Dealing with Homesickness in Colombia: Our Tips

Published on October 31, 2025 and written by Cyril Jarnias

Moving to a new country is an exciting adventure, but for many expatriates, homesickness can quickly overshadow this thrilling experience.

In Colombia, where enchanting landscapes and a rich, vibrant culture await exploration, it’s essential to find effective ways to nurture your emotional well-being and fully embrace your new life.

This article offers practical tips to ease nostalgia, from adopting new cultural rituals to building local social networks, transforming your stay into a rewarding and memorable period.

Creating a Comforting Routine

To ease homesickness during your stay in Colombia, it’s essential to create a comforting routine that incorporates elements from your home culture while opening up to the richness of local traditions.

Practical Tips for Incorporating Familiar Elements:

• Cooking traditional dishes: Regularly prepare recipes from your home country using local or imported ingredients. This helps you rediscover comforting flavors and share your culture with new acquaintances.
• Listening to typical music: Create playlists of songs from home to listen to during relaxation time or your morning routines.
• Maintaining daily rituals: Keep habits that remind you of home, such as reading the newspaper while drinking your favorite beverage, practicing familiar sports activities, or using decorative items that evoke your country.

Examples of Habits to Preserve:

Familiar Habit	Application in Colombia
Traditional breakfast	Recreate it with local products
Home coffee break	Replace it with local coffee tasting
Weekly family call	Schedule it at a fixed time each week
Morning reading	Enjoy reading in a park or café

Creating a Balanced Routine by Integrating Colombian Culture:

• Learn about tasting Colombian coffee, world-renowned, by visiting local coffee shops or specialized markets.
• Participate in local festivities or typical activities like salsa, vallenato, or artisan markets.
• Try new morning rituals, for example a walk in a lively neighborhood of the city, or take part in outdoor activities in the lush nature.
• Mix your traditional meals with Colombian specialties like arepa, ajiaco, or bandeja paisa.

Ideas for Combining Familiar Elements and Colombian Discoveries:

• Prepare a Sunday brunch with Colombian friends where everyone brings a dish from their country.
• Create a playlist that alternates music from home and Colombian artists.
• Practice a Colombian sport (for example tejo) while maintaining your usual exercise routine.

Benefits of This Approach:

• Strengthen the feeling of stability and grounding.
• Promote cultural openness and encounters.
• Ease nostalgia while fully enjoying the Colombian experience.

Surrounding yourself with familiar elements while opening up to local traditions helps create a reassuring and dynamic cocoon, conducive to flourishing during a stay abroad.

Maintaining Close Ties with Loved Ones

Staying connected with family and friends is essential to ease the feeling of longing related to distance. These social ties offer valuable emotional support, help reduce stress, and contribute to overall well-being, particularly by preventing isolation and maintaining a strong cultural identity.

Technologies Facilitating Transcontinental Communications:

Tool	Main Function	Key Advantages
Video calls (Zoom, WhatsApp, Skype)	See and hear loved ones in real time	Immersive interaction, sharing emotions
Instant messaging (WhatsApp, Messenger, Signal)	Quick exchange of written messages, voice notes, photos	Asynchronous communication, easy content sharing
Social networks (Facebook, Instagram)	Sharing experiences and life moments	Maintaining a news feed, instant reactions

Practical Tips for Maintaining a Sharing Routine:

• Schedule regular calls (weekly or monthly) and mark them in a shared calendar so you don’t forget.
• Create family or friend chat groups on messaging apps to exchange daily news.
• Use free moments (commutes, breaks) to send a message or make a quick call.
• Use reminders and notifications to establish a habit of regular contact.
• Vary communication methods: alternate video calls, written messages, sending photos or short videos.

Sharing Photos and Experiences

Sharing photos and experiences helps strengthen bonds despite the distance. Sending images of daily life, sharing important moments (birthdays, achievements, local landscapes) or recounting experiences helps maintain a sense of closeness and belonging.

Positive Effects of These Exchanges on Morale and Cultural Connection:

• They reduce the feeling of isolation and promote maintaining a positive mindset.
• These interactions allow you to continue sharing traditions, anecdotes, and common values, thus helping to preserve the cultural and emotional connection with your home country.
• Knowing you can count on family or friends, even from a distance, provides emotional security and strengthens resilience in the face of expatriation challenges or prolonged separation.

Staying connected isn’t just a way to fill the void, it’s an active approach to maintaining and nurturing bonds essential to personal and family balance, regardless of the miles that separate.

Immersing Yourself in Local Culture

To immerse yourself in local culture and ease homesickness in Colombia, it’s essential to adopt an active approach to integration and openness. Here are various concrete ways to integrate into Colombian society:

Participating in Local Cultural Activities

• Taking part in traditional festivals, like the Barranquilla Carnival, Cali Fair, or Medellín Flower Festival, allows you to discover Colombian customs, music, and conviviality.
• Accepting invitations to social events, even if the language barrier may seem intimidating, promotes integration.
• Being flexible with punctuality: in Colombia, arriving 15 to 30 minutes after the scheduled time is common for informal invitations.

Exploring Local Cuisine

• Taste and learn to prepare typical dishes:
  • Arepa
  • Bandeja paisa
  • Ajiaco
  • Empanadas
• Sign up for cooking workshops or ask local friends to share their recipes.

Mastering Spanish Basics

• Learning some Spanish basics greatly facilitates daily interactions, access to qualified employment, and understanding cultural subtleties, like the use of informal (tú) or formal (usted) address.
• Take language classes in person or online.
• Practice with locals at the market, on transportation, or during group activities.

Building a Social Network

• Join clubs or groups with common interests: hiking, salsa dancing, book clubs, sports associations, or volunteering.
• Rely on expatriate networks for initial support, but make sure not to remain only among foreigners.
• Use Facebook groups or associations like Français du Monde – ADFE or UFE to meet other expatriates and Colombians.

Discovering Local Arts

• Visit museums and art galleries to better understand Colombian history and creativity.
• Attend concerts or performances of traditional music: cumbia, vallenato, salsa.
• Participate in dance classes, particularly salsa, very popular in major cities like Cali or Medellín.

Activity	Main Objective	Concrete Example
Local festivals	Immersion in social and cultural life	Barranquilla Carnival
Colombian cuisine	Sensory discovery and sharing	Arepa workshop
Spanish learning	Communication and cultural understanding	Group Spanish classes
Clubs and associations	Meeting people and creating friendships	Hiking group
Arts and music	Appreciation of local creativity	Salsa night, Botero Museum

Opening up to Colombian culture means multiplying opportunities for learning, encounters, and wonder, while building a new home for yourself.