From Environmental Consultant to Yogi Entrepreneur: Crafting a Retreat Haven in Colombia's Caribbean Coast

Hey Nomads, welcome to Digital Nomad Stories, the podcast. My name is Anik Lassen and, together with my co-host, kendra Hosse, we interview digital nomads. Why? Because we want to share stories of how they did it. We talk about remote work, online business, location independency, freelancing, travel and, of course, about the digital nomad lifestyle. Do you want to know more about us and access all previous episodes? Visit digitalnomadsco. Alright over to Kendra for today's interview.

Welcome to Digital Nomad Stories, the podcast. My name is Kendra and I'm your host today. Today I'm joined by Julia Ihinsa. She's a yoga teacher trainer and she went to Colombia and decided to stay and there she created a really a built her own beautiful project, where she will tell us more about in this episode. I'm super excited to hear from you here, julia, welcome. Thank you, kendra, for inviting me. It's a pleasure to be here with you. So, yes, I'm Julia, I'm from Spain. So 10 years ago I decided to come here to Colombia and to start a new life. So at the beginning I just stayed here. I wanted just to stay for, yeah, for several months, like a digital nomad, but at the end I really fell in love with this country. So I decided to become a yoga teacher a yoga teacher right now on my lines, and it has a lot of things that I want to continue to transmit through other people because it's a very health and very useful tool for myself. So, yeah, I'm here in Colombia after 10 years starting this project. Wow, beautiful. So maybe we start like in the beginning. So you were said you were like a digital nomad, traveling like to different countries, and then your wife to Colombia and decided okay, now I will stop being a digital nomad and I will stay here. Exactly, it was like a more or less like a life and universe, because I spent all my life traveling, like I used to live in Mexico, in Bolivia, montreal, paris, brussels. I was like all the day, all my time, like lifetime. It was like traveling and I used to be like an environmental consultant, so working with my computer, yeah, but when I decide and it was like a call, I think, from my heart to be a yoga teacher, and when you are a yoga teacher, maybe sometime you want to make your roots in some point and to create a school and to grow a little bit in this area. So it's the reason that I create something here in. Colombia. So at the beginning was my school in Medellin, because I spent seven years of my life here in Medellin and after I arrived to the coast, to the Caribbean coast, wow, so, yeah. So tell us now, then, about your project. So I'm hearing it's at the Caribbean coast of Colombia. So the adventure starts because Medellin is a really beautiful city, but it's still a city. You know, I'm European and it's like only time we saw the challenge. But after the pandemic, after the COVID, I decided to go to the Caribbean coast. It's like a very beautiful region of Colombia plenty of rivers, mountains, the sea. So I arrived there just with my pink bag favorite color is pink and my dog and got up. So we arrived there and I started like, yeah, knowing a little bit more how the coast is like working and it has some settings. So, normally, with the sevens, my old Korea I wanted just to stay and travel. So, because it's like my passion it's still my man, I love to travel but I decided to buy a land, like a piece of jungle with sea views. So I was so in love with this land and I started Paraisa Hinsa. That is a project that you were like talking about, yes, and you traveled to the coast to see because you were like a little bit tired of the city and then there was like okay, then you fought again and left for Colombia like the second time and decided to stay there. So, before we start talking more about it, I'm curious because a lot of the genomes also like to invest, right? So how easy is it to buy a land in Colombia? Like, with all the process, it's like it's not very complicated. Like an European you can buy with your passport. The only thing in Colombia is not like Europe. So not all lands they have like all the papers, all the low papers working. So you have to pay attention to this because, for example, they are so used like Colombia, they're so used Normandy they can buy and just stop talking and it's going to be just with a contract and everything is fine. But for us I really recommend to have all the like legal yeah, all the legal papers. So it's just the only thing that got to find a land with the proper legal papers. So having like a lawyer here, colombian one, that help you with this process, I think this is the most complicated thing. Like to have a land to fill in, to fill in with a land with the proper legal papers, because it's like a culture that is legally very different for others. So this is like the challenge when you're going to buy. Thank you, I love it. And it shows like, also like your story, and now shows like this beauty of also being a decision-making, like this freedom we have, you know, we really can follow like our callings, our hearts, and if we want to stay in some place, we stay. If we want to go on, we want to go on. It's beautiful. So, but then, coming back to your project, it's like then, on that land, you construct it or you build like a yoga teacher center or retreat center, hotel, maybe tell us exactly, I'm not going to invest here and maybe I'm going to have my rules and I'm not going to move anymore. And this is for me, I think I guess it's not an idea. I love Spain, I love travel, so for me, the idea is to have some groups here, like I was a project with this yoga center but at the same time, continue traveling when this is working. If you do with this mentality, you can keep having this freedom. So yeah, with the project, it was like the real adventure of my life because it was like a building. As a woman and as a foreigner and I'm alone, so I didn't have farnex. So it was a challenge. So I decided to build a center, a yoga center, and as well like a yoga center and as well like a loach for people. They need calm, they need peace, because for me it's like the gradient that is like the light of the most in our modern life. We are so surrounded by noises and we don't have the time to understand our being more ourselves. So in all this, like the last past years, I met a lot of people. They don't know what to do with their life and their lateral like lost in their path and, you know, like the answers that we have inside of ourselves, but we don't allow ourselves to understand ourselves and to listen to ourselves. So when I started yoga, I know myself to understand what I wanted to my life. So I went to a place that it was so calm and peace and silence. So I wanted to recreate this, to give the opportunity to other people to listen to themselves in the silence of the jungle, in the silence of the sea, because when you are so connected with nature, you are a little bit more you, inside of you. So it was like the idea, the philosophical idea of the project. And I think it's it because when you arrive, like the cow is so crazy and they start on the moon and the sea, so they are surrounded by nature and yourselves. So I think this is the main objective.

It's so beautiful.

I really want to go because for me, I also feel I recommend everyone going to Colombia, to La Sierra Nevada, you know, there are no place like Exactly where. I also listened to my heart voice, who told me that I should organize retreats, and that made me becoming a digital nomad to organize retreats, like all over the world currently more in Colombia, germany, but yeah, and do what I'm just curious. What do you think? Do you think we, as digital nomads, have an easier access to follow the voice of our heart? I would think so, because in some point, we have this freedom. Why didn't we have already this curiosity to explore? And we are brave enough to explore, or how do you see it? I think, like it's like it depended how you use this freedom, because sometimes you're in the rush of traveling, of knowing, and it doesn't give you the opportunity to stay, for example, in a place that we love, and time doesn't exist. Okay, it was like a lot of years that I'm here in Colombia, but it's like time doesn't exist. It's something that you, as a digital nomad, you have to understand, because sometimes you feel very good in a place and you're feeling your heart and you're like creating a lot of things and your creativity is increasing in this place, but you're like in a rush, like maybe I have to go to the other country because it was just two months, two months, four months. So I think you have this freedom to listen to your heart and listen to what you need, but I think, like this rush can be like a decrease it a little bit more so, because it's not just doing like the same life that everyone there in the quiz we can call like normal life. I know that they are not normal life, but people, they don't travel. So I encourage, like us digital nomad, or us that we don't live in our home country, to take the time. To take the time if we find a place that we really love and or we, yeah, to keep investigating and it'll be more. Yeah, I like what you say. I think it's about this balance and also free ourselves from this expectations. Right, okay, now I'm a digital nomad, so I need to to travel to so many countries yet, and I, to be honest, I also feel it because I'm like, always coming back to Columbia. I mean, I wasn't with the Malay and this, but now I'm taking with code, like would like to go to Mexico, I didn't you know, but all the same, there, we would like to stay in Columbia, but can I or not? What? Yeah, so it's really about allowing ourselves to do what we want when we want to travel. We travel when we want to stay, exactly, and I want to add just philosophical, like yeah, principle that I, for me, is very important. One of the calls of suffering, like the human suffering is the tax, the tax that we, we, we tackle ourselves. Okay, we are a digital nomad, we are a digital teacher.

I am like a mother.

I am like so those stocks like make barriers in our world. So the idea is like to meet like a man, a digital nomad, or a travel or a life of this. But you are not just this. You know you're more than this. So to listen to your heart, listen to your intuition, is very important, is like a kind of like a key for, for, for happiness, or to be just calm and tranquil in the life that you have. I love it. Thanks for this addition. And just like also for the listeners who maybe are not so much already in this I don't know spiritual world, who cannot so much understand listening to our heart, like a little recommendation if you feel like okay, what do I want to do next? How do I want to design this life? For me, it's always also really helpful like listening to the heart. For me is also journaling, so writing down and having really writing down your thoughts, your emotions, because this helps us really to connect more to our true selves, to authentic selves, because we can a little bit change perspectives, understanding what is really our wish, what are maybe expectations. Cool, so, and yeah, besides, maybe. Now I feel there's still this question why Colombia? So why? Because you said in this, in Bolivia, in Mexico, in Montreal, what was it about Colombia that made you stay here? I think, and with the time in England like in other countries, it's like people. I think people in Colombia they're so like with a big, big heart and maybe some complicated or so deep, like different from from from. Yeah, for our culture, like our European culture, like the organization and how those instructions work in and everything. But when you feel like people that really they really work hard, they want to be there, they're all for you, they're so like, yeah, make your life easier. So I really find it not with this social partner of being kind and just to respect other people, they think that Colombia is very dangerous. It's like dangerous if you want to sell drugs and you want to be in the middle of something that is complicated. It's like a at any country. But for example, me named 10 years alone here in Colombia, I just was surrounded by incredible people. So of course you have to pay attention, of course you have to be careful and have common sense. But it's a lovely country, not just naturally like people that are, that are incredible, and if you had the opportunity to speak Spanish, your, your experience is going to to to increase and you're going to be more into, into the to dissociate that I that I find very, very like, incredible, beautiful. Thank you for sharing this, because I my answer also always are like the people, you know, like this spark in their eyes. I feel there's like this vibration of happiness, somehow more, and that you can go on like more with the flow, more in ease. And it's also true that you need that I would recommend to know Spanish a bit so you can really interact with the locals. Obviously, they are local to speak really well English and also, if they don't speak English, they try to communicate with the hands. But there's always this, this openness to help and this willingness to help to make it happen. But on this, on what we, what I see, what you also need to understand, if we are talking about the Colombian people culture, that it's super difficult for them to say no, so they always want to help. They say always yes. They cannot face you directly saying no, so maybe they tell you ah, tomorrow I show you the city, you know when your wife knew, and then tomorrow they are not showing up and you are like, oh, but they told me no. So exactly, and this is like the downside Imagine building, imagine to build something with people. They don't know how to say no. So it's a challenge, of course. It's like not everything is just impingent and not everything like that. Of course, like we have some yeah, that we're so different in some point, because, yeah, we really love like a brutality. I really like okay, if you're not going to come, just tell me, and I'm going to organize my time because you have to respect my time. Of course there is this, this point, but I feel as, as you say, like a piece of China in the eyes and this I'm willing to to leave. So I think very, very, very nice and, what is also important, like they don't do it, like, if they are not showing up, they don't do it against you. It's just that everyone here has this mentality of going with the flow and like doing what they want, you know. So, like the other day I asked someone. I was like but how are you doing? He was like telling me like a taxi driver. He was like no, usually I make sweet plans at the same time and then I just decide before what I like to do, you know, but they don't do it like so much. I was like cool, so it's not that they're doing it against you. So this is something I feel as if it's something I also need to learn to not take it personally. Just also and and and also then being able to slow, because when I first arrived to Colombia so you don't know so many people I made myself a little bit dependent on the plans, you know. So if someone told me on Sunday I will invite you for lunch, and we go there, yeah, and then the person in the job and I didn't have any plan on a Sunday and they feel lonely, you know so. But then, if you learn it, the same as you said, building like working, was Colombians. You need to be like asking again, asking again, asking again, getting the commitment, that, that, that. But on the other hand, it's also nice because I feel I can fully be, authentically me, because I can then also feel during the day how am I feeling? What do I want to do today? So, because in Germany, my agendas may be packed for the next two months and I need to decide. Okay, in seven weeks I want to have dinner with this friend at this place, but I don't know that that day exactly, or maybe not. So, yeah, it's just like important to know also this Exactly. This is very important and it's important for remind us, because when I'm here in this society, I'm just so getting used to that. But, as you say, this is very important. I think, without charging if it's good or not, you know it's like it's like it is, but the the good side of this is like. This allows you to be more you and and and and you know, like to respect this part of change all the time, because we're only changing and maybe the Julia is today, it's not, the Julia is going to be in five months or three months. So, yeah, it allows you, I think, to be more in touch with the horror, with your intuition and what you feel. I really like this. I didn't start thinking about it, but it's. I think that at the beginning it was complicated, but it made me more stronger, independent and more sensitive at the same time, because you have to understand, at the same time, all the people, so you get more empathic as well with evolution, with the change, with the person, roles for all their people Beautiful. And I want to touch on another topic you just mentioned as a woman alone, ten years in Colombia was a danger. So you said because I feel I also hear a lot of people say, yeah, but Colombia is like, really dangerous. I'm also traveling all the time alone and nothing never happens. So maybe we can talk about first how do you feel like as a woman traveling around alone. So for me, the freedom being dependent is very important and to be secure because you're not free, you're not free. You feel secure. This is like a lie. You have to feel secure in order to feel good with yourself and do whatever you want. So it's true that I didn't feel never like any insecurities here in Colombia. I live in Medellin and now the coast is more safe than any city because the rules and the laws are others and they respect a lot like the foreign people. So Paso Neca citizens, like a normal citizens, I feel like very easy to travel as a woman, just that you have to get used to. Maybe they're going to look at you, maybe they're going to say to you I lean, that they're beautiful, and just maybe, if you feel like in the mood, like you can just say to them please don't take me down, I feel good and you continue your path, or maybe just ignore and this is like a routine, with time and a hope that is going to evolve you and as a worker, like I built a project here at the beginning I used to be like so me, like I love smiling and I love to be like kind of yeah, so kind of with everyone, but at the beginning is very important to put your limits and your barriers. So I think if you feel like insecure or you feel like it's not your, yeah, your your society, or your your your bite, maybe put your limits and understand where I have to go, put your barriers and it's a good decision as well. It's like God, you don't have to be very kind with everybody, is this situation is going to make you unsecured? So I know that for a lot of people like make barriers or limits is going to be complicated, but we have to understand that it's very useful for ourselves as well. Yeah, exactly Like. I also feel it's like if you're like a foreign person, you know you look like international, there will be like no good guys maybe like trying to flirt with you, looking clear of the street thing, ooh la la. But then if you are like just accepting it and you know you just go on with your past and not being like so much into like I know, but how can they do it? It's exactly. Don't thank me personally, accept it maybe as part of the culture you know you can. It's like this commandment child, so yeah. And for the safety part in general, columbia. So you say you feel really safe here. I feel very safe and traveling by bus I don't have a car, I, yeah, I travel like a normal person, like buses, taxis, uber or so, of course, like by night you try to take your Uber and I guess it's like a safer maybe, like when you're going to travel by bus, like with the day lights, just like a common sense that seems to do. But I travel a lot like around South America and I really choose Columbia because of this, because of the security. Mexico is a loving place, but it's not like I didn't feel like so secure, and Brazil is one of the most amazing countries, but for me it was complicated. So I really choose Columbia. I think one of the things is like for this security that you feel as a woman, that for me is very, very important. Yeah, great, like I feel. I'd also don't want to make it like here, like I have to say it, like to put it in, like still you hear people who got warped or whatever you know. But as you say, of course, like with common sense. Don't walk alone at night and exactly, yeah, take like health your things. You don't walk like with your purse and your mobile phone, like showing it to everyone. You know, just like this common sense, exactly this common sense, and you're going to feel okay. Yeah, don't go like a duty night to the neighbors that you don't know, for example. Just extend your comfort zone with your friends or someone that I invite you. Of course, it's not like that it's happening. All things here is not like the heaven or you know. It's like a lot of things like they're happening here, but this is not like an obstacle for your traveling to enjoy Colombia. I think and I think what we're just talking about applies to all countries, right, like for all everyone also who's listening and may not travel to Colombia it's like all about learning the culture, learning how the situation in the country to really enjoy, like their insidious environment. Would you like to add any other point to this? Like, as you also traveled a lot, what would you like recommend to our listeners to fully enjoy, like a digital nomad life or anything coming to your mind? I think that, yeah, here in Colombia. I think that, for example, it's like Colombia is one of the five mega diverse like country in the world. So I think Thursday I think like of course, they were science and it's very important for digital nomads, but you can find good website as well, like in the nature. So I think they go to Medellin, to Bogota, and they're beautiful cities, but explore it a bit more, like the south of Colombia and the north of Colombia, the Chaco or the Amazonas, because they're gonna fall in love with this biodiversity and with nature and it's important. You are working on your computer, so explore more than cities. I think this is important to get, like your experience a little bit more richer as a digital nomad. What's beautiful? And for you, what are your plans in the future? Now you said you want to build like your project, making it a little bit more like growing, and then you go on traveling again. This is a plan. But, for example, I'm kind of sad because I was like up to my family and I'm very sad because I know I'm going to spend Christmas with them, because I have to take care of the project, because it's the first Christmas and it's Christmas and it's a book, a book, so I have to be there for again. So it's a new job for me but I'm really happy to have this new center and to host other people. Like I have a lot of German people that they come to the Paraisa Hinsach. So my plans are like get good at my new job as a host, to understand a little bit more how I can give like better experience in Paraisa Hinsach in my project and, after two, to have fun and have fun. So have traveling because I just said my nature of moving and to explore other cities or the countries or the cultures. But at the same time, my house is like I want to give like a service to these worlds and to make this space a real, like a ritual and Santa for those people that are like looking for this peace. So yeah, my plans are half the house, so travel and visit and get more of my family in Spain, but at the same time increasing my project and to have the opportunity to host a lot of people, because I think like it's kind of related, you know, because it's a place where I'm gonna host people for other countries. So I'm gonna get like a continued traveling in some way, because when you meet people, new people, you're traveling around the culture. So I think I'm not going to stop like traveling and doing all the culture, so even it is not like with a flight or with a plane the 100% of my time.

So yeah, beautiful.

So and I know it will be like amazing as it will turn out. So, before we finish this podcast, anything else you feel that I should have asked, anything else you feel that you want to communicate to our listeners to share? I mean so it was like I want just to share that personal idea about this because we are like reigning into this year. So I want just to show like one of the most knowledge that I have really now is to trust, trust the universe, trust your past and when you do like a things with all your heart, you just work or a relationship or whatever you are like into. If you are doing really with your heart, everything is going to be fine. Maybe not the way that you really planned, but the universe is bigger than us. So just trust whatever you have in your heart any project, any idea, any work, any relationship and everything is fine, everything was fine and everything is going to be perfectly fine. So just go ahead and take this year or whatever. You have your doubts and do what you have in your heart.

So yeah, I want to share so beautiful thank you.

And I can so reassure it because, since I'm following my heart and doing what I want, I feel I'm co-creating with the universe, you know so, in the end everything always turns out, and it should be, obviously. There are some difficult situations, you know. You struggle because you go out strong out of it, or maybe you're going a little bit on a path. It's not it. Or also, sometimes universe likes to put us some challenges to test us. If we are really like believing in our past right A lot. But in the end yeah, it's as you said. It will always turn out that we're not leaving here like alone, Exactly so if people want to contact you and would like to stay, we will put like the notes in the show notes, like your links in the show notes, If someone wants to. I don't know, have any question. One is traveling to Columbia or whatever. Of course I'm going to be more than happy to help them and answer any questions that you have. And I for sure will soon book a stay at your place, but when we see a person, ah yeah, you got time so cruel, Well, yeah thank you so much Really and I wish you a lovely day. Thank you very much.

You're welcome and also to thank you very much.

It was a pleasure to be here with you and with you all and that here and thank you very much. Thank you, yeah, exactly. To all our listeners enjoy your day whatever you are going to do, we send you lots of love and support. We send you lots of love from Columbia. Bye.

And that's it for today. Thank you so much for listening. I appreciate it very, very much. I would appreciate it even more if you could leave a review on Apple Podcasts for me. That way, more people can find this podcast, more people can hear the inspiring stories that we're sharing, and the more people we can impact for the better. So, thank you so much if you are going to leave a review. I really appreciate you and I will see you in the next episode.