I said that phrase in June 2021 during the first experience of pueblos remotos in Icod de los Vinos, Tenerife, which was our pilot project. It was reminded of Álvaro, one of the pioneer participants, the other day when he was rescuing some interviews he did at the end of the experience. And that phrase inspired me to write this post post because it summarizes the learning of these last 2 years.

How beautiful it is to feel that special connection with another person. Not only in the sentimental plane of a couple, but in our day to day with all the people around us. Surely you have felt it too: they present or start talking to someone and you feel that you know that person of a lifetime. Many times that happened to me both during our experiences and outside them. Sometimes it is during the selection interview, when we talk for the first time or by sharing a sunset.

Be that as it may, it is undeniable that we are social beings and that we need to connect with other people. Now, it is our choice if we want to grow thanks to these connections nourishing ourselves through the exchange of learning and the practice of active listening. There are times that we are not in our best version (stress, health problems or family loads) and we are not able to connect 100%. Life is a roller coaster we are up and sometimes down.

In what we have been in 2023, we have experienced a lot with this issue of connections. Next, I tell you what we have done, and what we have in mind for the second half of the year.

Popup Coliving Villarejo 2023: one -week experiment on the outskirts of Madrid

Yes, as you read it, we have made the leap to the Peninsula! From May 5 to 12 we organize our first pilot experience outside the Canary Islands. We decided to do it in Villarejo de Salvanés (Madrid) because it was the place chosen for the annual event we made in early April with the members of our community, whom we have affectionately baptized as “Remotenses”, a name we choose jointly during this meeting.

One of our most active Remark, Gonzalo Fernández, participant of Antigua 2021 and Fuencaliente 2022, in addition to co-presenter of our podcast "The Moment of Tea" , is a native of Villarejo and acted as a local leader during the meeting. We visited the Almazara de Posós, we catched the wines of the Jeromín winery while we saw in first the documentary of remote villages, we had a guided tour of the castle and the house of the third and shared numerous moments of anecdotes and laughs. The beautiful thing was that in just two days the participants of the different editions connected immediately and everything flowed wonderfully. If you want to know more about how it was, I encourage you to read this fun story that Magda wrote: "The fabulous case of the 'sect' of Villarejo de Salvanés"

After the annual remaining one that knew very little, we decided to test what an experience would be with a duration of one week. It was the way to test what many people ask us: shorter experiences. We did not even announce it, we only told people that some of us (the internal team) knew and we knew they could be interested. In fact, we were about to cancel it, but just two weeks before we managed to confirm 11 wonderful people who joined to live this new adventure. Some questions we wanted to answer were: What would the connection between the participants during a week? Could the "connected rurality" be generated in such a short time?

As for the activities we repeated the same ones we did during the annual event, to which we add a esparto workshop with local teachers and several group dynamics that we chose among all: a mastermind, walks and walks through the field, a class of improvised aerobic, family dinners, numerous conversations and, above all, many laughs and good vibes.

What were the results? 

• Very good connections and synergies emerged. We do not know very well if this is because we were all connected in some way, being previously friends and acquaintances. We would have to try people who are not known and see what happens.

• Without a doubt, the connected rurality made its magic and was present among the participants. The difference we saw with respect to the experiences of 3 weeks is that the connections did not get to find the community and local entrepreneurs. There was not enough time for them to take place.

• We would like to use these experiences to test new markets. The idea is that before performing a 3 -week experience, we will make a Popup Coliving to see how everything works and if it has potential. If you have any idea where we could do next, we are all ears 😉

The Break 2023: Is it a matter of number or energies and attitudes?

From May 20 to June 13, we received 18 women from all over Europe who had the opportunity to live, work and grow together in Agaete, Gran Canaria. In fact, we were impressed with the growth that each of them experienced both professionally and personally.  

I will not lie to you, we were very worried at first. Despite being the third group we welcomed under the program The Break Felowship, this time we leave our comfort zone because:

• It was the largest group we have had so far. We are used to having groups of around 10 people, for us 18 people were too many people ..

• We were not physically present. It was the first time without any of us (Carlos or me) living the complete experience with them ...

• We do not try to be perfect. In each experience we try to give our best, but there are always things that are out of our control ...

What happened then during these 24 days?

• All the women took great. I had never seen such a big group where they would support and take care of each other. They were continuously looking for a proactive way to create a positive and safe environment for all; and actively contributing to the group.

• Lara Hernández, the person we decided to incorporate as part of the team, did an incredible job. Even being a little sad because we could not live the experience ourselves, we are very grateful to have managed to step back to Lara to take a step forward and become our first ambassador of pueblos remotos 

• Everything went well in general and we are very happy with how things were handled. And in the end what makes the difference is not the number of people but human quality, energies, attitudes and desire to contribute and generate a good atmosphere. Experiences are created by people. 

Fuencaliente and Antigua 2023: Replicating what has already worked

Another of the things we wanted to test this year was to replicate the experiences that have already worked. In addition, we launched them in advance so that interested people could organize over time. Our intention on the one hand is to give continuity to the work that we have already started with those local communities and, on the other, to observe how the market behaves with the purchase decision and see if the fact of publishing them with enough time changes something.

After talking with the local actors of the different communities with which we have worked to date, we finally decided to replicate the last two we did. We launch both experiences in early January on our website and social networks:

1. Remote peoples Fuencaliente 2023 on La Palma from September 2 to 23

2. Ancient 2023 remote towns in Fuerteventura from September 30 to October 21

What have been the results so far?

• Very little interaction during the first months of the year, many interested people told us that they could not make such long -term decisions

• Three months seen is when we start having reservations, also because we have been published in articles by Condenost and other media. 

• Despite having a fairly faithful community and continues to grow, one of our biggest challenges is the conversion process and get to our market niche:

So you know, if you know people who can be interested in living one of our experiences, both Fuencaliente and Antiguo are still active and inscriptions are open. Hopefully we will close both groups and continue to grow the connected rurality!

The best thing to grow when connecting with other people is that the more varied these are, the more we will grow because the more they will give us. In fact, we have already proven that the duration of the experience does not matter, nor the number of people who participate. Neither the age nor the profession; The important thing is the link between them. Because all the people who cross our way come to teach us something. And the ones that continue walking by our side are the ones that will help us improve in our day to day. Life goes from that, to continue learning from each other while we walk together 🙂