La Finca

I've been on the road for awhile now and have been moving fast (four countries in two months!) so I decided to slow down. I emailed a farm in a tiny town called Cartago to see if I could volunteer in their kitchen. I have been curious about vegetarian food and thought it'd be a great opportunity to learn from veggie chefs. They said yes! I took an overnight from Bogota to Pereira and then from Pereira to Cartago. I walked into Mayapurita Restaurant, where the family let me rest until it was time to start preparing lunch. 

Raul and his wife, Yamuna, have been together for ten years and married for four. Six years ago they decided to practice Hare Krishna, which includes being vegetarian. The family speaks little English, so it was fun to learn how to be a sous chef with charades.

When the restaurant closed, I napped again. The family took me to a movie with their friends ("It's Saturday!" Raul said.) We saw a Greek thriller called La Novia. Raul ordered giant buckets of both the sweet and salty popcorn so I could try both. 

Afterwards we went to Mexican food. Raul said he used to eat lots of meat, drink too much, and gamble. When asked why he became a vegetarian he said simply, "Compassion." His friends, a mother and daughter, then drove me to the farm. I was excited about the idea of us three girls tending to the farm during my stay. The farm is located on a river and overlooks a beautiful mountain range. There are hammocks and a fire pit. I was giddy thinking about all the reading I would get done.

My first day at the farm was a Sunday, which is rest day. In the morning, we drove to a nearby farm and bought a liter of fresh milk for 10,000 pesos, or about $3. For breakfast, we made hot chocolate to accompany our fruit and homemade granola. I laid in the hammock and read until lunch.

Lalita from the restaurant helped prepare lunch, the largest meal of the day at the farm. We had fried lentil patties, juice, salad, rice, and soup. The plates were massive and my belly was grateful for the healthy food. When I managed to look up from my plate, I saw two boys walk in. One of them was a cutie, with pale skin and blue eyes. He offered me veggie sushi, which I accepted nervously. His good looks tripped me up! 

That afternoon we went to Cartago. The girls wanted me to try cholado. It has crushed ice, fresh fruit, condensed milk, passion fruit (maracuyá), and Colombian blackberry (mora) syrup, with chocolate powder on top. When we were halfway through a guy came around to top us off with more chocolate powder and sweetened condensed milk! It was a sugar rush, and I loved it. We went to a park where a group was playing music and had coffees. The weather in Colombia is perfect for nighttime outdoor activities and it felt like summer. I was happy.

On Monday I awoke at 5am for 5:30am yoga. Ernesto insisted I shower before yoga since it's better to be clean for practice. During yoga, the boys wore loose white linen pants and shirts. I kept feeling like cutie's yoga mat was moving closer to mine and that our hands almost touched when we changed poses. He would sneak away from practice to take photos of me during yoga - for the farm, he explained. I was basically living the Sex and the City episode where Samantha falls for her yoga instructor that practices celibacy. 

The boys made breakfast for me after yoga. I did my first day's work on the farm with cutie. We swept and raked the pathway leading to the cabanas together. An hour in cutie asked if I knew how to climb a tree. We climbed it. He stared at me intently, both when we were talking and when we weren't. It made me feel shy. 

Cutie and I picked up fallen fruit and cleared the front entrance to the farm. He didn’t speak a word of English, but I learned that he is staying at the farm for the next year. He's a professional photographer that used to work for a newspaper, but now does freelance work, mostly weddings. Around 11am we came in to start making lunch. 

I learned that Hare Krishna folks don't eat or drink in the kitchen, and they offer their food to the gods and Mother Earth before consuming it. The dishes used to cook are cleaned inside and the dishes used to eat are washed outside. I learned the hard way not to blow out the fire on a match with my mouth (have to wave the fire with your hand instead) so as not to disrespect the fire. I asked cutie if he uses his hands to blow out the candles on his birthday cake, and he laughed really hard. His laugh doesn't match his voice, which I liked.

After lunch the three of us played a card game. They taught me "Shithead," which is essentially "Idiot," a game Ryan and I thought our cousins made up. I'll have to let Chris and Evan know the game made it's way to Colombia. While we played cards, cutie said, "We saw many animals today." We told Ernesto about the frog, butterfly, maggot, and squirrel. I smiled thinking about how the animals I saw during the day would never be a conversation I would have in the city.

The next few days were the same - outdoor shower at 5am, yoga at 5:30am, breakfast at 7:30am, work at 8:30am, lunch preparation at 11am, reading, rest, and hammock in the afternoon, and dinner preparations at 6pm. It was simple, and I felt content.

On Tuesday, Ernesto left for the rest of the week, leaving me and cutie all alone. What's cutie's name you ask? Well, that depends if you want his birth name or his religious name - Juan and Krishna Nan, respectively. Krishna Nan played guitar for me, in both English and Spanish. He didn't really know the Cure lyrics, so I sang instead while he smiled and stared at me. So. Handsome. He taught me a song, called Flaca. I was trash, but I was grateful we got to sit close to each other. He asked if I was happy; I said yes. Cutie then said genuinely, "I'm happy that you are happy." My whole body warmed when I smiled back at him. After guitar, he invited me to go on a walk to a nearby farm to see PUPPIES. Is he the one or what? 

After dinner he asked if I wanted to watch his favorite movie with him. Por supuesto! I was excited I finally got to see his room. We sat on a small loveseat while we watched Sing Street. We couldn't get subtitles to work, and he insisted we watch it in English so I could understand. I asked for a blanket, which he put over both of us. I strategically placed my hand on the couch to where he could grab it if he wanted to. We were sober; I was hopeful. Finally at the most romantic part of my movie, he reached for my hand. Then, he kissed me...

The next day, he would pass by me so closely in the kitchen that I could feel his breath on my neck. He would touch the small of the back, a bit to the right of my spine. He'd kiss me when I did the dishes, but only when no one was looking. There was no internet on the farm, but when I went into town I texted Alex and told her about cutie and how I had never heard of Hare Krishna (I’m ignorant). She sent me some screenshots, and I learned that our love affair was in violation of his lifestyle. It made it hotter. 

After a morning of side glances and sneaky touching, in the afternoon he said, "Quieres venir?" and head nodded to his room. I swooned. We played the “if you could invite five people to dinner dead or alive, who would they be” game. He included me in his five. Cutie taught me Colombian specific Spanish sayings, including con mucho gusto and que mas. When cutie had to do some work on the farm, he left me to relax on the hammock. Then he brought me cookies!

The next day we went to the restaurant so I could work in the kitchen and Krishna Nan could edit photos. He drove with me on the back of his moto. Cutie told me he usually drives fast to the city, which is about 30 minutes from the farm. I held on to him tight and thought it was sweet that he was taking it slow. I had a flashback to the Mary Kate and Ashley movie where they ride on the back of motos with their Parisian boyfriends. I kept knocking my helmet into his when I tried to smell his neck so I would never forget the moment. I'm a stalker. But I couldn't help it! He was intoxicating. 

Almost as intoxicating as Raul’s food! Raul was an amazing chef. He was truly passionate about his work - cooking at the restaurant in the afternoon and then sometimes coming to the farm to cook dinner. He never tired of it. My journal is now filled with recipes and inspirations from my time at the farm. Raul talked to me a lot about Yoga de la Cocina. He shared that the secret to vegetarian food is sabor, color, and oler. He asked if I eat while working (only everyday at my desk!) Raul asked me, no pleaded, that I promise to take just ten minutes a day for each meal to eat and not multitask. I told him I would for him.

Raul was impressed I was traveling alone. I told Raul it is my third solo trip, and that I hope to take my next trip with a boyfriend. Raul said, "I hope you bring him here. We can't wait to meet him." He seemed happy for me, even though there was nothing to be happy about yet. 

Every Thursday for the past two years, the restaurant prepares 100 meals to deliver to folks living on the streets. Raul said that HKs are committed to the service of others. I told Raul I wanted to help, even though I had already fulfilled my volunteer hours for the day. He pulled up google translate and wrote, "You're a good person Brooke. I can tell you are good to your bones." 

Krishna Nan and I rode back to the farm and watched as the day turned into night. He stopped the moto and told me, "Tengo una sorpresa." He reached into his backpack and pulled out a chocolate bar. "I know you love chocolate," he said. As I looked up at the night sky, I thanked my lucky stars for my Colombian travel boyfriend. Remind me to never like a dude unless it feels like this.

The next day Fausto, Yamuna's father the farmer, showed me around the farm. The farm primarily produces cocoa and corn. Fausto gave me a baby machete, and we cut down and cut open the cocoa to collect the beans. I bought a bar of the chocolate I helped harvest. Cutie insisted that it shouldn’t be eaten like a regular bar of chocolate, but I didn’t listen. He laughed when I made a gross face. He told me he’d make me hot chocolate with the bar instead. He did. It was perfect. 

Fausto was concerned about how many mosquito bites I had, so he macheted some limes and rubbed them all over my arms and legs. "How are you so white?" he asked. He taught me two Colombian sayings. "Let the shoemaker make shoes" and "Better to be alone than in bad company." Real eyes, realize, real lies amirite?

On my seventh day at the farm, another volunteer came. Janet from Italy had quite the sob story. She lost her job and broke up with her controlling boyfriend. She said she had no girlfriends back home because of his jealously. Boyfriend would call again and again and leave sobbing WhatsApp audio messages. Janet would play them and laugh, but I could tell she was sad. I kept telling her she was a badass. I hope I said it enough times so she believed me. When I would get jumbled with my Spanish, she would say, “Tranquila. Soy aqui. Estoy escuchando.” Couldn’t we all use that reminder when we start to fret?

Although we didn't speak each other's languages, we all had many laughs together. The krishnas always give thanks before eating. They rapidly said it in Spanish, which I never caught on to enough to repeat it. One night, Raul insisted I say grace. I got shy and he said "Dice Gracias a Monsanto" and I died from laughter. Another night Raul asked me about the cost of living in America and I told him about how I will eventually pay off $300K over 30 years for my student loans. He spit out his drink. He told me I need to find a rich boyfriend, and I corrected him - I need to find two. We also lost it one night trying to get Krishna Nan to pronounce "teacher" versus "theater." We practiced for days but he kept saying the same word. It sent the whole group into instant laughter.

On the following Sunday, the farm hosted a lunch and yoga class to raise money for a new roof for the farm. I helped Raul make lunch. When we forgot to make juice, we ran to the front yard and shook the fruit from the trees and scrambled to pick them up. Krishna Nan played guitar and Raul passed out vegetarian educational literature. After cutie and I moto'd to town, drank chais, and played footsie under the table. We spent the night at the restaurant, where Raul and Yamuna also live.

Monday was Christopher Columbus Day, so the restaurant was closed (not sure why Colombia celebrates him?) Since they had the day off and Raul loves a weekend well spent, Raul and Yamuna took us to an incredible water park just outside of Cartago. I was the only white lady for miles! First we did paddle boats in the lake, then jumped in on a Zumba class, went to the petting zoo, did a coffee tasting, had lunch, went down the three giant water slides (my bathing suit top came off at the bottom of the slide, everyone stared when I couldn’t get it back on, and Janet leaped into the water to try to help against the lifeguard’s instructions), swam in a pool that had periodic giant waves (I kept getting trapped under the wave generator and Raul practically had to rescue me), then raced each other and had handstand competitions in the Olympic sized pool, Raul taught Janet and I how to dive, and then finished our action-packed day with bowling. Krishna Nan asked me why a strike in baseball is a bad thing and a strike in bowling is a good thing. Deep. I had so much fun. All for about 40,000 pesos, which is less than $16. Exhausted, we made our way back to town and ate at Raul's favorite pizza spot. I swear Raul is the energizer bunny. He could have probably done four more activities that night. 

On our last night together, I think I made poor Janet cry. She insisted on the bed on the floor and then freaked when she saw a cockroach. She was freaking in Italian and I was freaking in English. Kill it! I kept saying, but she was too scared to use her shoe. I handed her the nightstand to smash it with, but she choked and he got away. She asked to share my bed with me, but I stood my ground and said no (it was 100 degrees, we are both grown women, and I wanted the floor bed in the first place!) She was half whimpering while I was falling asleep. Thug ass Brooke came through! Janet survived the night.

I will never forget Fausto's laugh, the way Raul passionately explained vegetarian food and it's relationship to the body, the smell of the gas stove cooking up delicious delicacies at the farm, and of course Krishna Nan's winks and discreet touches.