My Nomad Diary, Week 17:
Moments from the week:
Finally back into a fitness routine for the first time since MAY!
Finding yet another livable city for the future and loving every second of it
A new week and I’m settled in to one of my “target” cities in Colombia. I’m still not 100% sure how I’m going to plan the next few years of my life but I am starting to relax about it a bit more now. A short entry this week, purely because I’m slowing down, doing less noteworthy stuff and focusing more on work.
Action-packed day today as I’m heading back to the gym (I hate the gym) to try and get back into shape for running. I’ve been consistently achieving over 10K steps a day for about six weeks now, so I’m pretty sure I’m ready.
I tried running last month and a 5K absolutely ruined me😅 I felt like I’d done a marathon by the end of it.
I found a high quality gym around the corner that offered a month-long membership for about £15, perfect. I smashed out 30-mins on a bike, 10m on a stair-stepper and then 30-mins on a treadmill with an incline, dead chuffed.
Walked around a bit to explore the city, and then headed home to catch up on some work.
Nothing exciting I know, but finally getting into the swing of normal living 👌
Tuesday and I’ve decided to just do nothing today. I couldn’t tell you the last time I did nothing. Well, not completely nothing, I went to a stationery shop to get a new notepad (rock-n-roll I know) and then went to my new favourite café to practice some Spanish and went to the gym again. I did some more research on splitting my time between here and México (my current game plan) and how to bring my pup along for the journey, and it’s all looking pretty rosy.
After that, did some housework and had a lazy day. Quite nice really!
Mid-week and I have a nice chill Wednesday ahead of me. I’m really getting into a routine now, I really love this city. Honestly, between here and Mérida in México, I think I’ll be very happy. I’d say my top three cities now are Mérida, Bucaramanga and Lima, Perú. Perfect for what I need.
Had a Spanish lesson, went to my favourite café (again) and did some Spanish exercises, headed back and went to the gym where I finally achieved a 5K without a break for the first time since May!!
For the afternoon I spent most of the day prepping for a call with a potential client tomorrow morning and then just had a bit of a lazy day.
Thursday and it’s a busy one today! I have a potential client call this morning (that I think went really well!), trialing another new Spanish teacher and heading back to the gym for day 3 of running! A simple day by most standards but I feel absolutely amazing today 🤩 slowly getting back to a normal life and things are falling into place!
Friday is nothing exciting (for you guys at least), I had a great call yesterday with a potential client, so I’m getting my head down all day and putting together, what I hope will be, a killer proposal. Wish me luck!
It’s the weekend and I’m headed on a walking tour this morning to see a bit more of the city. I love my neighbourhood so much I just don’t want to leave it 😂 the walking tour is about 4 hours and we’re walking all of the way across the city from east (where I’m living) to the old colonial town in the west.
One catch? My Airbnb profile says I speak Spanish (kind of a half truth if I’m honest), so yeah, the entire tour was in Spanish. Safe to say after 4 hours of translating in my head, I was absolutely wiped out and needed a siesta 😂
I tell you what though, this tour confirmed it for me, this city is, incredible. I think I’ve fallen in love with about 5 cities on my travels over the years (Lima, Mérida, Florence, Sevilla and now here) and this is, without doubt, the most livable city I’ve ever visited.
Ending the week this Sunday and finally exploring beyond my neighbourhood! I had a busy day of staying active and then visited a small town nearby called Girón. After taking a long break from seeing the same colonial architecture in Central America over and over, it was nice to see this style again.
Just a 15-minute taxi from Bucaramanga this town is stunning, lots of little restaurants, cafes and little gift shops, positioned alongside a river. There’s still so much to see in the surrounding area of Bucaramanga but knowing that I’ll come back for a longer stint, I’m just taking these two weeks to relax, before the chaos of Medellin next week 🫠. Finished up the day with completing a proposal and publishing my photography from Antigua Guatemala.
See you next week 👋
