After 3 months of full on fuck all, or maybe that's a touch unfair, let's say 3 months of straight up spending and indulgence, we had arrived in Colombia with the intention of treading water financially for a bit; in other words, work.
We'd organised 10 days at an Eco-Yoga farm in rural southern Colombia (ex-guerrilla territory, slightly scarily), only knowing at that stage that we'd be working for 4 hours a day for our bed and food. The place looked beautiful, and the prospect of daily yoga, no alcohol and only veggie food for 10 days felt like a damn good remedy after boozy Peru.
Our daily structure began by waking up around 7am and doing some self-practice yoga for about an hour. This, for me at least, invariably meant a lot of looking through my legs at what others were doing, but through the afternoon's led classes, I managed to get together a reasonably well flowing display.
Breakfast was down by the river (see above) and generally consisted of oats with toasted nuts, Cinammon, and fresh tropical fruits from on and around the farm, then arepas with a lovely spicy tomato sauce. Having sweet and savoury at breakfast is great, especially when the papaya, pineapple and mango on your oats has been plucked so close to where you're nailing it.
Alice demonstrating the correct tekkers for cane stripping.
Falsto, the Colombian Don heading up all the building work. His current project being the below Cabana.
One of my daily tasks was to dig a drainage ditch and to use the soil to rebuild this walkway with my Danish amigo Anders.
Another day's task, and a bloody fun one I'll add, was to re-sew some netting into the avocado hooking device and monkey up the tree to fetch the ripe avos.
16 no less...
Alice and co peeling the roasted cacao (also grown in the garden) to then be turned into chocolate cake. Left the place before we got to bloody eat it though didn't we!
Who, me? Just milking a cow. One day I milked it straight into my coffee. You heard.
Alice on her 53rd chappati when helping out with lunch one day.
...and the fruits of her labour! Chickpea and lentil burgers with a carrot and mango sauce, rice and salad. We'd generally work until 12, then whoever was helping with lunch would belt out 'Almuerzo' across the farm, to which the 10-12 volunteers would come a-bounding to the table by the river.
After lunch, freshen up, often after a cheeky river drift. The outdoor shower was heavenly.
Then at 3:30pm, we'd have yoga led by either the head honcho Krisna, or another wonderful human, Gopal. The really interesting thing about the yoga here was how much they used the senses to lock you in to focus. This would be through eucalyptus oil on the hands & incense for smell, something called a Tibetan bowl for sound (a trippy as hell ringing sound that fully sends you into la la land), and occasionally a head massage towards the end of the class. I've never properly hit the meditative state yogi's seek at the end of classes, but we did daily here and it really is an other worldly feeling. Alice actually fell asleep during two classes. Not even light sleep, full on mole hole knockout.
Alice and I on dinner duty one evening made an all veg lasagne, layering up aubergine, courgette, spinach, carrots, and ran a spicy tomato sauce throughout. Pretty darn good we thought, and have never cooked for 20 before so that was pretty bueno.
We did get the weekend off, so headed off with our team of 8 to Salento, a beautiful little colonial town high up in the main coffee region of Colombia. We fully got to unleash here, sinning against all that we were ridding ourselves of at the farm, from endless caffeine, to booze and umm, smoking.
We took the tour and walked around a stunning plantation. Colombia has one of the most consistent climates year-round, so they generally get 2 harvests per plant during the year, but can spread out the planned harvest time so that they are plucking every 2 months.
Fresh coffee is plucked, then fermented for 48 hours, then left to dry in the sun for about 6 weeks before the roasty toasty.
Love a banana tree, their absolutely everywhere across Colombia too.
Our little sub-team that we walked down to the plantation with, Tessa and Anders; a glorious pair that we truly hope to host in London, or be hosted in Canada or Denmark!
This is Tejo, a local game whereby you throw rocks at a slanted table of mud that has little triangles of dynamite on that you have to hit to score points. Proper loco game but great fun and amazing to see the distances the locals throw from.
Anders in his happy place.
Gaaaaayyyyyyyy.
What would a post be without a food mention. Arepas (corn pancakes) are definitely the flavour of the country, delicious with some Guacamole and salsa. The main dish of this region though is fresh trout with a patacon (mushed and flatted banana that is deep fried, bloody nice with heaps of chilli).
Back at the farm on Monday, we cycled through our glorious daily routine for another 4 days before saddling up to head to Medellin. Above is a closing shot of the beautiful permanent team that live and work at the farm. These are some of the friendliest, kind hearted and selfless people we have ever met. This stripped back life of theirs does wonders for the mind, something we had a taste of for our 10 days with them, and what we learnt, and experienced, is the key to a less active mind; something Alice and I are both fishing for on this adventure.
That's all for part one of Colombia. Next up, and for the finale of South America, our 2 weeks on the Caribbean coast with Will-I-am Moxham.
Post-post Reflective Rant
We learnt a huge amount from these spiritual beings over our 10 days at the farm. I wrote down some stuff straight after that I wanted to try and remember and consider going forwards. You're going to think you're losing us to Hare Krisna. You're probably right:
I'm starting to see the light with a veggie diet, though I couldn't commit entirely at this stage. I unquestionably feel better after a week of it, but the yoga, lack of constant communication from brands, tranquil water-side environment and physical work, have likely contributed as much. But, stripping back in the way we just have, is an interesting self-experiment to understand what you truly need.
Lots of the spiritual learnings we've taken from these people are that material desires, whether jewellery or the latest gadget, don't bring true long term happiness; just a short term lift that's quickly forgotten and moved on from (usually to the next 'want').
So what does? Three things, so these lovely Krisnas say: health, love and happiness, which for us, we've realised, are unquestionably true.
Our Western, capitalist, consumerist world is pulling our heads in too many directions at once, not to mention the pressures we put on ourselves with must-hit lifecycle milestones and work. What these spiritually in-tune souls do is take the time out to turn their attention inwards. What I mean by that, broadly speaking, is simply taking the time to stop and think, or equally, not think. Easier said than done I know.
Your head needs 'exercise' in the same way your body does. Suppressing thoughts, desires & problems, only exacerbates them (which I know first hand). Taking the time out to acknowledge, and ideally talk to someone about these things, is vital to a stable mind. This may seem a bit rank and weird at first, but everyone feels better for it so you might just settle into it quicker than you think, and ultimately, feel better for it.
As for the 'not think' part of that, it's about clearing your head. For lots of people this is exercise, including me, but more recently, I get this from yoga too. It's no easy task, as I have a bloody active mind (though thankfully future focused as opposed to past-reflective), but yoga is the closest thing that gets me to that clear mind state. The yoga at the farm has been perfectly geared to this, with a gentle build to warm the muscles, to a higher tempo 'workout' section, that then perfectly leads you in to a more tired, meditative state, of which clears the mind, leaving you melted to the floor in the floopiest of states. Next stage, brace yourself, is mantra meditation, something The Beatles swore by in their post-acid era phase. Let's see.
My second point in all this is so un-British it pains me to say it, but it's to actively reflect on, and say thanks for, what you have. Whether this be like a pre-dinner ritual like grace (we had to do this everyday and whilst rank at first, was actually really lovely), or simply chatting with your flat mates/family. You often don't realise how good you've got it until you reflect like this. However you choose to do it, I assure you you'll feel better for doing it.
Finally, and this is what I've learnt from the whole group here, is to do what you love. This seems such an obvious way to live, but if you don't do what you love, you'll dry out. Be a worm farmer (go on Rory!) be a yoga teacher, run a cafe. If you don't like what you do, bin it, and get cracking with something you do.
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