My first work away experience

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After being told about work away we decided to try it out! So after researching various places, we came across a Yoga farm. For those of you who don't know workaway is a website where people advertise for travellers to come and work at their hostels/farms/restaurants in return for accommodation and possibly food. There are so many different experiences from working in the Amazon to a ski resort. Well worth a look.

On arrival to our yoga farm we weren't quite expecting what we saw. On the website it says that it is a quiet farm which offers many daily yoga seasons, with opportunities for cooking classes and Spanish. It also says the work involves cooking and working at the school. So on arrival we rocked up as it was turning dark, the local Colombians looked at us like they had no idea what we were doing there. They didn't even know we were coming?! They showed us to our hut, which as you can see in the photos is pretty nice. Then rushed us to dinner. Now at dinner we had to sit on the floor in a circle, we then said a hare krisna prayer which was then followed by eating vegetables with our hands. Ok I thought new experiences are great, whilst being eaten alive by mosquitos. I must have counted around 15 mosquito bites in one night!! Things just didn't seem what we were expecting.

So after discussing with Matt that I wanted to leave by the weekend. We got up the next morning. Breakfast was served at 8am consisting of granola, fruit and plantains. The farm was a vegetarian and vegan place, which I was quite excited about after eating so much meat!! After breakfast they asked what jobs we would like to do, my job involved washing dishes.........The water had decided to stop so washing dishes involved getting water from the local river and washing them. After I picked some beans from the tree. My work was complete in an hour and a half. After lunch I asked for some internet or the nearest internet place, I found out it was 45 minutes away WHAT?! How could I survive without internet...

AT the farm were other volunteers. Naomi and Marsha from England, Caitlin, Missy and Skylar from US and Moude from Canada. On the first day the two British girls explained that they had been violently sick from the food at the farm. Great I thought, just after getting better.

SO the week continued and what I can say is it got so much better. I really started to enjoy the place. On Thursday we worked at the local school. This school was a very basic village school. On arrival the kids were hanging off the side of the gates with excitement to see us. We were there to teach English. Without any plans I went for the good old learning the body followed by head, shoulders, knees and toes. The kids seemed to enjoy this amongst hitting each other and crying! The kids were quite wild but nothing like in Thailand! At the farm were two dogs, well one that belonged to the farm Sparky a Dalmatian (loved him) and Soy well we called her soya bean. Sparky was not liked in the local area as he had eaten 50 chickens and killed a cat. Clearly got fed up of being a vegetarian?! On arrival at the school the school cook explained that it was actually her cat he killed ooppsss!! Soya bean was a stray I think who came for breakfast every morning. Both dogs came to school with us. The night before we had felt sorry for Sparky as he had not been fed (no leftovers) so we gave him some bread rolls that we had left over, well 4. I know dogs shouldn't have these but we couldn't let him starve right?! The following morning these obviously reacted with his belly. Yes Sparky what a great behaviour management tactic - Sparky ponged the whole room. I couldn't help but laugh!! So yes the school turned out to be an experience and the kids really loved our visit.

The farm we stayed at was surrounded by green mountains, a lake and very peaceful. It was very beautiful. In the local area there is nothing but like two shops and by shops I mean peoples houses selling a few things, a school and some houses. ALso around the farm were sugar cane crops. For the locals this is the work for them. To make a living they work in the sugar cane fields all day and all night, with a 3 hour break to sleep. They work one week and then take one week off. You wouldn't want to know what they earn, its sad. But hey they need to earn a living. However the sugar cane work is actually illegal and causes a lot of harm to the environment. The people on the local farm did not agree with this but they have to live surrounded by it.

Cooking was one of our jobs at the farm. Thursday night was mine and Matts first day to cook, fortunately we had others who chipped in that night too. Because if there's one thing I've realised....I cant cook! I really cant cook especially vegetarian. This is where I need juice plus and internet for inspiration. What do you make with broccoli, cauliflour, broccoli, cauliflour. Anyway we came up with some sort of curry and the others put together some lovely bits. So it was ok. However after that, the meals we cooked got worse, I'm pretty sure one person threw it in the bin :S. So yes I have decided I need to learn to cook without meat or facebook.

At the weekend a group of us decided to take a visit to Salento. This is a village two hours away from the farm in the coffee region. On arrival to Solento our new friend Maud (sorry spelling her name wrong all the time..) explained she had left her bag on the bus. In this bag she had her passport, all her money and cards and some creams. After frantically searching the small area we went to the bus garage. Guess what someone handed it in with everything in it! How many places does that happen in?! So in celebration we went out to eat. We came across a place called Brunch. An American run place, after eating some well we just had to treat ourselves. After a giant burger and brownie, I played cards against humanity for the first time! How have I not played this before?! Salento is home to Valle de caucora. Here you can see the tallest palm trees in the world. Due to still not having much energy we decided not to do a long hike but to take a nice stroll around the area. It was beautiful with waterfalls, rivers and rolling green hills. The palm trees were spectacular. The weather was pretty cloudy, but don't be fooled. After returning on our jeep my face felt pretty hot. I looked in the mirror.....my face was the colour of a tomato! I'm not even joking! But where was the sun, how did this happen?! As the day continued my face became redder and redder, I was burnt so bad. This had never happened and when you are travelling without makeup you just have to reveal the tomato look. Anyway this face of mine was red for a number of days, I had many stares and many questions. It then peeled pretty bad. So yes in altitude wear suncream even if its cloudy 😉!! Salento is also home to brilliant coffee so we tried lots of this. I also tried a traditional meal, Bandeja paisa is the name. This consists of avocado, rice, fried egg, beans, chorizo, plantain and arepa. It was actually pretty tasty. We really had a great weekend with great friends.

The next week on the farm was really enjoyable, I washed a lot of dishes but was told I was good at it. So I guess we all have some skills. We also visited the school again. This time a group of Colombians took the lesson. They dressed as clowns and played lots of games with the children. It was a lot of fun and of course the dogs came again. I also picked some lemons and well just chilled iin the . I know its meant to be work but actually the work was only 2 hours maximum a day and it was so relaxed. We did have to pay a fee for our stay, so if you are doing workaway always check this.

The people at the farm were Colombians who followed Hare Krishna. So what this meant was everyday there were ceremonies with music and prayers, a lot of them ate with hands, food being cooked is not allowed to be tasted, no food was allowed to be eaten in the kitchen, vegetarian and vegan, no onions or garlic and all food had to be blessed. It was interesting to learn about a new belief. Also daily we had a yoga session with a guy called Gopal. I cant remember exactly what type of yoga this was but it was very relaxing and most sessions were followed by a back, neck and head massage. All the people working at the farm work for free as part of their hare Krishna journey. They were all very friendly and welcoming people and even with our lack of Spanish we managed to communicate with them.

As I mentioned before, the farm was full of bugs. On arrival they told us there was a problem with cockroaches there....yuck! Fortunately in our room we had no cockroaches the whole time. But one night I really needed the toilet, so with my head torch I found my way. As I walked in a cockroach fell on my head, then around me I saw one on the toilet paper, some in the sink and shower. I can handle bugs but cockroaches the size of mice no way!! I couldn't wait to get out of that, lets just say I didn't go again at night. I found a way with a bottle, don't ask haha!

During our time volunteering we worked with some great volunteers. They really made the 11 day experience great fun. Another two people we met was a girl called Mariam from Belgium who did make me laugh and a guy from Denmark whose name I can never get right, Magnus, Agnus, Maxwell. This may be due to the fact when he arrived the young 17 year old on the farm shouted that Justin Bieber had arrived. This poor guy said he hadn't been called that in 4 years and then middle of nowhere in Colombia this happens....SO as you can imagine the whole week he had Justin Bieber shouted at him and baby, baby, baby oh! He definitely didn't look like Bieber. Just had blonde hair?!

SO yes at the end of the 11 days (including Salento) we were actually quite sad to say goodbye to all the new friends we had made and the memories. We really enjoyed our time in the end, even with the mosquitos, cockroaches, we didn't have to eat with our hands again. Matt had his hair cut and currently looks like a Colombian chicken, we learnt some new Spanish and also about the Hare Krishna traditions. So all in all a valuable experience. It also turned out that the reason the place wasn't quite we were expecting is due to a change of hands. The owner left a few months ago to get married and moved to Chilli, so it's under a new team and they are doing their best. Never judge a place straight away always give it time. Now it's time to head to the salsa capital of Colombia - Cali.

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