SILVIA - HOST AT NINE

Meet Silvia, the Host and House manager at Nine. She started working with us in September 2020 and in this interview you get the know her a bit more!

What’s your background?

I was born in 1990, in La Orotava, Tenerife. Almost all my life I have lived on the island, although while I was studying business administration at University, I went to live in Zaragoza (Spain) for a year. When I finished my studies, I decided to go live in Berlin and I was there for 10 months.

After spending a season in Berlin, I decided to come back to Tenerife. My heart was divided in two, but for different reasons I returned to my beloved island and since then I have not left again.

I got a scholarship to work in a consultancy, and when the scholarship ended, I was hired there. I worked there for 4 years, until I decided to quit and start my NineColiving adventure.

What do you get most excited about in life?

From a very young age, I have incorporated traveling into my way of life, but always from the point of view of a vacation. My grandparents were tireless travelers and they liked to take their family on trips with them once a year. Thanks to these trips, I have great memories with my whole family (at that time there were many of us!). I think my grandmother has left me with the excitement for traveling and continuing to explore the world.

But I'm also in love with the island where I was born. I really enjoy its nature and the way of life that I have here. I love going to the beach and camping near the sea. I also like to go to the mountains or ravines and hike there, in which I am not only amazed by the island beauty, but also as a way of physical and mental improvement.

After several years of self-knowledge, and listening to myself a lot, I have understood that this is how I like to live. So now I live on a beautiful farm, and this is being my great life project. Therefore, one of the things that I am most passionate about right now is building my home, with my dogs and my family. By the way, I have a great weakness for dogs. I can't see a dog suffer, so I always try to help abused or abandoned ones… and the result is that now I have three dogs at home and we are a great family!

What’s your role at Nine?

I am Host and House Manager. Basically I take care, together with Anne, that everything goes well at Nine and everyone who stays in the house feels it as their own home. I also keep track of finances and that the internal organisation among the Nine Coliving team is going well.

One of my projects in the house is to be able to support and contribute to give more value to the community: provide information of interest to guests, organising activities in common, improving our facilities and services ... always following our values and principles: support for local businesses and entrepreneurs, healthy and ecological food, to have sustainable resources, and respect the environment that surrounds us.

Being the only local in the house, I also try to help anyone who needs it with advice and recommendations about Tenerife and La Orotava (of course!) . I am very proud of the island so it makes me happy to help others explore and also feel at home.

Why do you think Tenerife and the Canary island is a good destination for digital nomads?

Tenerife sells very easily. It has good weather throughout the year, with a very pleasant temperature of 21 degrees as an annual average. Although geographically we are next to Africa, we are part of Europe, which greatly facilitates the arrival of people and flight connections. Our culture is Spanish, with the peculiarity of the islands and their good weather, which make the character and mood of its people generally good. It is a very safe place to live and also for tourism. Our food is very varied, healthy and I would say delicious. Tenerife is a tourist island, and therefore it is easy to communicate in English in most places, as well as to find useful information to explore the island on your own. But at the same time, we have nature close by and that helps you feel free and calm, without standing in queues or surrounded by many people. Definitely, it is a paradise, within Europe.

What is your favorite thing about Nine Coliving?

It is difficult to answer this question, because I have several favorite things. Over time, my relationship with Nine has changed.

At the beginning it was the new project that Anne was going to start - the Dutch girl I met one day, two years ago, in a dog park - in La Orotava, the traditional town in which I have lived most of my life. At that time, I just liked the idea of the project.

One day I visited the house, and it seemed beautiful, because Anne had wanted to keep the Canarian essence, but taking care of the decoration and beauty in detail. Her good taste in decorating the house is one of my favorite things.

Over time, I attended various events, and the community that is created and the atmosphere of the house, never ceased to amaze me. So many people from so many different places, each one with its own story. I love knowing the stories behind each digital nomad. It's the second life I wish I had.

Now I am part of the team, and my perspective has changed. I think one of my favorite things in this moment is the values that Anne and Ninecoliving have. It is respectful, it is fair, it supports the small business and things well done, recycling, taking care of abandoned dogs, taking care of the environment. Living and working without stepping on anyone, and always wanting guests to feel good, above all else.

Ninecoliving is part of my life, and not like any other job, but because I am part of a community and this makes me very happy.

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