"While we were at the finca, I felt that we had been invited to be a part of a great group of people. I was impressed by how considerate everyone was, as well as their level of genuine interest in talking with us.

The responsibilities surrounding food were well shared among the people at the finca so that no one person had to do everything alone. Although not everyone shared duties equally, a group of people there always helped out with cooking, cleaning, buying the food and setting the table. This made things go smoothly when fifteen hungry people all wanted to eat. I was very surprised at how well the meal went on Friday night. We got in late and I was sure that cooking would take forever. Fortunately, many people did different tasks and helped out so that we had our meal not too long after we got home from grocery shopping.

While at the finca, I was again surprised to learn how interested the compañeros are in learning from us. I had two conversations that proved this to me. In the first one, Alex asked me about Boston. He wanted to know what it looked like, why I liked it, what the people were like, etc. The conversation eventually turned to racism in the US with several of us contributing, and Alex asking questions. For a while I thought I might be boring him (isn’t the history of racism in the US kind of a dry topic for a Friday night at 1 am?) but I realized that other Colombians were listening too. I was impressed that he wanted to hear about that kind of information, but also that he had the know-how to ask that question."


"The finca was the perfect weekend – sunshine, blue skies, lazy afternoons in the pool, and strolls through the quiet town of Santa Fe de Antioquia. After the long bus ride up and down mountains, I was ready to crash as soon as we arrived (though my bed’s lack of mattress put a damper on that idea). But almost immediately we went out to buy food and then proceeded to try and cook some sort of spaghetti dinner (it turned out quite well actually). More friends arrived and as the evening began in full force, my weariness seemed to erode as the time slipped past midnight. In a city where I already feel people are far more relaxed than in the United States, it was interesting to experience what a vacation means to them. Sure enough, the same happy and content atmosphere marked the days by the pool and the nights in the town. Not only did our group seem to be relaxed, but the whole town was also in on the tranquil mood. That isn’t to say there weren’t discotecas and bars and loud music – plenty of people were dancing and singing the night away. However, the pace at which everything moved seemed to play in slow-mo in my mind. As we sat eating ice cream in the plaza on Saturday afternoon, the sky gradually grayed and a small band performed their rendition of “The Sound of Silence.” I thought about how lucky I was to be savoring this little moment of peace and quiet in a gorgeous colonial town in the heart of Colombia, and joined everyone else in singing along."


"When you go to a finca, you take off your watch. Time has no relevance anymore. You swim at night and as soon as you wake up. You dance until four in the morning, eat breakfast at noon, and make dinner at nine.

When you go to a finca, you forget about your physical discomforts. You will get some bug bites, and you’ll scratch them. You’ll eat vegetables without peeling them. You’ll put on a bathing suit still damp from the day before and jump into cold water. Your hair will be soaked in chlorine, and instead of washing it right away, or even that day, you’ll let the pool water evaporate in the sun. You’ll evade sleep, desperately trying to keep your eyes open as you discuss about the differences between Spanish and English grammar, or at least, you will think that’s what you were talking about. You’ll pass out on a bed with a mattress made of wood.

When you go to a finca, you’ll look around you, at the whorls of tree branches, at the giant birds’ nests, at the figurine of a man humping a horse, and at the tortoises almost mistaken for rocks. You’ll pay attention to the antique sewing machines, the exaggerated Indian masks, the unrecognizable tropical leaves, and the patterns of the stained glass. At night, you will tilt up your head and gaze at the biggest and brightest stars you’ve ever seen in your life, thousands of them scattered across a solid navy sky. In the bus, you’ll fixate on the mountains and on the twinkling lights of the pueblos as they quickly pass you by.

When you go to a finca, everything you need is already where you are. The city’s nightlife, a row of bars, salsa clubs, and pubs await you as soon as you step outside the door. The pounding rhythm, booming music, and chatter of the street are only a few feet away.

When you go to a finca, you are always where you want to be. You will sit in silence, doing nothing, and feel okay. You stop wondering what will happen next. You let the newness and unexpectedness surround you. When you go to a finca, you stop worrying and start enjoying. When you go to a finca, you are content. You have nothing else to do but to live."


"The very concept of students renting a mansion in a gorgeous traditional town is remarkable to me. For one, I don’t think that many towns like Santa Fe de Antioquia exist in the United States. Next, the cost would be outrageous: our cost for the weekend came out to about $25 each for rent and food purchases. Because we don’t get to go on weekend trips like this in the U.S. for those reasons, I had a fantastic time at the finca. I was also impressed by the town itself, which I found very quaint and easy to navigate. As we were leaving, the ‘Virgin Mary’ festival made me think I was traveling through a war zone which was yet another unique experience. I think that when I hang out with friends at Duke or at home, the focus is always on ‘doing’ something. Going to the movies, going to a club, wherever. But our time at the finca could be defined by one word: leisure. We basked in the sun, swam in the pool, ate Porky’s gourmet cuisine, and drank all night. It was an almost surreal experience that’s difficult to describe, but suffice to say that I would not be surprised if those two days wound up being the highlight of this trip."


"The finca was una experiencia increíble. When I was a teenager my mom would always ask me if I was going to go away for the weekend with my friends and tell me stories about how she would go with her group of friends to a town an hour away and spend the weekend there. I didn’t understand the concept at all. Why would you go away when everyone was already here? After a weekend at the finca I finally understand what she was talking about and how this can be a wonderful and big part of what it means to grow up in a Latin American country. People came and went from the finca, and our group that started out as 11 grew to 16 or 17 by Sunday.

I loved that everyone was there to relax and have a good time. There was no need to go anywhere or do anything except cook food, sit by the pool and walk around the town every once in a while. Cooking was one of the best parts. Allison and I served as Andrés helpers and we chopped and prepped all the food for 16 people. Even though we did everything his way, he taught us how to make patacones, maduros fritos, asado, arroz and jugo. We never ate out and it was a wonderful experience."


"I was really impressed about how well everything worked out with the finca trip, despite the difference in punctuality and planning. Sure we waited for an hour for Porky to get to the bus station and ended up leaving almost three hours later than planned. And yeah we did almost get stuck in Santa Fe when we were leaving on Sunday because all the buses were gone…and ended up leaving three hours later than planned. But we got there and we made it back safely. And, we pulled off some really successful meals with some major directing on Porky’s part. We got to walk around town, relax in the pool, go on a food-shopping excursion, and meet lots of new friends. And even though there was some downtime where us gringos would be wondering what was going on, you could never say that the compañeros were lazy or short of energy. They were the ones who went to bed the latest and got up the earliest. Breakfast would already be on the table when we woke up and by that time, they’d already be thinking about lunch. They’d spend all day in the pool but still be up for walking with us around the town. And, they were always eager to show us new things, whether it’s a new fruit, a song we didn’t know, or the beautiful old churches all over Santa Fe. I’m really glad we went and I hope we can go sometime again soon."

Photo credit: Juan Camilo Ospina Franco