Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Finding my calming breeze on a Caribbean beach
I arrived to the hostel La Brisa Tranquila late at night when it was dark. Once again I met up with Kimberley, who had become Bar manager in this hostel and after my sailing through San Blas, I had promised to visit her. My intention was to stay here a week before exploring Colombia further, maybe finding a place to do more diving. At arrival Kimberley asked me, if I was interested in becoming a volunteer in the hostel bar. I said it would maximum be for 2 weeks and I needed to sleep on it.
I woke up to a stunning sight! Sand and palm trees everywhere. A beach so pure, clean and beautiful without any sells men, beach chairs or umbrellas. Not even ships would sail by here. The Caribbean ocean changing colour from day to day from blue and turquoise to light green. At night the stars was so clear and the moon would rise over the ocean, as it was the sun, reflecting its light in the waves and we would sit on the beach by the bonfire, enjoying it all brought to us by nature itself. This place was magical to me!
I started as volunteer in the bar the day after - of course. Kimberley took me through a cocktail training where the hardest task was to drink one of each cocktail and still remember the recipes the following day. I was definitely best at the first part..
Unusual, compared to other volunteer work, you here worked 40 hours a week (normally it's 25 h) 5 days in a row, but in return you also got free accommodation, 3 meals a day, free soft drinks and water, free alcohol while working (read: dangerous!) and 50% off everything else you consumed. And as there was no shops and nothing near by, you could basically live for free.
After being there for a week, the yoga teacher from a neighbour hostel told me she was leaving and asked, if I was interested in replacing her. With a pumping heart I said yes!
When you travel without plans, just going with the flow, opportunities comes to you and most of the times for a reason. I taught yoga every day for the visitors of two hostels and staff and volunteers could always join for free. The yoga classes took place in an open pavilion with lovely, green surroundings accompanied with the sound of the waves, hitting the shore. This was my first time teaching regularly and I learned so much from it, had many good experiences and met great people through the yoga classes.
One day took the other, and weeks became a month and every week Kimberley would look at me with a smile and ask, if she could put on the bar schedule for the coming week. I didn't had to answer as both of us knew I had got caught by amazing Brisa.
Faith would be that my relatives, I was supposed to celebrate Christmas with in Chile, changed plans and went to Denmark this year and therefore I stayed even longer, celebrating both Christmas and New Years here.
I ended up being a volunteer and yoga teacher at La Brisa for almost 3 months, serving around 1000 Cuba libre drinks, handing out 2000 beers, washing 2000 plates, squeezing 10.000 limes, teaching 50+ yoga classes, daily having bar feet in the sand and friends around me. What a life!
In the bar we all nationalities from Colombian, Argentinian to German, French, Australian and Danish. We worked close together with the kitchen staff, who were all Colombian, which taught me a lot about Colombian culture and boosted my Spanish skills. We even had days where I would teach them some English while working, and they were always super helpful to correct and explain Spanish to me.
All my Colombian friends and colleagues shared their stories and was open to share their thoughts about life, and I loved listening and trying to understand.
One guy had 4 girlfriends at the same time (and two children with one of them) because he likes to "have love around him all the time", he explained, and he was looking for a girlfriend more.
Another guy wanted to quit work every second day because he wanted to become a chef somewhere more fancy.
A third had more changing mood during one shift than the worst PMS girl, you can think of, but always smile if you made a passion fruit juice with milk and a ton of sugar for him.
A forth would always, always smile, laugh and grab you for dancing salsa in the kitchen, when a good song came on.
All of the Colombians working in the hostel, was more or less related! And every time we would get a new guy wether it was for construction work, gardening or in the kitchen it was someone's cousin, brother, nephew or lived on a farm with a bunch of them feeling like family. Colombian life!
Together with Kimberley, we found the time to go on small excursions around the area, so I tried tubing down a mountain river, visiting hidden waterfalls, jumped off a 5 meter high cliff (which is record for me, who actually used to hate highs), enjoyed spa treatment in Mendiwaca, went diving in Taganga among amazing coloured fish and corals, partying in Santa Marta including spinning the drinking wheel, having beach time in Los Angeles and relaxing in the fresh air in the mountains of Minca.
Not to mention the good times at Brisa, where I played beach volleyball with the guests, went surfing with Sofus, enjoyed bonfire nights, sing along and storytelling, swimming with bioluminescent (glowing planton) or simply enjoyed "hammocking" in the shade of the palm trees with a good book.
My time at Brisa was great and hard work. It reminded me of what's important to me in life, reminded me of my working life before this journey, inspired me to what my future might hold, how many opportunities this life has to offer, taught me so much more and gave me a huge Brisa family with friendships for life.
"Life is what happens to you when you're busy making other plans" which really happened to me at La Brisa Tranquila, before I let the breeze calm me down and once again just enjoy the moment. And I collected so many great moments from my stay there.
- comments