Why do we travel?

By Sam

There's a transformative piece I read (I will share it with you), that says we travel to find ourselves. It's at first a strange notion that you have to go somewhere else to find where you want to be. Think about that for a minute. You need to fly around the world to figure out that you were already there.

Ah, or maybe you find something entirely different. Maybe you find that where you are, is NOT where you want to be.

THIS is the magic of travel. Experiencing new places and cultures serves as a catalyst for two reactions:
1) you confirm that what you know is what you want to hold dear
and
2) you challenge your notion of what is and what should be

In part, having reached this enlightened state was part of my mental roadblock in approaching this current trip.

You see I have traveled (see the other entries of this blog), and I have reflected (see above).

And where I am is increasingly where I want to be.

In the love of family, in the embrace of friends, in the satisfaction of work, and in the beauty of my home.

But as I've reflected during this flight, I have realized that I am where I am because I have traveled this far, and there is much more to see, feel, taste, learn, hear, smell, and do.

So lets continue this adventure, and let's do this together!

Vamos a Montreal!

We're in Montreal, specifically in a creperie, specifically Creperie Bretonne Ty-Breiz that granted has lost power, but where the wait staff claim to still have the ability to whip up many of the crepes on the menu. I love crêpes, and on any typical day I'd be delighted, but this isn't a typical day. I've just finished a second day of meetings with a client, to which my company has graciously dispatched me, and we were about to have poutine!

The excitement for what appears to be the Canadian equivalent of cheesy fries (disclaimer: I have not tried poutine yet) is quite contagious here. Anyways we just left the meeting, cabbed to THE poutine spot - Resto La Banquise, but they were also out of power. In fact the whole street is without power, but for some reason this is impacting poutine much more severely than crepes. I couldn't possibly explain.

I'm sleepily reading the menu, trying to recall which crepes were A-OK (side note: I can't swipe "sidenote" on my phone but can swipe "AOL." Is "side note" two words?) I'm a bit tired from the day of meetings and from Eve's recent tendency to wake up at night, a lot. (Eve's my daughter for those readers that have been with us since the beginning. She's really cute.) Maybe I'm tired from smiling too much. Aww.

Then, I spot it! The crepe. Crepe au glace, or crepe with ice cream. Boom, good Samaritan rescuing the melting ice cream and a tasty crepe for me.

The waitress comes by to take my order, so I do it up in my best French accent. And because I'm polite I add, "por favor."

Dammit.

We're Speaking at Meet Plan Go Boston!!

We're incredibly excited to be speaking at the Meet Plan Go Boston event on Tuesday, October 16th at 6:15pm @ the Elephant & Castle Pub, 161 Devonshire St (b/t Franklin St & Milk St).

Many of you know that we attended the Meet Plan Go event last October. There the amazing speakers and great round-table experts gave us confidence that we had made the right decision and that our trip would be a success!

This event is great for everyone -- novice travelers, experienced travelers and people looking to meet great folks in the travel community.

Check see us and our 3 minutes of fame: http://meetplango.com/boston/

Salento, Colombia is the Most Beautiful Place in Colombia!

I'm skipping ahead a bit, but I wanted to tell you why Salento is the most beautiful place in Colombia, arguably in South America.

Villa de Leyva is de-Lovely

Then we were off to Villa de Leyva, a small Spanish colonial town of only several thousands. It's a popular escape for Bogotans for the weekend. Surrounded by hills and beautiful nature, there are tons of activities to do around town, and great places to eat.

OMG BABY OSTRICHES!!

Soaring Above Sopó!

One of the days we were in Bogota, we took a day trip to Sopó to go paragliding. Only an hour outside of the city by bus, Bobo and Bev were able to soar above the beautiful terrain.

Bombs over Bogota

Big thank you to Luis for being an amazing host to us in Bogota! So lets talk about our little adventure before we got to Bogota:

In case it's too small to read, or you don't know Spanish, the headline says, "terror and death yesterday in Bogota"