100 Day Adventure: Pt 1

Feb 8

So, I did a pretty crazy thing last year. After going through a rough divorce, I promised myself that 2022 would be the best year of my life. And it was. One of the things I did was take a solo, 100 day trip around the world. I booked almost everything as I went and just worked off a list of desired countries. In this order: Colombia (a surprise booked through a travel company), Argentina, Chile, Peru, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Iceland, Spain, Portugal, Montenegro and Greece. It was the best decision I’ve ever made. The things I saw, people I met and experiences I had will be with me for my lifetime. I am changed forever. And I’ve written all about it. Here is my story.

Days 1-5/100: Bogota, Colombia

What an INCREDIBLE spot to start this world tour. Neither my client, Renee, or I had any clue what was in store when this ended up being the mystery vacation spot. We decided to book a company to select where we’d go for a week. You fill out a lengthy questionnaire and they book everything for you so you literally don’t know where you’re going until you get to the airport! (Shout out to Katie with Magical Mystery Tours-if you want to try having someone book a surprise vacation for you, I can't recommend her enough!)

Katie arranged a graffiti tour that was beautiful, educational and gave us a unique glimpse of the city, history and culture. We had a 13 course lunch that was to DIE for!! It was about awakening all of the senses at one time-we even washed our hands in chocolate! The food here is one of the biggest surprises to me. We didn't have one bad meal-whether it was white tablecloth, coursed dinner or a street vendor!

We took the cable car up to the top of Monserrate and watched the city sparkle. Got back to the hotel-we were SO tired, but there was an awesome alternative band playing at the bar. They were impressively good. They gave us our 2nd/3rd/4th wind of the day and we jammed out in the front row like their groupies for the night. They were SO excited we knew the words to every song-it was awesome! And that was all just Day 1!

The next day we went on a hike 2 hours outside of the city with a local guide who shared his home, knowledge of the land and a tasty, sweet, hot drink made with sugar cane and lime, which was perfect after our cold, wet, 3 hr hike. This altitude is no joke! Afterwards we went to a local place where the chef had so many different styles of meat on this massive, conical grill. He passed Renee and I a piece of pork on our way in and it was crispy, smokey and delicious. We shared a plate with our driver and guide, which we loved! We were absolutely wiped afterwards, so we took a dip in the hot tub and had a quiet (but delicious!) dinner of a traditional Colombian soup.

Finally, I got to take some absolutely GORGEOUS shots of Renee in a beautiful silk, green dress all around the downtown area. The people here are so kind, there was one shot where I *wanted* the cars driving by to be in it, but they kept stopping to let me get my shot! We wrapped up our time in Bogota with dinner at this cool spot with different floors: heaven, hell, and purgatory (where we ended up, lol!) I can't believe how much we packed in such a short amount of time!