Granada Cundinamarca, Colombia - My Experience in a Hare Krishna Community

For 5 days we volunteered at the Varsana Eco Yoga Farm, which is located in a small town an hour outside of Bogota. 

We were a little skeptical about taking the bus from Bogota to Varsana. For or one, the directions to the farm were very vague and confusing. And our Spanish is not good.. we tried to communicate to the bus driver where we needed to go in Spanglish. 

Anyhoo - we made it. 

Day 1:

The farm is beautiful. Throughout the property there were gardens of herbs, fruits, vegetables, and flowers. There is a yoga studio, restaurant, art studio, and a volunteer house. The first building we walked in was a temple of some sort. Shortly after it became pretty apparent to us that this farm was operated by a group of Hare Krishna’s.

This is the volunteer house

The Hare Krishna beliefs are based on Hindu scriptures. 

It didn’t mention anything about Hare Krishna on the website. I thought it was a group of hippies that like to do yoga and harvest their own food... that was partially true.

If this was the book Eat, Pray, Love .. this would be the India chapter.

We didn’t really work on the first day, just walked around the farm and helped separate some quinoa seeds that were just harvested.

Afternoon vibes ...

Day 2:

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.

Most of the food that they prepare in the kitchen is from the garden.

Dinner was at 8PM. The people of this community follow a very strict routine. They wake up 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. 

There’s numerous activities throughout the week, such as yoga, spanish lessons, hiking, etc. However, our days are centralized around breakfast, lunch, dinner, and work.

This is their yoga studio

Day 3: 

Service today was cleaning the kitchen. We listened to Hare Krishna rap. The people of this community are not allowed to listen to anything BUT Hare Krishna music. Mainly they listen to traditional song, which sounds like chanting, and is very repetitive.

After that we hiked 20 minutes to another Hare Krishna community where we were able to participate in a traditional Hare Krishna ceremony followed by a big lunch. It was interesting.

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.

Day 4: 

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 at all, 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 5 days staying here is that everything is based on love- as sappy as that sounds. 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.