity, and for their warm welcome of the Almanac of the Future. A special thanks to Mauricio for teaming up and dreaming together.
Authors:
- Jorge Krekeler | jorge.krekeler@posteo.de
- Mauricio Gnecco | mjgnecco@gmail.com
Design:
- Gabriela Avendaño
Photos:
- Mauricio Gnecco
- Sebastián Ayala
- Juan Domingo García
- Jorge Krekeler
Contact information regarding the documented experience:
- Juan Domingo García
- Correo: judogaro@gmail.com
- WhatsApp: +57 3124889’94
- Luis Machado
- WhatsApp: +57 3027821886
Edition:
july 2025
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