Tag: Medellin

I have too much time, said nobody

by Stacy Ziegler, posted in Colombia, Early Retirement, home exchange, Lifestyle, Mexico, Riviera Maya

Well, I may have to rename this to, “annual update” blog. Sooooooo much has happened since the last entry, even then I kidded about needing to rename this the “Quarterly update.” Woops!

Since June of last year what have we done, where have we been? According to my Google timeline, we returned from our “Trip of a lifetime” in June 2023. That summer, we returned to Washington state to see friends and family. It was an extremely packed 4 week trip and we swore we would never try to pack that much in to such a short stay in Washington again. We came home and decided to treat ourselves to an actual vacation so we set off to Medellin, Colombia. That trip was magical! We have been to Cartagena and Santa Marta but never inland. I cannot emphasize enough how blown away we were by the entire area of Antioquia. Rio Negro (Where the airport is) and Guatape were equally as stunning. We took a few tours in Medellin as well as an all day tour out to Guatape that included climbing to the top of La Perla aka El Peñon. The height starts are roughly 7,000 feet and there are 750 stairs to the top. That’s right, you start of with the air already being so thin you can barely breathe and then you hoof it 750 steps, practically straight up to the top but it is so worth it.(You can also see this on season 36 episode 3 of The Amazing Race, we did it before it was cool 😂) Since we were on a tour, we didn’t have the luxury of really taking our time getting up, It took us about 30 minutes and what really kept us going was having these young moms passing us up while carrying a baby on their hip! Ok, ok, if they can do it, so can we!

When we moved to Mexico, we vowed to explore as much of it as we could. We love the country, the people, the culture and of course, the food. After our whirlwind trip to Colombia, we spent a week in San Miguel de Allende and another week in Guanajuato. We were able to utilize Home Exchange to do it so we really did get to take it all in and live like a local. We had a brief stop in Querétaro as that is the city we flew into. We took the Primera plus bus from SMA to Guanajuato and flew out from there back home the last day of October, just in time for Día de Muertos festivities around are neighborhood. The Primera plus bus was equal to flying business class. Very clean, comfortable and well organized.

Both neighborhoods are filled with charm, culture, museums and unfortunately, much like Oaxaca, fireworks at 5 am. We visited the mummy museum in Guanajuato and just happened to be lucky enough to visit overthe 51st annual Cervantino, an enormous arts festival!

Winter was filled with visitors from my kids to Lisa’s parents, a trip to ruin Ek Balam and a cenote called Coj Ha also known as “The Cathedral” which was the most stunning cenote I have ever seen. This was part of a Mayan cultural retreat where we met an herbalist for a reading and cleansing, a cocoa ceremony and a lot of soul searching. It was organized by Laura LaBrie, Maya Harmony. If you are interested in a real experience, very little glitter and gold, where you learn more about yourself, the Maya, and having a cleansing, definitely contact her. The winter also, unfortunately, included the passing of my Aunt, who was more like a mother, on Christmas day.

In February, I was honored to officiate my brother’s wedding so that involved a very quick trip back to the US. Pro tip, if flying from San Diego area to Cancun or vice versa, use the CBX (Cross border Express) inside the Tijuana airport. There are currently no direct flights from San Diego to Cancun but there are several from Tijuana. The CBX is INSIDE the airport. We landed in Tijuana, pulled out our passports and tickets for the bridge and walked 15 minutes and walked out of a terminal in the Otay Pacific are of San Diego where we rented a car and headed straight to In-n-Out. Tickets for the bridge start around $20 and can usually be purchased with your airline ticket.

In March(MARCH? It came in the blink of an eye) we set sail on a Celebrity cruise for Lisa’s birthday to the Grand Cayman, Aruba and Curacao with her dad and step mom. We did not like the Celebrity ship or process nearly as much as we enjoyed Princess but really, who is going to complain about that trip. We were able to spend time with her family and go snorkel some amazing reefs and a ship wreck. Our favorite island was, without a doubt, Curacao. Lovely little Dutch Caribbean island with stunning waters, Kokomo and adorable stores.

We made it back in time to head home for a few days to repack, and take a breath. Not a long one, just a few days before we headed off to attend Lisa’s niece’s destination wedding in Cancun. It was a beautiful few days filled with beautiful people. After the wedding, we continued on a road trip while our home was being occupied by family over spring break. This gave us a much needed push to get out and explore locally. We spent a night in Valladolid and then onto Merida for another Home Exchange. In my opinion, Merida is completed over rated. We saw some really cool things but I think after being in SMA/Oaxaca and Guanajuato, the bar was set fairly high. We stopped to see Chichén Itzá on our way to El Cuyo. I think we have figured out the trick to seeing the ruins without hoards of people is to go about 1:30 in the afternoon. By then the morning rush is gone and you have beat the afternoon tours. Chichén Itzá was really a magical place to visit. Coba might still be my favorite ruin in the area though. (Did I mention Coba already? I don’t think I did. Amazing ruin in the Riviera Maya where you can rent bikes to explore the massive grounds.)

After 2 weeks of exploring the Yucatan peninsula, we made it home the beginning of April and were happy to go NOWHERE for several weeks. A friend of ours invited us out to Isla Mujeres and we almost declined as we were so tired from traveling but how do you say no to that? Isla has been on Lisa’s bucket list for awhile and I have used me seasickness as a reason not to get on the ferry. Our friend has her own boat so it was impossible to turn down and I am glad that we went. I don’t think we have ever seen water that color, even in Aruba. We did not go ashore so I can’t speak to that but it looked really crowded, even from off shore during off season so if you are planning a trip, be prepared for that. The snorkeling was amazing and we saw several species of fish, rays, and eels that we don’t see at home.

I am certain I have left things out. I really do need to get back to trying to keep this updated on more than annual basis. Our next big trip starts next week. We are spending 2 weeks driving through Mexico before visiting family in Arizona and California then spending the summer in Washington (Thank you Home Exchange and Trusted House Sitters for making another amazing trip possible. (more on that later) Our trip back home involves a trip to Yosemite, Zion, Bryce Canyon and ?? Still wondering about Home Exchange? It has made most of these once in a lifetime experiences a reality, check it out here!

Till next time-

Stacy

Santa Marta, here we come!

by Stacy Ziegler, posted in Colombia, Early Retirement, Ex pat, Inspirational, LGBT, Lifestyle, Riviera Maya, Travel

It’s been awhile since I have been able to write. Unfortunately, my life doesn’t slow down despite my desire to spend more of my time daydreaming about where we might land in a few years.

It’s been a hectic few weeks; I am training a new class of CASAs (Court Appointed Special Advocates for children removed by the state) and that will roughly take up the month of April in conjunction with everyday work and life. We spent last weekend in Vancouver BC where we experienced the most amazing P!NK show and we are trying to unpack our things since we decided to pull our home off the market and pursue early retirement abroad instead.

With all of this going on, I managed to map out our upcoming trip and purchase our airline tickets and it goes a little something like this… SEA to JFK to enjoy New York City and have some really good food and unparalleled entertainment for our anniversary, JFK to CTG where we will spend 1 night in Cartagena, rent a car the next morning and make the drive to Santa Marta where we will spend 5 nights, SMR to BOG where we will spend 2 nights in Bogotoa, just checking things out, BOG to CUN to spend 7 more nights in Rivera Maya and finally CUN to SEA to be back in time for Thanksgiving. Fun side note, you can fly intercountry in Colombia for about $25 USD so while it is a 4-5 hour drive from Cartagena to Santa Marta, we are choosing to do that to see the the coast. Who knows, there may be some amazing beach town we drive past that we would never have known about otherwise! We are then flying from Santa Marta to Bogota for $25 where we will spend a few nights and then take a direct flight from Bogotoa to Cancun. We are not checking any bags so we can travel pretty freely and not have to worry about delays through customs, lost luggage, etc. I picked up a pretty awesome Travelpro carry on size suitcase on clearance at Macy’s that will easily hold everything I need to bring with me as well as my own snorkel gear. I was able to book the above itinerary for less than $1,500 per person using mileage points, perks, hotel reward points, etc.

I have never planned out a trip this extensive and I am sure some thing will not go as planned but that is all part of the experience. You may wonder why we are spending more time in Mexico since we just returned but if you’ve read my previous blog posts, we have decided to keep the Riviera Maya area open as a possible retirement location. Akumal, Tulum, Playa del Carmen-they all give off a mystical feeling. The Mayan culture, the beach, the people, the food, the cenotes… they call my name. The downsides to Mexico vs. Colombia on paper is rather extensive though. The medical care is not as good as the States and Colombia is significantly better than both. Cost of living is on par with Santa Marta though that is only if you are willing to swap an ocean front condo in Santa Marta for one that isn’t in Mexico. Residency is easily established in both. Mexico has really developed a reputation for being quite unsafe these days and that’s true even in Rivera Maya but of course, Colombia has its own sordid history but history is the key word. There are still plenty of travel advisories for both countries, check before you book! Common sense is your friend. There are plenty of places in the states, especially Seattle that I would not walk around at night and alone. Upsides for Mexico, English is much more widely spoken than in Colombia and its a 6 hour flight home instead of a 12 from Colombia. With that said, I have always felt like a flight is a flight so whether you are a 2, 6, 12 or 18 hour flight away, it is still just a flight. 🙂 Since we aren’t exactly looking for another America just in a cheaper location, I am not sure that part of Mexico would even give me the foreign experience that I want.

We are very excited for our trip to Colombia and the reason we aren’t staying longer is the fear that the humidity will be so oppressive that we will want to take Santa Marta off our list. If we do, that doesn’t mean Colombia is out. We want to spend two nights in Bogota on this trip just to see and feel the capital, we would not consider residency there but we want to return for at least a week long trip to Medellin and it’s surrounding areas for that purpose. Our stays in both countries will be research so that means that while we will likely dive and enjoy the beach, the whole idea is to rent a car, drive around, look at properties and neighborhoods at night as well as during the day. This isn’t a, sit on my rear and have a server bring me food and drinks all day while enjoying the Caribbean sun poolside, trip. The idea of being in Colombia thrills me. The people have a reputation for being extremely kind and open to foreigners and there is something uniquely empowering about forcing yourself outside of your comfort zone and submerging yourself in another culture especially when you don’t share a common language.