Casa de Ciclistas and Dulce Amazónica

Guatapé is 700 kilometers from the Colombian Amazon. Casa de Ciclistas closes that distance.

The café co-founded Dulce Amazónica — Colombia’s Amazonian cultural embassy — which maintains active fair-trade relationships with 21 Indigenous communities in the Colombian Amazon. Through that network, Amazonian fruits, food plants, artisan products, and cultural knowledge travel from the jungle to Guatapé, and from Guatapé to visitors from Colombia and around the world.

This is not a fundraising story. It is not a charity campaign. It is a commercial system built on the principle that Indigenous communities have products worth buying, knowledge worth sharing, and sovereignty worth protecting — and that the way to support those things is through genuine trade, not donation.

The ice cream you eat here, the juice made with Amazonian fruit, the artisan goods from the ambassador program — all of it flows through relationships built carefully, over years, with communities that are rarely connected to the global marketplace in any form.

What the Partnership Means

21 Communities

Dulce Amazónica works with 21 Indigenous communities from across the Colombian Amazon. Each community brings different products: fruits, botanicals, artisan crafts, and cultural knowledge. Not a single supplier relationship — an ongoing set of partnerships, each maintained on the community’s terms.

The Ambassador Program

Each month, an Indigenous ambassador from one of the partner communities comes to Guatapé. They bring artisan products — handmade goods, traditional crafts, cultural objects — and facilitate direct encounters: conversations, Q&A, and sessions for visitors who want to understand their community, their territory, and their life.

Fair Trade, Not Charity

The communities that work with Dulce Amazónica are paid for what they produce. Not subsidized. Not supported through donor funding. Paid as suppliers and producers for goods and knowledge that have genuine value. That distinction matters: charity creates dependency, trade creates sovereignty.

Amazonian Ice Cream

The most visible product of the network. Ice cream made from Amazonian fruits — copoazú, arazá, borojo, chontaduro — sourced directly from partner communities. Each flavor is a product of agricultural knowledge and ecosystem relationships developed over generations.

The Food System

Beyond ice cream: Amazonian fruits appear in juices and smoothies at the café. The ingredients that arrive from the Amazon represent a food system the outside world barely knows exists — and that is under serious ecological and political pressure.

Why This Matters

The Colombian Amazon is under pressure. Deforestation, displacement, and extraction threaten both the ecosystem and the communities that have lived within it for thousands of years. One of the most effective ways to support the long-term survival of those communities is to ensure they have economic options — legitimate, fair, and valued — that don’t require them to abandon their land or their way of life.

Dulce Amazónica is not the solution to that problem. But it is a concrete contribution to the idea that what these communities produce has value, that they are capable producers and cultural ambassadors, and that the world beyond the jungle benefits from knowing them.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Dulce Amazónica?

Colombia’s Amazonian cultural embassy, co-founded by Casa de Ciclistas. It works with 21 Indigenous communities in the Colombian Amazon through fair-trade relationships — sourcing food products, facilitating cultural exchanges, and representing communities through an ambassador program in Guatapé.

Is this a charity?

No. Dulce Amazónica operates on a fair-trade commercial model. Communities sell products at agreed prices. No donations, no charity language — the relationship is trade, with the community as producer and rights-holder.

What communities are involved?

21 Indigenous communities from across the Colombian Amazon. Each brings different products and participates in different ways. The ambassador program rotates monthly.

How can I support the communities when I visit?

Buy the ice cream. Try the Amazonian fruit juices. If there’s an ambassador visit during your stay, attend and buy what appeals to you. The most valuable thing you can do is engage as a customer, not a donor.

What is the ambassador program?

Each month, an Indigenous ambassador comes to Guatapé with artisan goods for sale and facilitates conversations about their community. A direct encounter — not mediated for tourist comfort, but a real introduction.

Does my meal at Casa de Ciclistas directly support the communities?

Some ingredients — particularly Amazonian fruits and ice cream flavors — are sourced directly from partner communities who are paid for them. The team can tell you which items have direct Amazon sourcing.

Can I learn more before I visit?

Yes. Ask the team at Casa de Ciclistas which community’s ambassador is currently in residence and how to engage further.

Come to Guatapé. Meet the Amazon.

Casa de Ciclistas is open every day except Tuesday from 7:30am. The ice cream is on the menu. The ambassador may be in residence. The team can answer any question you have. Come in, eat something, and learn something you didn’t know before. Calle 32 #28-91, Guatapé, Antioquia.