My experience in a Colombian Hare Krishna community
I saw an ad to work at an Eco Yoga Farm just outside of Bogota and thought it would be a fun experience…
We were a little skeptical about taking the bus from Bogota to Varsana, a countryside town about 1.5 hours outside of the captial. For or one, the directions to the farm were very vague and confusing. And our Spanish at that point was not fluent.. people in Colombia speak very fast. We tried to communicate to the bus driver where we needed to go in Spanglish…
Anyhoo - we made it.
The farm was beautiful. Throughout the property there were gardens of herbs, fruits, vegetables, and flowers. There was a yoga room, vegan cafe, art studio, and a volunteer house. The first building we walked in was a temple. Shortly after it became pretty apparent to us that this farm was operated by Hare Krishna’s.
The Hare Krishna beliefs are based on Hindu scriptures.
… The ad didn’t mention anything about Hare Krishna. Initially, I thought it was a group of hippies that like to do yoga and harvest their own food, which- turned out to be mostly true…
If this was the book Eat, Pray, Love… this would be the part where she travels to India… feeling a little out of sorts the first couple of days.
We were given a schedule to follow while we stayed at the farm. In exchange for 3 meals and a place to stay, we would volunteer 4 hours a day.
The first day I walked around the farm, explored the garden, and helped separate some quinoa seeds that were just harvested.
Afternoon vibes ...
Day two we spent the morning helping Raul in the vegetable garden, planting cilantro, sifting quinoa, and picking weeds around the mint. All of the soil that they use is from their compost.
100% farm to table food..
Dinner was at 8PM. The people of this community follow a very strict routine. Alarm goes off at 3:30AM for prayer, meditation at 5AM, breakfast at 8AM, service (your work for the day) from 9AM-1PM, lunch at 1PM, evening prayer/meditation at 6PM, dinner at 8PM, then bedtime.
Volunteers are only obligated to participate in service (work) from 9AM-1PM. The rest of the time was spent on numerous activities such as yoga, spanish lessons, hiking, etc.
This is the yoga studio.
The next day we were scheduled to clean the kitchen. We listened to Hare Krishna rap (which was a nice change from the regular tunes). Apparently one of the rules is that we cannot listen to anything BUT Hare Krishna music.
That afternoon, we hiked to another Hare Krishna community to celebrate a birthday
The lunch was huge, mainly consisting of quinoa, vegetables, granola cakes, lentil burgers, and a rice dish.
One of the youngsters in the community turned 5. We sang happy birthday to him (Hare Krishna style) as he blew out the candle on top of a massive cake.
There was a puppet show, cake was passed out, and presents were given. Not too different than a typical kids birthday in the states.
Jasmine and I spent the morning prepping food for lunch, our work for the day. After lunch we had a Spanish lesson. I felt like I was in kindergarten again; sitting around in a circle reciting phrases and writing simple sentences. I guess everyone has to start somewhere..
My Spanish is not good, but I’m learning something new everyday. I enjoy speaking Spanish to young kids … our language comprehension is at the same level.
After Spanish we went to yoga, which is a practice that is commonly integrated in the Hare Krishna community.
Our last day we had breakfast then Jazz and I headed back to Bogota with 3 other volunteers- two Colombians and one American.
Hitchhiking in Colombia
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Overal I enjoyed my time with at Varsana Eco Lodge. The Hare Krishna religion is something that I still don’t understand completely, however, one thing I’ve learned over the last week staying here was that everything the community did, from work to our interactions was done with genuine kindness. These have been some of the most welcoming people I’ve met on our travels and I’m so thankful to have experienced what it was like living in their community.