I have been at Finca Pachamama for 3 days, a wonderful corner of peace and nature in the Eje Cafetero, Colombia’s famed coffee axis. I wanted to visit this area because it is different from the other places I’ve seen and experienced in Colombia, namely cities.
I am a city gal, born in a capital city, living in a (different) capital city. Every time I explore outside of cities it feels almost exotic. My friends can attest how giddy I get when we go apple picking, and don’t even get me started on farm animals, especially chickens.
I don’t know that I have a deep connection to Pachamama or Mother Earth, and that is something I am always curious about and willing to explore. When I saw the AirBnB listing for a charming coffee farm about 45 minutes away from the closest city, Pereira, I just had to come and see what it’s about.
Learning on the farm
What I found is kindness, wisdom, patience, love, and generosity from Rubi and Gabriel, the wonderful people who created this oasis. They took over what was a typical coffee farm 14 years ago and poured all their energy into creating a biodiverse heaven to encourage regeneration and give back to Mother Earth. They keep growing coffee, but have turned the land from a commercial operation into an artisanal one, and generously share their knowledge about the artisanal coffee process with guests.
I didn’t quite know what to expect going there. My best friend asked me if I was working on the farm or what. I didn’t think I signed up to work on a farm but as we’ve all seen from my recent Cali adventure I can never be too sure of what exactly I’ve agreed to. I was a bit taken aback when Gabriel asked me, on my first evening, what I was hoping to get out of my stay at the farm. I hadn’t really thought about it, I had booked it because it was something I wanted to do.
I was telling Rubi and Gabriel about my sabbatical year and how I felt I needed to get off the proverbial hamster wheel, in my world where everything is moving at a frenetic pace, where my stress levels are through the roof (and even scarier, that I consider that level of stress “normal”), where the rhythm is so intense that I can’t seem to be able to make space to just be.
And Rubi hit me with a surprising truth: the only rhythm you need to have is in salsa.
Searching for a simpler life
I am still digesting that, days later. I believe her and I know to my core that she is right, and yet I still struggle to get out of the ‘be productive’ mindset. Even at the farm, where I could technically sit in a hammock and read all day, I had to get involved in the activities. I couldn’t just watch Rubi and Gabriel and others milling around taking care of it and just… sit.
I guess the biggest difference is that I wanted to help out, I didn’t have to help out. Back to what my best friend asked me, it turns out that while I didn’t sign up to work on the farm, I did it anyways, but out of desire instead of obligation. And that made it fun, and easy, and it didn’t feel like work.
So I’ll continue to search for how to live a simpler life, where I can do mostly what I want to do, not what I have to do. I know I have to eat and to have a roof over my head, but maybe there’s room to find how to accomplish these while doing something that doesn’t feel like a terrible obligation or burden. I am looking for a new rhythm that I set, not one where I feel trapped and unable to change without doing something drastic, like taking a year off to disconnect.
I really enjoyed my stay at the farm and was able to see just how rich nature is, especially when you give it all the love and care that Rubi and Gabriel give it. I saw dozens of hummingbirds, ate many fruits directly off the trees (like a really, really fresh supermarket. Highly recommend), thoroughly enjoyed talking to the roaming chickens (which I named Sven and Maria), picked and roasted my own coffee (there may be a future for me in coffee roasting), and even got some hammock reading time in. I also started turning into my dad, taking pictures of the flowers. In a small way, I connected with Pachamama, and I am grateful for it and for what I’ll take back as I continue my city adventures. And I will schedule more trips to places that help me reconnect with nature and help me find my rhythm.
Postcards and shenanigans 