Alma from CASA CHIN offers us her testimony on the current situation. Casa Chin is a guest house in the Val d’Aran in Spain. Aranese house, renovated from the 17th century with sustainable organic architecture, it also offers sauna, massage, yoga, meditation, hiking and medieval heritage tour services, all year round.

How does Covid-19 impact your daily life? How do you handle the situation?

Fear, doubt and hatred are attitudes that I encounter daily. The fear of illness, the fear of death, the fear of the future (uncertainty),
Art and volunteer work make my daily life easier. The projects for the year 2021, new impulses and the support of the people who
follow our work are sources of light that make it easier to see the future.

Have you witnessed acts of solidarity around you?

We live in a small town, Betren, and in a valley in the Pyrenees, Val d’Aran, where 80% of the population relies on tourism. The solidarity between us is reflected in the conspiratorial look, in the question: “How are you?” or “If you need something, tell me.”

On the other hand, the ideas of the friendly companies for the near future or the call to build projects together in the present based on barter, take the mind away from negative and not fruitful thoughts for health and economic life.
Of all, I emphasize that the most important thing for daily life is coffee with companies like ours and exchange, the strategies that we
are going to take.

Do you think that the current situation will have a long-term impact on people’s mindset and ways of doing things?

I believe that everything we experience has the long-term impact. You just have to see the development of technology in recent
months, virtual communication. The protocols of the last few months prevent us from moving from the municipality or province, or
returning home at a certain time and I believe that the limitation of movement awakens the desire to travel, to feel free without
limitations due to the protocol, to walk without a mask, to breathe, to feel different smells, enjoy the textures using your hands, …

I don’t think there will be big changes in the human being since we know very well that we do not learn so easily because of the
things that happen.

What I do believe is that there will be a change in the way of living nature. I want to believe that it will be valued even more for the
mental, physical and emotional health of the human being. And we will be there, with different ways of offering sustainable tourism.

Do you have a specific message to share with the community?

Every crisis wants to teach us something. The pandemic is a crisis that for the first time in the history of humanity affects the entire
planet without exceptions, it also wants to remind us of what we have forgotten: having the other human being. Being sincere and
honest with oneself, knowing how to recognize what we need, knowing how to ask for it and … Building with others is the only way
to get ahead.

Sustainable tourism is “tourism that follows the principles of sustainability, minimizing the impact on the environment and local
culture, while helping to generate income and employment for the local population.”
Let’s go there!