It has shown me even more and made me more aware of what is important in life and how important it is to leave your comfort zone, develop yourself, broaden your horizons and see the world. I have gained so much from this trip.
Dive into Naomi's vivid account of her time at our partner hostel in Colombia. She took part in the Hostel Experience in Cartagena for a month and wrote this report to record her experiences. Above all, the people and the colorful, artistic city made her stay abroad unforgettable.
I had dreamed of traveling to Latin America for a long time. When I finished my studies, I seized the opportunity to finally make this dream come true. Before starting the trip, my thoughts and feelings were characterized by great anticipation, excitement, curiosity, but also uncertainty and respect about traveling to Colombia alone. I had many questions that accompanied me during the preparation for the trip: Will I make friends there quickly? Will my language skills be good enough to be able to talk to the people there? Will I feel comfortable? What can I expect? Of course, I couldn't find answers to all these questions at first. So I simply decided to be open to everything that came my way and to fully embrace the travel experience with great enthusiasm and joy.
I will never forget the first evening when I finally arrived after the long journey. After I had been shown to my room and unpacked my first things to make myself feel at home, I discovered a staircase next to our room, which I shared with other volunteers, that led to a roof terrace. I went up the stairs and was all alone on this terrace and the view was beautiful. At that moment I realized: you've made it, you're on the other side of the world - now the adventure begins. The first few days were super overwhelming. A flood of new impressions came over me, but in an exciting and positive way. Lots of new people, different ways of life and food cultures, the climate, the refreshing joie de vivre and warmth of the people, foreign languages. I learned to love the country and all its facets so quickly. I had the first few days off and was able to get to know many other volunteers from different countries at the hostel during this time. My Spanish was quickly put to the test. Thanks to the great people who work at the hostel, I settled in really quickly and soon felt like part of a big family.
The hostel where I worked is located in Cartagena, a charming city on the Caribbean coast. I worked at the hostel 6 days a week helping with breakfast. This meant getting up early, but at the same time I had a lot of the rest of the day. My tasks at breakfast included taking orders, preparing pancakes or juices and the like. I was also happy to help out in other areas. The work was always fun. My colleagues in particular and their infectious zest for life made me look forward to spending time with them every day. I am grateful for all the experiences I was able to have during this time, and especially for the people from Colombia and from all over the world who showed me their world and allowed me to immerse myself in it. I was able to gather many great experiences, gain new perspectives on life, discover my love of Spanish and get to know lots of different people from all over the world.
I quickly lost my heart to this city. There is so much to discover in Cartagena, it is colorful, full of life, dance and art. In my free time, I spent a lot of time in the city with people from the hostel, my colleagues and friends from the language course. We tried out and discovered lots of cafés, restaurants, salsa bars, beaches and other places. I also spent a lot of time in the hostel with the guests, as well as taking part in yoga classes, dance classes, pub crawls and karaoke evenings. I will especially miss the evenings when we cooked together, talked about life for hours and sat in the pool on the roof terrace until late into the night. There is always something going on in the hostel and I quickly realized that although I came here alone, I never felt alone or lonely. Thanks to the great people around me, the hostel and Cartagena quickly felt like home and turned out to be a magical place for me. On our days off, we often went on excursions to nearby islands, such as Isla de Tierra Bomba, Baru or Rosario Island. We swam with plankton at night, went on snorkeling tours, observed animals such as monkeys, iguanas, crabs and sloths, saw beautiful beaches in the Caribbean and were able to call them home for this time. One highlight was a birthday of a local colleague to which I was invited. It was great fun to be able to experience a birthday the Colombian way, try typical Colombian food and learn Colombian dances.
Latin America offers so much: a great language, open-minded, fun-loving and cosmopolitan people, a culture full of surprises, delicious food and breathtaking nature. If you get involved, you will quickly learn to love this country and take it to your heart. A trip is characterized above all by encounters. Meeting people from all over the world and from Colombia made my time there a very special and valuable one. A time that I will never forget and that has enriched my life immensely.
I experienced Cartagena, like the rest of Colombia, as a different world: a world that is open to all people. Tolerance and openness to the world are values that I experienced on a daily basis throughout my time there. My time in Colombia left a lasting impression on me. I was particularly fascinated by the zest for life and the attitude of sometimes not taking things so seriously and enjoying and living life to the full. Hopefully this realization will continue to accompany me in my life in the future. This time has also shown me how different life designs can look and how differently happiness can be defined. And yet how similar we can all be at the same time. It has shown me even more and made me more aware of what is important in life and how important it is to leave your comfort zone, develop yourself further, broaden your horizons and see the world. I have gained so much from this trip.
A trip like this gives you the chance to develop yourself further, to see things differently, to broaden your perspectives and your horizons and to sharpen your view of what really matters in life. My tip: just be open to new things, new people, new cultures and dare to try new things!
Sophia, founder of Wanderworld Travel
Lisa, Coordinator & Participant Support
Amanda, Support and advice before departure
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