For the first time on my travels, I didn’t complete a volunteering opportunity I had started and committed to. Still, that aside, I had an awesome time and kept up a habit of experiencing new things – I had my first beer on tap in Colombia (this meant a lot), did some religious ritual with indigenous people from Minca, saw my best ever sunset, did a cacao farm tour (including maintaining my femininity by wearing a chocolate face mask), and slept in a hammock for the first time.
So in previous (and much longer) blog posts, I’ve listed high and low points about the place I’ve experienced. This time I only have one low point, and arguably it wasn’t even low, more a lesson learned – If you’re disappointed by this news, stay tuned for the next post as I have definitely screwed up a few times between then and writing this; including the reason it’s taken so long to write this post…
If you read my post on Guatape, I mentioned I thought I had found the experience which could blow the rest out of the water. Well, as it turns out, I was a little wrong, not for the first time of course. I didn’t get fired exactly, it wasn’t all my fault… lets say it was a mutual decision. Nah, honestly, I screwed up a tad…
As my Bogota volunteering plans were called off by the volunteering host, I was fairly desperate to find a last minute volunteering opportunity and may have over-sold myself somewhat (kind of like all interviews I’ve ever attended and dates I’ve been on).
I found an opportunity working for three weeks in a hostel up in the secluded area of the Sierra Nevada, an isolated mountain range that runs through Colombia. The hostel wanted expertise in website development. I thought to myself, I’ve used WordPress and I’m particularly confident in using Squarespace – what’s the worst that could happen? So I applied, bigging up my skills – and was accepted.
When I arrived and was briefed on the work, I found out the hostel had already chosen a template on WordPress. Great, I’ve used WordPress to create my blog, they already know what they want, this will be a breeze. When I started working on the site, however, I realised there were two completely different versions of WordPress:
1. WordPress.com – the platform this blog is based on, and;
2. WordPress.org – as it turns out, a completely separate and much more functional, more complicated platform.
Safe to say I struggled somewhat on the first days work. So, that evening, I visit Amazon to see what e-books I can buy to help me learn. Having read a short guide on WordPress basics and drank a “little” more than the recommended daily allowance, the next day I’m better, but still pretty slow. To say 28% of the internet is powered on WordPress, I expected it to be more intuitive. Still, I’ve worked and studied in technology for the last 8 years or so, I can handle it.
What I discovered however, was that I’d made a silly decision. Why was I spending my days indoors behind a computer screen, when, that’s exactly what I was doing back at home, and one of the reasons I wanted a change. I don’t know why it took so long for me to realise this.
Now, there were some other reasons behind my struggles (like I said, not all my fault…). For one, internet access is not exactly fibre speed when you’re a few thousand feet up in the Sierra Navada. The hostel I was working from actually had no guest Wi-Fi, the staff Wi-Fi they had was that bad that they couldn’t extend it out to customers. So, I couldn’t actually work at the hostel.
After a few days, the owner suggested I move to another hostel a few miles away. I agreed as it would enable me to work as well as see somewhere new. Turns out the Wi-Fi wasn’t much better there either. So, for the next two days, me and the hostel owner walked 45 mins into Minca. The walk there was fine, all downhill. The walk back however, not so easy, but I was happy I was getting exercise.
All of this, plus my lack of skills in WordPress and realisation that I wasn’t doing what I came out here to do, led to me being honest, perhaps too honest, with the hostel owner one morning. To be fair, she understood my point of view. I’m not a big fan of walking away from work commitments, so I suggested we give it a few more days.
When she asked If I was 100% committed to doing a series of bar shifts six days from then, I had to decline. Despite wanting to experience working behind a bar, I had no idea how I would feel a day or two from now, let alone six. We decided it was best to call it a day and within an hour, I left the hostel with no idea where I’d be later that night. It worked out fine of course, it usually does. I feel as though it was the best decision. I’ve done a ton of things since then, which I’ll cover soon.
In the meantime, here are some high’s:
2. Visiting Finca La Candelaria. Learning about the organic cacao bean to cup (or mouth) process:
Roasting the cacao beans in a makeshift roaster (apparently he built this based on instructions from a YouTube video, to represent the larger roasters they use)
After the beans are roasted, they are removed from the shells and ground to be formed into cacao blocks, ready to be packaged and sold for anything from 100% pure cacao hot chocolate to a base for real cacao brownies:
3. An amazing sunrise. I actually got up before 5am to walk another 45 mins just to see this. For me, that is a huge commitment. Check out this time-lapse video, the sun lighting up the mountains and closest city, Santa Marta. I would have waited until all the mountains were lit up but my arms were achy;
4. Sleeping in a hammock. This was something I hadn’t done before but loved the idea of so did it for three nights on the trot. Falling asleep to the sound of nature, feeling the mild breeze, looking into the mountains of the Sierra Nevada! An added bonus, for whatever reason, only one or two other travellers used the nearby hammocks, so I didn’t have to deal with the delights of sharing a dorm with snorers, late nighters and early risers. Although I did have to fight for my space in the hammock with the hostel cat, I won on most occasions but not this one:
5: More pictures:
6. A few more for good measure. The last picture of the huts is where some of the indigenous people live in Minca:
The second hostel I stayed in, Mundo Nuevo, an “organic farm and hostel dedicated to sustainability and education towards the preservation of the earth’s natural resources”, were preparing some land to be used as a vegetable garden. I was only here to watch for a few minutes but loved the music they were working to, Shazam to the rescue and I’m only the 53rd person to Shazam it, a personal record of mine!
The video doesn’t do it justice, here’s Minca in the middle of a storm:
AshWoodhall.blog 