When I decided to start a blog for this trip I told myself it was a good chance to practice what I was preaching about setting my mind to something and following through. I didn’t want to update it twice and then never touch it again so I told myself that I was going to have to update it at least weekly, no matter what, even with just a little blurb or photo. So that’s gone well so far… That’ll be the plan from here on out though – this post and the next to catch up on Colombia/Mexico and Cuba, respectively, and then weekly after that. Definitely. For sure.

So, Colombia and Mexico. I spent the first month of the trip traveling with Liv, with whom I traveled in Europe for a month and a half after graduating from college, and who graciously agreed to be my girlfriend about halfway through our month together in spite of my being a dirty vagrant. She’s busy finishing her Master’s in New York until May so we’ll be dating via carrier pigeon until then and planning to meet up again soon after. We started out the trip in Bogota, visiting our friend Silvana. Bogota is gigantic and lies right up against a beautiful mountain range. Silvana and her family gave us a warm welcome and showed us lots of famous Colombian hospitality, I felt part of the family the entire time we were there and even got checked up on a few times after we left. We visited their family house in Girardot for some oppressively hot sun and mosquitoes, drove around town with Camilo, her dad, and got drinks and advice from her brother Alejandro and her mom Pilar. One special experience was going to Camilo’s house for a novena. The novena is a Colombian Christmas tradition where, for each of the 9 nights before Christmas, people get together with different groups of friends and family to pray (depending…), eat, and generally be together. It’s a beautiful, joyous atmosphere and the typical food, tamales and hot chocolate, suits me just fine also. As great as the novena was the most beautiful moment of our ten days in Bogota was probably a last minute invitation to Camilo and Angie’s wedding. Camilo and Angie are good friends of Silvana’s whom I met when I spent a week in Bogota in June of last year. Then, by pure coincidence, Silvana and Camilo were separately visiting New York on the same weekend that I went to visit Liv there, so we all met up for a great day of Shake Shack and biking around Central Park. Camilo and Angie were getting married while we were in Bogota in a small, intimate ceremony at the beautiful Laguna de Cisga (sp?). A couple of friends of theirs ended up not being able to make it so when Silvana talked with Camilo before the wedding he told her to bring us along. The ceremony was perfect – right on the edge of a beautiful lake, administered by a close friend of theirs, Camilo and Angie trading touching vows with Marla the dog whimpering with excitement on the side. The reception was lots of fun (maybe even just a bit too much fun for me on the whiskey front…) and I’m overjoyed to have Camilo and Angie as friends. Next time it’ll be our turn to host.

After Bogota Liv and I went off to Cartagena. It’s a beautiful city right on the coast, baking in the Carribean sun. The old city is the main attraction, and with good reason. All beautiful colonial architecture and delicious restaurants surrounded by colonial fortifications, it’s delightful to just walk around and look. Ceviche is one of the most popular dishes in Cartagena and it’s easy to see why – the seafood is fresh and delicious, and having it raw and cold is perfect when you’ve been baking in the sun all day. We took a day for a boat tour around the Rosario Islands and to Baru, where we got our first taste of beach relaxation. The boat was a bit questionable and with choppy water on the way back there were serious tailbone concerns but luckily we made it without incident. From Cartagena we headed east a few hours, through Baranquilla, to a little town called Palomino which has good surfing beaches (too bad I can’t get up on a surfboard) and lies right next to beautiful forested mountains. One day we climbed up into the mountains and got a snapshot of beautiful, untouched jungle before spending a couple of hours lazily tubing down the river; another we just walked along the beach to see a different river; and a third we spent in Tayrona National Park, which was a real highlight. Once you get to the entrance the park is only accessible on foot or horseback so we chose the 3 hours walking through different forest scenes, giving on white sand beaches with beautiful rock formations and azure blue water (I know, I’ve been spending too much time reading tourist information leaflets). The pictures don’t do the place justice – it’s tremendous.

Some quick food highlights from Colombia: Ajiaco is a famous dish around Bogota, a soup made with 3 different types of potatoes and to which you can add chicken, avocado, cream, and other things. Piquete was incredible – it’s basically a giant grill where you choose what combination of things you want: all types of meat, potatoes, yucca, plantains, etc… They put everything in a giant basket for you and then you just eat with your hands. Liv and I had it in the mountains next to Bogota with Silvana’s dad Camilo, and, man. The pork rinds, chicken, pork, plantains, just… everything. It’s a good thing I don’t actually live in Colombia because Liv and I agreed we could eat that twice a week and I don’t think my heart would last very long. The ceviche in Cartagena was delicious, and we also took as much advantage as we could of fresh fruit juice.

From Colombia we went to Mexico city to meet up with Sofia, Liv’s current roommate in NY. We stayed with her at her parents’ beautiful new apartment (they still had boxes to unpack but gave us a fabulous welcome) and got extremely lucky with our timing – we were there the first week of January while everyone was away on vacation so the city was almost empty and we got to tour all around easily. First, though, we went and spent two nights in Valle de Bravo, about an hour and a half away from Mexico city, to do New Year’s with Pati, Sofia’s older sister. Pati is a professional paraglider (!!) and also works at a camp keeping a veritable menagerie (trained raven, boa constrictor, tarantula, scorpion, baby crocodile, among many others…) to teach kids about interacting with nature. She’s a complete badass. Valle is awesome – it’s a small, friendly town surrounded by mountains (hence paragliding) and has a big lake right in the center. We got to go up the mountain and watch a couple hundred hang- and paragliders take off (hang gliding is the big triangular sail where you’re horizontal and hold onto a bar, paragliding is with a parachute. These people are incredible – their flights can last 3-4 hours, spinning in circles in thermals to gain altitude before cruising off to a different spot and starting again), had a delicious late lunch on a rooftop terrace with a view of the lake, and met Brownie before ringing in the new year partying at his mezcaleria with the whole flying crew. The next day we went and saw the animals before heading back to Mexico city to explore. I loved Mexico city. It’s got a beautiful old center modeled after Paris, great museums, parks, everything. And obviously the food is stellar. We had delicious birria and pozole (different soups), quesadillas, alhambres, huaraches (I think that’s the name? or maybe that means flip flops…?), and of course tacos. Burritos turn out to be an American thing and aren’t really to be found in Mexico, but we didn’t miss them. After a week in Mexico city we caught a flight to Oaxaca, famous for its food and crafts, neither of which disappointed. We went and visited a famous alebrije (carved wooden figures with unbelievably intricate hand painted designs) workshop and stopped in San Bartolo to check out the famous black pottery. We also caught a bus up the mountains for some stunning views and to visit Monte Alban, a site with impressive ancient ruins (look, sorry, I’m not really a history buff). Food highlights were the mole (took a little getting used to but it grew on me), having breakfast at the cute little bakery next door, and corn on a stick with mayonnaise, cheese, chili powder, and lime in the square. So good. From Oaxaca we hopped a flight to Merida, the capital of the state of Yucatan. We didn’t find a ton to do in Merida but it was small and had a friendly feel. From there we rented a car and drove east, in the direction of Tulum. Renting the car turned out to be a great decision, we were thrilled with the freedom it gave us to explore instead of always being handcuffed to a tour group. We went to Chichen Itza (cool but again, I’m no history buff) and then stopped off at several cenotes before spending a night in Valladolid, halfway to Tulum. The cenotes were one of my favorite parts of the whole trip. They’re cave/well/underground pool things that you can swim in which generally have crystal clear water and some of which are astonishingly deep, 300 feet or more. They’re all similar but different – some are caves with a tiny opening at the top, some are open to the air, some have tree roots growing 50 feet down into the water, some are deep, some are wide, etc… We ended up going to 6 or so over two days and it didn’t get old for a second. After Valladolid we arrived in Tulum, on the east coast. Tulum has its own set of ancient ruins which are striking because they’re right up against the ocean. We visited those and also took a day to drive a few hours down to Bacalar, right next to the border with Belize, to check out the 7 color lake. The name comes from the fact that the water ends up being 7 different shades of blue in different parts of the lake because of depth, what’s on the bottom, etc… In the shallow parts it’s crystal clear and the whole thing was beautiful, a great day trip. We also stopped by a protected area for spider monkeys and got to see a group of them chowing down right where we parked. On our last day in Tulum we forked over the money to take a boat tour of the Sian Kaan nature reserve. After 30 bumpy minutes in a van we hopped on 6 person boats and cruised through 3 giant lakes with mangroves, islands, tons of birds, and apparently crocodiles and manatees, which we unfortunately didn’t see because the storm the day before had clouded up the water. After crossing the lagoons we grabbed a snack before heading out on the ocean to look for sea turtles and dolphins. Unfortunately the turtles didn’t cooperate but we were lucky with the dolphins, finding two big pods, one of which even included a playful little baby dolphin! Dawwwwwww. We also got to snorkel a bit at a coral reef before getting lunch and then heading home.

That pretty much wrapped it up for Mexico. The next day we just drove up to Cancun and relaxed, and then jetted off on our separate ways the day after that. This whole part of the trip was special since I was traveling with Liv, for a second time even! We’re lucky to form a great traveling duo – we both like to get out into nature, eat everything, meet people, and try new things. We’re different but I think we complement each other nicely, and we certainly keep each other entertained. I’m really grateful that we got to spend this month traveling together and I’m excited that we’re going to stay together intercontinentally, regardless of the challenges. It was an awfully hard goodbye in the airport in Cancun but I’m also excited for the rest of the trip, cruising around by myself, going with the flow, and seeing where I end up. I’m less sure now that I want to travel as long as possible, since a year or more of separation would be hard, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. We’ve been bandying around the idea of just picking somewhere abroad and moving there together, since we both want to live abroad, so that might end up being a perfect solution. We’ll see what happens…

Next up I’m meeting my mom in Cuba!