In the Heart of the Jungle: Rocío Florez's Vision at Gocta Natura
Rocío is the founder of Gocta Natura Reserve in Chachapoyas, a nature reserve with first class lodging. She tells us about her vision and experience in running this beautiful place in the middle of the northern Peruvian jungle, and what she hopes will happen with this region as a tourist destination.
I came with my husband in 2009 to get to know Kuelap, as people still do today. We were lucky to meet a person who made us an itinerary on the first day and took us around, because we had six days, which is a good length of stay, and we got to know everything there is. We went to Karajía, Kuelap, and even Leymebamba, and then we came back and finally entered this area (Gocta) and we fell in love with it from the first day, and that same day we bought a little piece of land. That's how it all started. I was working in Lima, my husband in Chiclayo, but we bought it because we fell in love with the place. Everything that came after that was little by little.
I started coming during my vacations when I was working in Lima and I stayed with a local family, before we had everything we have now. For me, it was the easiest thing to do, because that is what I was dedicated to, doing different projects with families in the communities, from a program for the children of forest rangers that I did hand in hand with the University of Chachapoyas, to a program with Sierra Productiva in southern Peru, trying to improve the family economy. That is how we started. I began to learn about the care of the environment, the subject of species, birds, which was not in my professional scheme, but I learned it, then Gocta Natura came from there, from being in love with the diversity of nature that exists in this place, but little by little we took it in all its power, because we have to take care of it, respect it and reforest it. So it was, step by step, until I made this my home. I used to live in Lima and come here to visit. Now I live here in Gocta and visit Lima.
We do not see ourselves as a hotel, but as a nature reserve with accommodation for families or people from outside Peru who want to experience what is called "slow travel", which is the fact of being and living the place, doing internal activities, nourishing themselves with nature and combining it with visits to all that this destination has to offer, which is the archaeological and historical part of the living culture. We differentiate ourselves in this sense, taking care that it is a very personalized stay, having a close relationship with the guests even before they arrive, for example, knowing what they eat or do not eat and being prepared for it, knowing their names when they arrive and directing them to the cabin that is waiting for them. That's what we like to do because that way we can suggest activities and itineraries that can change from day to day depending on how you feel. If one day you don't feel like leaving Gocta, you can have a picnic in the lower part of the reserve, you can walk to the river, among other local activities that allow us to have this flexibility, and the best thing is that we have the space to do it, since we have six acres and some more that we are reforesting. Basically, it is an invitation to combine your stay between all the wonderful things this destination has to offer and the fact of taking a pause in your life to appreciate and enjoy your experience here.
I cannot say that we are in a tourist "boom" here, because there have been and still are difficulties of access, which, by the way, are being improved, but I would like to emphasize what this exercise of promoting tourism in this region has meant during the last years of the pandemic and even after. We also had the situation that a wall collapsed in Kuelap and now it is being repaired for a year and a half with an archaeologist who has been assigned with a team of people and this is progressing and has allowed us to know that the Chachapoyas culture had a lot to offer. During the year that the site was closed due to construction, we began to learn about the other citadels on the top of the hills and other towns, we found more cliffs with sarcophagi different from those of Karajía, and so the possibility of learning about the additional things that this destination had to offer was expanded. Today, a good stay here is a minimum of four nights, because there is a lot to see and a well-done itinerary allows you to combine a route with different stops that enrich your trip and thus become a more complete and attractive experience, having much more information.
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We make the itineraries for our guests, that is, we work for our passengers and the agencies that hire us. We are not a tour operator open to tourists in general, but specifically to our own, and we like that because what we do is, first of all, to take care of our guests' time and not exhaust it, so that we can combine some activities of a "full day" and when they return home they are not exhausted. On the other hand, we want to extend the level of service we provide to your entire stay, and the fact that we manage our activities allows us to do so. We want to provide a polished service so that there are no setbacks or disappointments.
I would like to speed up the construction/reopening of the airport in Jaén (Cajamarca), but I also very much hope that the airport in Chachapoyas, which we use now, will be strengthened in some aspects. There is a whole committee that supports this possibility. What we want to do is that these improvements allow us, for example, to bring in a longer and bigger plane, or more flights of the planes that we already receive with 70 passengers, so that there can be two flights a day instead of one. Basically, because this is a destination that deserves this attention and what needs to happen is that families of all economic levels come here and enjoy themselves because tourism is for everyone and we are also interested that the towns benefit economically from it.
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I would recommend you to inform yourself before you hire a tourist service about everything that it has to offer, because there is a lot of information, it is a matter of looking for it. Then I would advise you to give your stay in the destination the time it deserves, do not come thinking that you are going to stay two nights, because it will be too short, stay at least four nights and get the most out of your stay with a good itinerary. There are agencies and services in Chachapoyas, as well as hotels throughout the region, from Leymebamba or Pedro Ruiz to Cocachimba, so there is the possibility that families or travelers with different interests and budgets can access and have a well-oriented stay.
Most of my experiences are really memorable. Almost everyone who comes here immediately switches off and something changes in them. They get into a mood that is absolutely full of positive energy. We just had a family of siblings, all elderly, with whom we had deep conversations in the evenings, and they themselves radiated a joy and well-being that you could feel in the atmosphere. This is the greatest satisfaction, because when they leave, they also leave this good and luminous energy that accumulates in the spaces that we share, and at the same time it is very good for the team that works here, because they are somehow infected by this energy. For me, the fact that the people who have passed through here leave so full of joy and gratitude for having enjoyed everything they have experienced so much is the best experience.
For more information, visit its website: Gocta Nature Reserve.