Clara Ximena Ordoñez Clavijo
My story
I am an entrepreneur, a Professional Tour Guide and a lawyer specializing in Constitutional and Parliamentary Law, but above all, I am a traveler.
I have traveled throughout Colombia and to more than 17 countries, discovering cultures, flavors, landscapes, stories and people who have taught me that travel is much more than seeing a new place.
Travel means opening your mind, stepping beyond the familiar, connecting with other people and returning home a little different.
That is why, when I recommend a destination, I draw on more than theory. I draw on what I have lived, walked, tasted and felt.
And today I have a very special recommendation for you:
Visit Guaviare, the gateway to Chiribiquete.
Because if traveling through Colombia and the world has taught me anything, it is that some places surprise you… and some places stay with you.
And Guaviare is one of them.
A story that began in 2018
Since 2018, I have poured my soul into growing Guaviare Soul, a company born from my love for my homeland and for travel. Our purpose has always been to connect Guaviare with the world, and also to bring the world to Guaviare.
Along the way, I have had the opportunity to work in different settings: business, public service, tourism, community spaces, culture and regional projects.
In each of them, I have found a different way to contribute to my department.
As a woman from Guaviare, I had the honor of serving as Secretary of Culture and Tourism for the Department of Guaviare. There I led tourism and cultural promotion efforts and created and developed the strategy “Guaviare, The Treasure of the Amazon”.
This strategy helped position Guaviare as one of Colombia's and the world's most important emerging nature destinations. It also earned our department special recognition from ANATO and Migración Colombia as the emerging destination with the greatest increase in foreign tourist arrivals.
But for me, numbers have never mattered most.
What truly excited me was seeing the world begin to discover what we, the people of Guaviare, have always known:
that our land is extraordinary.
Taking Guaviare to the world
Through the strategy “Guaviare, The Treasure of the Amazon”, we helped our department host major national and international gatherings, including the International Meeting on Amazonian Archaeology, the launch of the Chiribiquete documentary, the ACOTUR travel agencies meeting, the Social Gathering of Hikers, motorcycle gatherings and the ANATO travel agencies business networking event, among other important events.
We also took Guaviare's culture and tourism to 65 national fairs and festivals and two international ones. Our department made the news for its cultural and natural wealth on 12 news and television programs and in 18 newspapers and magazines in Colombia and around the world.
One of the achievements I remember most proudly was the creation of Guaviare's Departmental Council for Regenerative Tourism, because I deeply believe tourism is built together.
My path has also taken me into other areas of public service: I was a member of the Guaviare Departmental Assembly, Legal Secretary for the municipalities of Calamar and Miraflores in Guaviare, and Legal Advisor to various departmental and national organizations.
Although my training as a lawyer has opened many doors, there was one place I always returned to: tourism.
Guaviare Soul: my happy place
In the private sector, I have worked as a Professional Tour Guide and Tourism Product Advisor for different companies. But without a doubt, the roles I love most are those I created myself.
I am the founder and general director of Guaviare Soul, a company that began as a travel agency and hostel and grew over time into the project that now brings together our dreams, experiences and services.
If you ask me what Guaviare Soul means to me, the answer is very simple:
It is happiness.
Because that is exactly our mission:
To bring happiness through travel and events, while connecting destinations, experiences and people.
As director of Guaviare Soul, I have also wanted to highlight something I deeply believe in: the role of women in tourism. That is why our company is made up mostly of talented, hardworking and passionate women who contribute to this story every day.
Creating experiences that leave a mark
Through Guaviare Soul, we have built substantial experience in planning, coordinating and managing logistics for major events, taking responsibility for the entire operation and ensuring every part works together.
We managed logistics for events such as the 2024 and 2025 Yurupary de Oro International Festival, coordinating accommodation, ground and air transportation, catering, transfers, travel schedules, participants and guests, suppliers, operators, teams, stages, sound, artist bookings and local logistical support from start to finish.
Our experience goes beyond delivery on the ground. At Guaviare Soul, we plan every operation in advance, coordinate suppliers and stakeholders, organize schedules, monitor contracted services, resolve unexpected issues and ensure everything runs according to the agreed needs and timelines.
We have also used this management expertise to support the department's participation in the ANATO Tourism Fair in Bogotá in 2024, 2025 and 2026. We coordinated and managed participation, bringing together logistical requirements and ensuring the presence of teams, suppliers, participants and everyone involved.
For us, every event is a management challenge: organizing people, resources, schedules, suppliers and services so that everything happens efficiently and in coordination.
That is one of Guaviare Soul's greatest strengths: we design experiences and have the capacity to manage and bring them to life, taking care of every detail so our clients can focus on what matters most while we make the logistics happen.
What I love most about my work is knowing that behind every trip and event there is also a family, an entrepreneur, a guide, an artisan, a restaurant, a hotel, a community and hundreds of people who make tourism an opportunity for regional development.
And we keep taking Guaviare further
Through our Guaviare Soul Travel Agency, we also promoted the campaign for San José del Guaviare to be nominated as South America's Leading Emerging Tourism Destination at the World Travel Awards, considered among tourism's most important international accolades. Although we were nominated and did not win, we succeeded in putting Guaviare on the map as one of the world's most beautiful nature and culture destinations.
We also arranged and promoted the Department of Guaviare's participation as a special guest in the Kingdom of Sweden, taking our region's tourism and cultural wealth to Europe and making Guaviare the first Colombian nature destination invited as a special guest to the Nordic countries. This fills me with pride, because every time Guaviare crosses a border, a part of us travels too.
Why do I love traveling so much?
Because for me, a trip is never just a trip.
It is the new flavor you try and never forget.
It is the song you hear in another language that makes you dance.
It is the person you meet who changes your perspective.
It is walking down an unfamiliar street and feeling you are discovering something you never knew you needed to know.
It is learning.
It is being surprised.
It is getting a little lost to find yourself again.
It is realizing that the world is so much bigger, more diverse and more beautiful than you imagined.
That is why I love traveling.
And that is why one phrase perfectly captures how I feel:
“Travel is the only thing you buy that makes you richer.”
More Guaviarense than the Guaviare River!
