Hola chicas y chicos!

I recently got back from a 10 day trip to Colombia where it was sunny and hot and I got sunburned and tan and sweaty. Now I’m sitting in the coffee shop around the corner from my apartment where it just started snowing again after snowing all last night… It’s been a tough transition from cold to hot to cold again and I’m still fighting off a cold from traveling and most likely the shock my body felt from all this change.

Anyways…

As I said, I just got back from Colombia where I went with a group of 14 other women from all over the world. A company called El Camino Travel partnered with Conde Nast Traveler magazine’s Women Who Travel community to create a specific Women Who Travel trip, their first ever organized Women Who Travel trip, in fact. I have been listening to the Women Who Travel podcast for a while and am part of the Facebook group where women can ask questions, update other women on their experiences abroad and if there’s anything women should know if they want to travel there. When I saw they were going to do an organized trip with all women, to Colombia which I’ve been wanting to visit since Austin and I went to South America in 2015, and that it would be over my birthday, I didn’t wait long to book it and it’s a good thing! The first trip sold out in 24 hours, so they decided to plan 8 MORE over the course of this year! I guess I was lucky to land on the first one!

After a bit of hesitation over the price of said trip, I finally decided it was worth it. I’ve never done a group trip before where everything is planned for me, I’m with a bunch of strangers, and we have a set itinerary so I was a bit skeptical but thought it would be a good experience to try out. Also, after reading through the itinerary, multiple times, it sounded too cool to pass up.

I don’t know about you, but when I think of group travel/guided trips I picture huge groups of 30 people all following a guide with a headset and a little flag, Ms. Ungermeyer style (from Lizzie McGuire, duh), annoying everyone around them because their unwelcome horde of sweaty tourists suddenly flooded a beautiful viewpoint or an exhibit in a museum, making it very unpleasant for everyone not in their group.

This experience was not that. Thank God.

With a small-ish group of only 15, we didn’t crowd out everyone else from the spaces we visited, but we were still usually pretty sweaty. Our guide, the illustrious Patty Panqueba, didn’t have a little flag, but she did have to do a lot of head counts. Herding 15 women anywhere in a timely manner is a feat in and of itself, but Patty made it look easy. She was less of an intimidating, bossy guide, more a helpful friend that planned our days for us. She even endured an hours-long catamaran voyage even though she gets terrible seasickness. (I did too and embarrassingly actually threw up overboard, the only one of the group to do so even though several people felt queasy. An impressive accomplishment, I know. *Insert bowing and waving here* Boats aren’t my thing, okay?!) Aside from our fearless leader, we also had an editor from Conde Nast Traveler, Megan Spurrell, with us to answer questions and give tips and guidance on what to do in our free time, as well as a professional photographer, Amanda Villarosa to document our days so we didn’t have to worry about getting that perfect pic for the ‘gram, and instead could actually be in the moment.

From left to right: Amanda, Patty, and Megan on one of the Rosario Islands

The itinerary was jam packed with everything from a quick lunch in a local couple’s home, to a full day on the aforementioned catamaran visiting the nearby Rosario Islands. We spent the first half of the trip in Cartagena, a colorful, boisterous, and buzzing coastal city with tons of caribbean flair including champeta music blasting from every direction, fresh fruit sliced and sold on every corner, and bougainvillea hanging everywhere you look. The second half of the trip showed a completely different side of Colombia, in Medellin, which previously known for its violence and association with Pablo Escobar is now a booming city with a growing tech scene, incredibly efficient infrastructure upgrades, and hip coffee shops that source their coffee from farms right on the other side of the mountains surrounding the valley Medellin sits in. Although only a short one hour flight apart, they feel like two completely different countries. This juxtaposition in the itinerary showed us how multifaceted and huge Colombia really is and provided different destination styles for different tastes. For example, I’m more of a mountain person than beach person - obviously, I live in Colorado - but others on the trip preferred the tropical Caribbean vibe to the misty mountain style.

Most of our meals were provided but we did have free time several evenings to explore on our own and try out restaurants and bars that came highly recommended. Our two hotels were completely different, perfectly embodying the differences in the two cities. In Cartagena, we stayed at Casa Lola in the Getsemani neighborhood. There were streams flowing through the length of the hotel, hanging plants on every surface, and a relaxed tropical oasis feel to the whole place. In Medellin, we stayed at the Art Hotel in the trendy El Poblado neighborhood. The Art Hotel was super modern and industrial with red brick, black trimmed windows, modern art on the walls, and concrete floors.

Although we were all strangers when we arrived, it didn’t take long for all the ladies to connect, find common interests, and of course share all our travel experiences and questions with each other. It was hard to leave having made so many new friends who are so spread out, from Nairobi to New York, Iowa to Portland, OR, and of course now Colombia.

I was afraid the structure of the trip would be too much for me, not allowing for enough freedom to do other things but I left feeling completely satisfied. The experiences we had on this trip were things I could never have arranged for myself alone. They focused on immersion and building relationships with locals, hearing stories from their perspectives. For example, I never could have met Maria and Lily, the couple who invited us into their home for lunch, shared their story of struggle as a lesbian couple in a country that still has a taboo around homosexuality. I never could have tasted their incredible cooking and generosity or experienced their infectious laughter and affection.

I never could have spent the day stuffing my face with argentinian barbecue, learning salsa steps from Patty, and cuddling bernese mountain dogs at a lake house overlooking the huge rock at Guatape. These experiences were magical and moving and gave me an incredible appreciation for the people and the landscape of Colombia in a way I could never replicate for myself.

SO, to sum it up, group travel ain’t so bad after all. I would book this trip again in a heartbeat. It inspired a love for Colombia that I don’t know would be as strong as if I had gone and planned it alone, and connected me with badass, interesting, and funny women from all over the world.

I didn’t even get to talk about the fact that this trip was focused on social responsibility and supporting female owned businesses and female guides, which also made it even more inspiring and magical and satisfying!! :)

If this trip sounds super freaking great to you, which um, it should because it is, there are still some open spots on their trips that are going later this year! Ladies only though, sorry not sorry dudes. Here’s where to check it out if you’re interested:

https://www.elcamino.travel/

I hope you sign up! Thanks for reading,

Sami

**For more details on the trip and more photos, check out the lovely full article by our on-trip editor, Megan Spurrell linked here!