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Closing 2018: Chocolatada in San Pedro de Tipishca

We are ending this year, 2018, and we couldn’t have wished for a better way to do it.

This year we decided to do our first “Chocolatada”, in San Pedro de Tipishca, and we are as happy as human beings can be when they feel they have done the right thing.

Let’s backtrack a little bit so you can understand this story better.

The story

Wolfers, one of the co-founders of Amazon Experience, was born and raised in this small town (population: around 300-400 people) alongside the Marañon river, located three hours upriver by motorboat from Nauta. He lived there with his family until he was 16 years old. Then the whole family departed from San Pedro and went to live in Nauta, looking for better opportunities.

After Wolfers completed his studies to be a tourist guide, moved to Iquitos looking for a job, worked for many tourism agencies learning and perfecting his craft he decided it was time to start his own tourism agency, doing things in a different way… a better way.

Fast forward some years and Amazon Experience is now established in its niche, so the time had come for him to do what he always had in the back of his mind: Come back to San Pedro de Tipishca and share with his former neighbors.

Here is Wolfers (on the left). Wondering what’s in the big pots? Keep reading!

What is a Chocolatada?

The term “chocolatada” is a regional one, and it’s used to describe celebrations done near Christmas time where kids (and grown-ups too) are given hot chocolate along with “Panetón” (from the Italian Panettone, a kind of sweet bread).

Backstage: Panetones with added butter being delivered at speed of light

But a chocolatada is more than that!

It’s an occasion for community gatherings, bonding, and sharing. It is also a lot of fun when it involves sports, games, art, and music.

We partnered up with our talented friend Kasy, who is pushing the Amazonian Pop Art movement, so kids could saw a live canvas painting and participate in a “spontaneous art” workshop. The response from everyone involved was overwhelming, thanks to the little artists!

Kasy dropping some paint for the kids to play in the spontaneous art workshop

We were very happy to see the community of San Pedro enjoying and participating in the soccer and volleyball championships organized. Congratulations to the winners!

Volleyball championship under the sun. What a match!

For us is very important to help foster the development and creativity of boys and girls so we thought it was important to share with them not only toys but notebooks for them to write and draw on, pencils, erasers (because everyone can make a mistake, right?) and puzzles.

We share this because we want to encourage people and other organizations to keep this in mind when this kind of activities are done. We believe a piece of paper and a pen or some paint in his fingers are tools for expression and could have a great impact on them. Call us idealistic if you might, time will tell.

The opportunity to share with the people, boys and girls from San Pedro de Tipishca was amazing and we are very grateful for this.

Special thanks to the local authorities, the people from San Pedro that helped us with the logistics and to the IPAE students of business administration that volunteered to help us. We are also grateful for Wolfers’ family that joined us during this trip and Kasy, that made kids laugh, create and enjoy.