And here we go again

Colombia: here I come again!

This month marks the end -and the start- of a very important era in the history of the Colombia Travel Blog. As most of you must have already read, Chris leaves his chair as The Editor to start his very own journey.

During these past 3 years he dedicated his time and travels to share tons of very valuable information about Colombia from his perspective as  foreigner that came to Colombia, fell in love with the country, decided to stay and tell the world about it.

He has certainly become one of the people who know more about the country and have traveled more throughout Colombia than any Colombian I know. Chris definitely made not only this blog but the country greater!

I can only thank you Chris, for all your time and dedication whilst exploring, learning and sharing your passion for Colombia.

A door opens

In November we will be celebrating the blog´s 7th birthday. Seven years ago I launched the first version of the Colombia Travel Blog with the hope that the world would look at Colombia under a different light. I wanted to show its colorful side, rich in nature and adventure and not war, narcos and guerrillas. Thanks to you, we managed to position ourselves in a very short time in Google as Colombia’s number one source of information about Colombia in English and thanks to this, I achieved my number one goal since 2009: make more and more foreigners visit Colombia, fall in love with it and most important of all, to tell all their friends and family.

Since then many things have changed, JL proposed  (see my dream wedding proposal here), I got married, Maria del Mar was born, the blog became a collaborative blog, we moved to Buenos Aires and back to Colombia, and the blog just kept on growing and growing as if it was our second son. My role evolved and grew to be blogger full-time, wife, mum, entrepreneur and business woman. The more years went by, the more responsibilities I had, until it came to that moment where, without thinking or planning it, I gradually moved away from the writing – the role of blogger that I liked so much – to having to devote more time and effort to my family and above all having to spend most of my time managing the administrative part of our business.

The blog had a life on its own. It kept on growing so much that we started writing not only about Colombia but many other destinations. I had no idea why but I felt frustrated, insecure and worst of all, I felt that I wasn’t good at any of the jobs I had to do or any of the roles I had to fulfill. I let the fear take over me and that fear drove me away from the things I loved the most: travelling and writing about it. I was sad!

I have a confession, I’m not a blogger anymore!

The good news is that the universe is infinite and that today is the perfect day to stop, think, get organised and start again. And that is exactly what I’m doing here today, confessing my fears and mourning my weaknesses and insecurities but most of all is that I am giving myself the opportunity to start again and with the help of all of you, our faithful readers, friends and family, to succeed in positioning myself as a blogger again, but this time with a new and exciting focus.

My main objective is to be The Travel Mum or La Mamá Viajera (in Spanish) that  – through her tales  – inspires other mums and families to keep on travelling with their kids. But most of all, that we should allow ourselves to fall and get up again, to forgive ourselves… to start again.  We are beings in a constant process of construction, we are far from done.

 

My wish is to inspire you all (mums and dads) to mourn losing our freedom. Having kids is not easy, it changes our lives forever, it’s certainly different. That’s exactly what makes it a beautiful and wonderful opportunity to learn about us, to change what needs to be changed, get organised and having done all that to keep on travelling with kids.

I specially want to encourage more mums to travel alone – yes, YOU can do it! We must find and give us at least a little bit of me time to reconnect with our little child, to do the things that we are passionate about, those things that we might have put aside because there is always something more important to do.

In my case those things are diving and horseback riding. I’m very fortunate and after many attempts, I have finally MADE some space and have been riding twice a week. That hour I dedicate to being in contact with horses is my therapy, my space, my rock on my diary! With communication everything can be achieved, JL y Maria Del Mar understand and respect the importance of that time in my life.

For that and for many other things I’m very grateful and very eager to take the reins again and to face this new role called Colombia Travel Blog by Marcela, the traveling mum.

Thanks for reading and sharing our stories.