Thus, silly, we are already playing the last hours of 2023. A year loaded with experiences, learning and milestones, but I am not going to tell you, nor will we tell you now (Spoiler Alert! It will arrive soon 😉 )

These that I am writing here, are my last words of 2023 and I will invest in talking about a project that we have recently launched, that we are passionate about and to which we see a lot of future.

A few weeks ago we ended with the first edition of remote villages University of La Laguna - Garachico (which, for abbreviation, we have affectionately called the PR Ull - Garachico ). The project is a new concept of experience, which we have launched together with this university, through which university students help solve challenges in rural territories.

We extend our frame, giving more sense, if possible, to our mission and our purpose.

We want to reactivate rural environments, empowering local entrepreneurs and promoting conscious tourism.

As I said above, today I want to invest these words by having a luxury detail what we live in this picturesque municipality of the island of Tenerife.

Betting on young talent

Before starting at the location of the place, let me present you to the authentic protagonists of this story. And those are not other than the 10 university students who joined to be part of this experience from different university faculties:

• Omayra Herrera Palma, of the degree in law.

• Kevin Álvarez Méndez of Degree in Art History.

• Eros López Suárez of the degree of geography and territory management.

• Mar Pérez García del Grade in Philosophy.

• Gabriel Acosta Jiménez of Grade in Spanish, Language and Literature.

• María Samara Ascanio Castro of the Master in Regional Development.

• Gara María Rodríguez Luis del Grade in Sociology.

• Izan Izquierdo Moreno of the degree in Francophone studies.

• Sara Rodríguez Socas of the degree in Philosophy.

• Lucas Romero Borrajero of the Degree in Environmental Sciences.

But, this is not here, since this young talent wanting to add and contribute, and that came from the University of La Laguna, also joined young talent on our part. Yes, and for this experience we have Ane Kortaberria (student of the Leinn grade who is doing her PFG practices with us) and Ariana Da Rosa (also a student of the Leinn grade and collaborator of our project) to be part of the team of villages Remote

Now, seeing it with perspective, we can feel completely proud of the result achieved, especially since the average age between participants and our team (well, removing Elsa already me) does not exceed 22 years.

Young talent, mentorized by young talent. Another step within the curriculum we are building.

Garachico, a town with history and local entrepreneurship

Now, we can reach the location, to the place where everything happened, the Northern Municipality of Garachico .

To put yourself in a situation, if you are not from Tenerife or the Canary Islands (and despite the fact that Garachico is a municipality well known for being recognized as one of the most beautiful peoples in Spain) I place you a little.

The municipality of Garachico is located in the northwest of the island of Tenerife, framed within an area called 'Baja Isla' (together with the municipalities of Los Silos and Buenavista del Norte) and extends from the coast to an approximate height of 2200 meters (the area of ​​black sands) has an approximate population of 5000 inhabitants today.

Once the place is placed in context, I can already tell you more comfort what happened there during the 5 days that we lived our experience.

PR Ull - Garachico 2023

PR Ull - Garachico 2023 experience took place between November 29 and December 3 , 5 days in which we could work, connect, develop, learn and learn a lot.

The 'Core' of the same consisted of providing a solution to three challenges previously identified in the territory, based on the question: how to generate a more sustainable tourist offer in the municipality of Garachico?

The three main challenges that the students had to face were the following:

• Integrate the neighborhoods of the upper area of ​​the municipality with the historic center.

• Promote well -being and better tourism interaction that visits the municipality with the local population.

• Help control the flow of visitors thus avoiding the supersaturation of the historic center.

To face these problems and be able to find possible solutions to them, we embark on a work process called Design Thinking, a methodology that helps project and solve problems using 5 fundamental steps:

1. Empathize (with the territory, in this case)

2. Define (the problem or challenge we are going to face)

3. Idear (get ideas and define a value proposition on which we are going to work to achieve a solution)

4. Prototipar (propose a prototype of the solution we are going to raise)

5. Communicate (expose in public the solution we propose)

With all this moderately clear (all the students who participated faced this work process for the first time) we got down to work, building three teams that began to row together in order to propose the best possible solution. This is how they arose: with height (the team composed of Lucas, Mar and Gara), black sands (composed of Samara, Eros, Sara and Izan) and local garachico (composed of Omayra, Kevin and Gabriel)

The truth is that although everything looks very simple here, the process entails a lot With the residents of Garachico the advances they were getting.

But the figure of the students was not the only fundamental in this whole process, since we also have 4 local entrepreneurship projects that helped us to know much better the problems of the territory.

Local entrepreneurs, authentic architects of change

If you have been still, you know that in all our experiences we have local entrepreneurs. People who have opted to undertake from their territories, contributing direct value to them.

In the case of PR Ull - Garachico we could have four luxury projects:

1. Garachico Routes , Sonia Francisco project , offered us an activity through which we discovered the history of this municipality, from its formation, to the main enclaves of the same located in its historical case. It was an incredible opportunity to place us all and know more depth the idiosyncrasy of the place.

2. The second project was a two by one, since we could enjoy two Garachico businesses managed by the same family: Omar Páez and his mother Olimpia . The first of the businesses was the Olympia desktop , a boutique coffee in which they sell local products from the 'Baja Isla' area, where we could taste a different drink: the meristem (a liquor made with the pseudo stem of La Platanera) The second of the businesses, more linked to Omar's entrepreneurship, was the Beast Marina . It was brutal to know all the products that make there with their marine puddle and fresh fish from local fishermen.

3. Where we are going today , it was the third entrepreneurial project we met, led by Isaac Hernández. With Isaac we could enjoy a visit to the Black Arenas volcano (also known as a Trevejos volcano) a very important element in the history of Garachico and a sensational place to enjoy its paths.

4. The last local entrepreneurship project we met was Finca Las Pérez , confused by Sara and Jonay . We met them at the Cultural Center of La Montañeta to know their entrepreneurial history and end up castering the rich honey they produce.

During these visits, students could also take the opportunity to ask them all kinds of questions, about their business or the problems of the municipality, as well as contrast the solutions they were working on.

I take advantage of here, to give thanks to Sonia, Omar, Olimpia, Isaac, Sara and Jonay for all the attention they paid to us.

Impact solutions

As I began to describe you above, the idea of ​​this experience was not only to enjoy the territory, but ended with a presentation of the solutions raised by the students.

They had the opportunity to communicate these solutions on Sunday 3 in the morning, in front of the rector of the University of La Laguna, Francisco Javier García Rodríguez , the Director of Secretariat of Practices and Employability of the Vice -Rectorate of Students, Inés Ruiz , and by the City Council , the mayor of Garachico, José Heriberto González Rodríguez , the Councilor for Social Welfare, Education, Equality, Diversity, Youth and Childhood, María Candelaria Pérez González and the Councilor for Parties and Culture, Andrés David Hernández Méndez .

The 3 solutions raised were the following:

• Black sands, helping control the flow of visitors thus avoiding the supersaturation of the historic center: within this challenge the concept of a mobile application that helps to control the traffic and parking flow that reaches the historic center of Garachico was worked and developed , allowing its users to reserve, and pay, a place previously and with discounts for those people who come to cultural activities of the municipality.

• With height, integrate the neighborhoods of the municipality with the historic center: within this challenge the concept of a social activity was worked and developed to integrate the people who live in the historic center with those who live in neighborhoods of The high areas of the municipality of Garachico (for example, La Montañeta) This activity would include educational paths (explaining traditions of the area that is visited) and a community meal, in the That all the residents of the municipality can meet, speak calmly and connect between them.

• Local garachico, favoring well -being and better tourism interaction that visits the municipality with the local population: within this challenge the concept of a virtual map with a network of posters with incorporation of QR codes through which In different points of the Garachico helmet you can view videos explaining emblematic sites by local people. The information to access these points would be distributed by the municipality (including the tourist information point, currently closed to the public), in order to be accessible to all people who visit the historic center.

Without a doubt, a work by all of them to prepare and conceptualize everything in just 4 days.

Learning and next steps

All this experience, as we always share, has meant learning in every way.

For us it has been the first opportunity to work with young university talent and learn with them.

For students it has been an opportunity to work in a real environment, facing real challenges of a territory and presenting a solution to them in public.

I do not know exactly what will be the next steps we will take, but I know that we feel completely proud to close the year 2023 with this experience, which, honestly, I hope it is the first of many.

For my part, I say goodbye to these words of 2023 and I hope to continue contributing everything we do from pueblos remotos throughout 2024.

Happy parties! 🥂 And we read the return 👋🏼

Photographs by Fonsi Martín ( www.fonsimortin.com )