Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened - What did I learn?

I am getting used to wearing shoes, wearing something more than bikinis all day and not getting all the hugs every morning and evening, as well as not having Adrian running amazing yoga classes 6 times a week and therefore doing yoga alone with YouTube every morning. On top of that, dancing on my own is definitely not as fun as with my mamacitas and papis 💗 But what did I learn and reflect on during the 40 days unplanned "retreat" (also known as lockdown)?

But life goes on and so far I’m happy to be home. Many asked me if I would do it again or was it worth it - absolutely, with no hesitation! The people, place and the whole super absurd experience are something that I will always carry with me. The experience kind of reminds me of the times in USA in 2010-11 and I still have many of those people in my life, so I know I won’t forget. I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the things I learned and want to take home with me. Hopefully this text also acts as a reminder for myself in case I get lost in my busy life. 

My happy place (wearing what became like my normal oufit: bikinis and definitely no shoes)

The most important thing: I was happier and more stress-free than ever during the past decade (or more). Thanks to all the time we had and the people around me who inspired me to start daily meditation, I started to reflect on what were then the things that made me unhappy or caused me negative stress. Those were so personal things, that I will not list those here. It was really painful but much needed process. Painful for many reasons: accept how much self-sabotage I keep doing to myself as well as to realize that being happier would also mean letting some people go. 

On the other hand, I also realized who are the most important people for me and those, who give me a lot of energy and make me feel awesome. I hope those people know I'm talking about them 💗 It's also great how these special times reunited me with some of the old friends who got a bit left behind during the past couple of crazy years.

You can't dance with sad face, so go ahead and dance your worries away!

(Video was shot like 2 hours before I left)

The kids really made my days 

Then there were the people. I barely knew everyone's age, nationality and country of residence, and not sure I even knew everyone’s profession. Even the language didn’t matter, we always found a way to communicate :D There I was just Else. I wasn’t defined by any of my accomplishments, degrees or mistakes. There was no pressure to perform or achieve anything. I can tell that after way too many years working and studying in super competitive environments I kind of forgot how that really feels. And it feels amazing.

Love it how guests, volunteers and staff became a one big family, despite the language barriers.
Photo from Andrea's birthday party 

My goodbye brunch with these amazing people 💗

My sister from another mister, can't wait to see what future holds for you

In addition to the mental things, I’m taking some very concrete habits with me: I have been doing at least a short yoga every morning before breakfast. Every day, I take a moment to meditate, even if it was only few minutes. I also found an eating rhythm that works really well for me: intermittent fasting with eating within 8 hours (for me starting from breakfast) and fasting for 16 hours. (Thanks G and Vidas for introducing it to me 😘) I’m not crazy strict with that (not going to skip dinners with friends), but it made me feel so good and energetic that want to keep up with that habit. 

In Minca, I also fell in love with dancing, so I really hope I can continue dancing bachata, salsa and reggaeton. I was super lucky to have an amazing dance teacher Adrian around. I never thought I could dance, so I'm really proud of myself. Click and check what I learned in  around 2 weeks from my bachata video:  

https://www.instagram.com/tv/B_3MD1Vj8nU/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

I’m so thankful for the whole experience and especially for the amazing people it brought to my life. Such a cliché, but it’s impossible to explain the whole experience for someone that wasn’t there. It’s so surreal and absurd to be in lockdown in jungle village with random people in the middle of pandemic, with zero physical contacts to the outside world for 40 days. But now it’s over for me and even though I did cry a lot when packing and leaving, I’m still extremely happy and thankful it happened to me. 

Thank you everyone who was part of this! Muchas gracias a todos <3 

Thank you for reading my blog and all the amazing messages I've received, really means a lot to me. Until the next adventures!

Love,

Else

P.S. Pool train is always a great idea, just because porque no? 😄

I'm coming home, I'm coming home, tell the world that I'm coming home

It took 5 days, 5 take-offs, 5 landings, 6 cities, 4 countries, 23 hours on planes, 16 hours in bus, 10 hours at airports, 2 nights at airport hotels and 1 hour in cars. But I’m home now.

Wearing a mask all times, wiping everything with 70% alcohol, desinfecting hands, trying to keep the distance. I got pretty scared of other people after being completely isolated for 40 days!

The 40^th day of lockdown, the day when it was time for me to go home. After couple of unsuccessful attempts, I received an email from Finnish embassy in Bogota to ask my interest to take an evacuation flight with priority for Nordic country citizens. The embassy would also organize transportation to Bogota, which was the most difficult parts of returning home. As the idea of going home had been growing in my head for some days, I decided to take the flight. It was time to go home.

So much happened and was a lot to take in, therefore it’s a long text this time.

Day 1 - Leaving Minca and bus chase

After morning yoga we had an amazing brunch, thanks to Ivan and Kizzi <3. The original bus pick up time was 12:00, then postponed to 2pm and the same morning to 2:30pm. Around 2pm the hostel owner called the bus driver to check whether they’re on schedule, and of course they weren’t (it’s latin America, duh). So the driver promised to inform when they’re on their way. That extra time led to very spontaneous day party and table dance battle :D

When in Colombia: your bus is late, so what else can you do but dance?

After around 4 postpones by the driver, I suddenly got a call around 5:30pm that the bus is waiting for me in Minca main street. So we left right away, but the road down to the village is super bumpy and takes a while. It felt super weird to drive through the gates and leave the hostel premises for the first time after 40 days. The whole village was totally empty.

Once down there was a roadblock with police and no bus anywhere. We got the information that the bus left already (WTF?!?)  and that hostel owner cannot drive me further. So I had to jump into the taxi, and the driver said we need to chase the bus 😅 So we did, it was pretty wild ride (glad mom didn’t know about it). During the ride I got information about the bus location and that it’s waiting for me down the mountain road.

After finding the bus and disinfecting everything before getting in, the mysteries started to reveal. First of all, I heard that the bus never actually got to Minca. They were stopped halfway up the hill and the driver was fined since the road is too dangerous for such big vehicle. The driver had taken a mototaxi to pick the other girl up from Minca. So the police, saying the bus left, was making up stories.

But in the end I made it to the bus and that’s the most important part.

Way too many red flags, especially around Minca and Santa Marta 😢 

Blocked roads and empty streets throughout the country

Day 2 – Arrival to Bogota

Driving through Colombia was also an emotional experience, not only because of leaving my safe haven, but because of seeing how bad things were in the world outside the hostel gates. Every city and village was like a ghost town, and there were so many red flags along the road – way too many L (red flag = urgent help needed, family has no water/food)

Luckily I had a lot of amazing food that hostel chef Ivan and Kizzi made for me (thank you <3). And of course a bottle of rum, just for sleeping of course. We had a mini rum-night by sharing the rum to couple of bottles and sipping it sophisticatedly from plastic bottles before falling asleep. It really helped, I slept like 6 hours. Why I never discovered rum as sleeping aid before??

Arrival to Bogota was pretty absurd: no people or cars on streets, most shops closed and people actually keeping the 2m distance when lining. I was also not allowed to leave the hotel to buy anything, since it was men’s day (every other day is for men, every other for women, but never for tourists or hotel gets fined). Luckily the receptionist offered to do the groceries for us.

In Bogota I was sleeping a lot, joining Minca yoga class via Zoom and in the evening had one final rum night on hotel’s roof terrace with other Nordic people leaving with the same flight. Was interesting to hear everyone’s lockdown stories.

Rush hour in Bogota, normally it would be packed with cars and people

Day 3 – New kind of airport experience

After chill morning with some yoga, it was finally time to head to the airport (around 1pm). We had to be there 5 hours before the flight. Since the airport was only opened for evacuation flights, the line outside was couple of hundred meters long with people trying to keep some distance. Everyone had to wear a mask. Slowly but steadily we got through the process:

1. Wait, wait and wait outside (luckily with new friends)

2. Scrub your hands with soap and disinfection gel
3. Pass the body temperature scanner

4. Register at your embassy desk  

5. Take elevator upstairs (only 2 people allowed, marked spots on opposite corners)
6. Line for baggage drop (appropriate distances in line was marked on the floor) 

7. Make your alcohol pump bottle explode (at least my backpack was super clean)

8. Line for security check (and realize you still have rum left -> empty the bottle with the help from another Finn. You can always count on your own people.)

9. Be lucky that security check lady didn’t realize I had jar of mangojam with me cause it was hidden under liquids

10. Sit on the floor and wait for boarding on totally stranded airport.
11. Get on the plane and on the window seat (yes!)

Danish-Swedish-Finnish-Colombian team of happy campers at Bogota airport

Bogota El Dorado international airport at 5:30 pm. Scary quiet.

We took off from Bogota, landed to Quito (Ecuador), got some more people in, took off, landed to Quyaquil (Ecuador) for maintenance and fuel stop and finally took off to fly all the way to Europe. Luckily we weren’t allowed to leave the plane during the stops, since the corona situation in Ecuador is the worst in whole South America. After taking off from Quyaquil we finally got food (around 12:30am), was starving!

Day 4 - Stockholm

After couple of movies (finally watched Joker!), some hours of sleep it was time for breakfast – around 4 pm Swedish time :D We landed to Stockholm around 6 pm after nice and easy 18 hours on a plane. I was so dead tired that my plan to sleep at the airport changed really quickly and took a hotel room from Clarion (maybe also because mom said she will pay for it. Moms always know best 💗). 

Hot shower with pressure, all the lotions and products available and princess bed felt like a paradise. Not to mention the BEEF burger I had with couple of beers with my plane neighbors. But then it was time to call it a night and get a good rest in the princess bed before the last day of travelling.

Princess bed in Clarion Arlanda Airport

Thanks Clarion mirror for trying with your slogan, but no one looks great after 18 hours on plane 🙈

My first meal back in Europe

Day 5 – Home sweet home

Only 2 more flights to go! Grabbed a good hotel breakfast and great coffee (with oat milk <3) to go (no buffet because of corona). Due to the empty airport, it took us less than 10 minutes to drop bags and security check. Showing all the documents to prove that I live in Germany took the longest time. Since I couldn’t buy any souvenirs from Colombia, I got a little crazy when finding all the Finnish candies in tax free, especially salmiakki (=Finnish salty licorice). The bags said “share size” – YOU WISH!

Morning rush hour Stockholm airport (8:30 am)

Flight to Frankfurt was fast and smooth, then some chilling at the airport (and trying to hide from people cause some got way too close) and finally last flight to Munich. I was super happy when the closest person was 4 rows away, since I’m a bit scared of people. On the other flight every seat was taken.

"All by myself, I wanna be, all by myself" :D

Munich airport

At 4:10pm I finally landed to Munich. It felt so weird, but also really good to be home. I’m happy to have such amazing friend who not only picked me up from the airport, but also brought me some homemade protein waffles with chocolate, vanilla sauce and blueberries. Thank you Sarah 💚

These waffles definitely made my day

It’s really weird but it felt really good to arrive home. I have my own space, all my own things, own bed – and I can walk around naked with no one bothering (yes, I basically spent the first two days at home naked or bath rope, I knew you wanted to know that 😆). What did I eat first? Cheese, a lot of cheese. I missed it so much that I got humble 10 sorts of cheese to get started. And Augustiner (the best beer ever).

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Reading this, I realized that rum really played an important role in this whole experience 😄 But I guarantee it’s still under control. Exceptional situations just require exceptional methods!

I got to spend 40 amazing days in paradise, surrounded by people I now consider as very close friends, they were my quarantine family after all. I hope it wasn’t goodbye, I hope it was “until next time”. Leaving is never fun, saying goodbye never gets easier. Siembra Hostel will always have a place in my heart as another home, thank you Dylan and the whole staff!

I also wanted to say huge thanks to Finnish embassy in Bogota. They did incredible job, managing to get every single Finnish person, who wanted to leave, back to Finland. Most nationalities didn't have the same opportunities. I am extremely thankful how they made sure I was okay throughout the lockdown and arranged everything for me to get home. 

The next post (and probably last one for now) will be about the things I learned and reflected on during the quarantine. What do I want to keep in my life also after the quarantine? Or what have I realized I should leave out of my life? More about those later!

Love,

Else

Why is the rum gone?