From 15-18 September, 2012, I accompanied a group of tour operators from Ecuador, the UK and the US who visited Colombia’s Pacific coast in the Chocó region. We had been invited to assess the work of a Colombian NGO, Mano Cambiada (http://nuquipacifico.com). The project is based in the town of Nuquí, which can reached only by air from Medellín (1¼ hours) or Quibdó (about 20 minutes; Quibdó is 8-9 hours by bus from Medellín), or by boat from Buenaventura (18-20 hours). The population of the Chocó region is largely Afro-Colombian. The following is a summary of a presentation to our group by Mano Cambiada and BioRedd+ (www.bioredd.org, the Colombian agency working with Mano Cambiada to implement a grant from USAID) on 17 September 2012. Mano Cambiada has been operating for six years. Its primary aim is to make the people of Chocó proud of what they have and of their culture. For a long time the people on the coast have lived “in paradise” (it is a beautiful part of the country, with tropical forest and mangroves on the shores of the Pacific), but most of the time those people have been complaining about their poor lot. Mano Cambiada...