My Nomad Diary, Week 18:

Moments from the week:

Winning a very good pitch
Then getting another one!

My favourite places this week:

Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaappy Monday ladies and gents! It’s the start of another week here in Bucaramanga and on today’s agenda? Cakes and coffee. Just like I do every day. I’m going to explore a neighbouring barrio today to see what the liveability is like (spoiler: it’s bloody lovely), then I’m off to consume lots of coffee, catch up on a bit of work and then sit anxiously all day waiting to hear news about my pitch from the weekend.
Hit the gym again, drank some more coffee, had a Spanish lesson and spent an hour looking for a cash machine. Standard stuff really.

Oh and yes, I won the pitch, woohoo!

So I was looking at how much my Airbnb costs today (Tuesday) and it’s £645 a month. On Airbnb. So that’s all utilities, Netflix, Disney+ and there’s a gym, jacuzzi and sauna on the roof. I thought it was £900, couldn’t believe it when I checked. That’s including an Airbnb fee, local tax and a cleaning fee. What world are we (or, am I) living in!?
Anyway… today… Spanish lesson in the morning with my new additional teacher, which was good and then back to my fav café for like the 5th day on the trot 😋
Ankle and heel are a bit better today, so I decided to batter them on the treadmill and managed my first uninterrupted 5K. Lovely. The dorsiflexion in my ankle is still fubar’d, probably half the range I had pre-op, but it’s improving. With that in mind, probably another month before I can run outside again.
Later in the day I just reflected for a moment, I’m purely, genuinely and completely happy. Like, not a temporary dopamine boost from shopping or doom-scrolling or eating shit. Proper deep lasting happiness. I still get my days where I feel like the world is ending, but I’m coming to terms with that’s how my silly little anxious brain will always work unfortunately.
Roll on tomorrow ☺️

Another decent Wednesday in the bank today, but, nothing exciting I’m afraid. Getting stuck into my latest web and branding project, went to the gym, had another Spanish lesson, c’est la vie.
And yes I went to the same café again (and yes I’ll go tomorrow)

A quiet Thursday today… generally it’s been a quiet couple of weeks and I’ve really loved it.
I’ve been surrounded by people for months now, so to take a full two weeks out of doing anything, no touristy shit, no hostels, just two solid weeks of being alone and it’s been bloody lovely.

It’s Friday and my last full day in Bucaramanga, I’m really going to miss this place. Breakfast at my fav café (obvs), a Spanish lesson and a few hours of work. Then… headed out for my first outdoor run, but damn what a humbling experience haha I mean great that I did it but I’ve got a long way to go… progress though.
Packed my bags, had KFC for dinner 🤌 and that was that!
Tomorrow I’m flying to Medellin and I’m excited to spend some time around people again (for a little while that is…) but I am not looking forward to my flight… I despise airports so much 😩

Happy Saturday and my flight is delayed. Only an hour and thankfully there’s about 5 other options for connecting flights too, so actually it’s fine. I just like to bitch about flying. Headed to Medellin today. I’m excited to be heading to a co-living for the first time, hopefully it’s a nice crowd, I do have reservations about returning to Medellin though. I’ve been before, just over a year ago, and I loved it, but it’s increasingly becoming a cesspit for passport bros, I just hope that it hasn’t declined too rapidly in the past year and in fact everybody moaning on Reddit is full of shit (highly likely).
Touched down in Medellin, hopped in an Uber to Co404 which is a co-living, basically an upmarket hostel geared towards people that work remotely.
First impressions are good, there’s a big open office area upstairs which can fit about 20 people, a great communal kitchen and a really welcoming vibe, everybody really went out of their way to say hello and welcome me.
Finishing off the day we had an art class (I’m using the term “art” loosely) and some wine and I called it a night.

Final day of the week and I’m really treating this weekend as a proper weekend and determined not to do any work. Got up early and headed to a former residential castle that had been converted to a museum with extensive gardens, aptly called Castillo el Museo (I’m sure you don’t need to know Spanish to translate that one), followed by umpteen cups of coffee and then headed to Planetario de Medellín for some good old fashion science, my fave!
Wrapped up the day with my first outdoor 5K (yippee!) some cooking, reading and then retreated to my room as I’m back to work bright and early tomorrow morning at 8am… yikes!

See you next week 👋