The Remote Island
Remotenses & Cactus Coliving colivers at the end of one of the Skill Share dynamics
Barraquito, almogrote, mojo, Garajonay.
Barraquito, almogrote, mojo, Garajonay.
Barraquito, almogrote, mojo, Garajonay.
Words, words and more words. Only words? It sounds more like the soundtrack of an amazing week. Words that evoke other words: Co-living, co-working, connecting. Words that all together could mean a very inspiring week full of emotions, conversations, activities, experiences and much more.
This story could start like this: fourteen remote workers, remotely related, spend a week in a remote island where people used to communicate remotely by whistling words. Just so you know, internet was just a remote thought back in that time. Not even a thought, perhaps. But the remote Gomerans, instead of sending WhatsApp messages, they used to whistle to each other from the place where they lived and worked. There you go, the first remote workers of all time.
(Fantastic moments we lived in La Gomera)
And here they came, many years later, when internet already replaced the whistling, a bunch of people from all around the world: Germany, Netherlands, Romania, France, Spain… All of them arrived to the remote island of La Gomera to live and work and have fun together during one week. That was back in October 2024. So, no that remote in historical terms.
How to summarize all the things which those remote workers lived during that week, my dear remote reader? Perhaps we could start with the latest: they learnt to make mojo. And while they were eating their own mojo, the magic of the mojo (and the essence of the wine) inspired them to reflect and share their feelings about all what they have lived during that intense week. They laughed, they cried, they inspired each other, they felt connected (with themselves and with the environment) and they talked from the very deep of their souls. That’s probably the best summary of all, that inspirational moment in a remote farm, surrounded by the nature, when they were able to rewind and speak up from their innermost being.
For some of them, the highlight of the week could be the international dinner. For others, perhaps, the hiking to the peak of the Garajonay. There might be some remoters who claim for the skill-sharing sessions as one of their favourite topics. Not even to mention those who felt speechless by the whistling demonstration. Or the ones who remembered how they interrupted their work for going for a coffee with someone, improvising a community meal or just having some chit-chats with someone else who made their day. And we could keep on and on, talking about lots of activities, plans, deep conversations and grateful moments which emerged during the week (same as the light emerges from the darkness in a beautiful sunrise from Playa de La Cueva). Or perhaps we can picture all those remote workers together in any of those moments. From Bruni to Chema, Andreas and Guille. From Simona to Carmen, Ornella and Gonzalo. From Jorge to Clem, Paula, Elsa, Carlos and Alfonso. We can picture all of them posing for a group photo (perhaps a selfie taken by Carlos) while they are all smiling and shouting… “BARRAQUITO!!!” or… “ALMOGROTE!!!”
But, my dear and remote reader, above all that, probably there is a common ground where all these remoters could land and agree about: the positive energy and sense of community that anyone could breathe during that amazing week in La Gomera. And that’s probably the best way of summarizing this experience and ending this story. Because words are just words, but the happy faces of the people during the week and the good vibes around it… that’s not possible to describe it, you just need to feel it.
