One small step for Jen, one giant leap for Jenkind

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Back in Bogota after our Caribbean holiday we spent time pottering about, seeing Santi’s family and basically just eating our way through the holidays. But, we did get out and about into the world as well! Just before we headed back to China, Santi’s parents took us to the beautiful Villa de Leyva for the day. Villa de Leyva is a quaint colonial town, famous for the enormous town square in the centre and for being where the new laws of the republic were drafted after the revolution. The town has been nestled in the mountains of Boyacá for over 500 years and is now a popular day trip from the city when you want to escape to idyllic timeless Colombia. We also popped over to neighboring Raquira to buy some souvenirs from the town’s famous craftsmen; the town centre’s shops are packed with every sort of knick knack you could ask for. Although the traffic back into Bogota was pretty insane, a day out in the countryside was definitely a great way to wind up the trip.

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San Andres is a bit more lively and more popular than Providencia, which is great for fun beach activities but not so good for peacefully enjoying nature and the picturesque surroundings. Nonetheless San Andres, as the biggest of the trio of islands that make up a department of Colombia and are part of a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve, is fun, beautiful and culturally interesting. People from San Andres and the other islands speak English, Spanish and San Andres Creole, a legacy of the islands’ colonial history and changing population. The beaches are gorgeous, the music is loud and the people are friendly...what more could you want from a holiday island!

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If I was a pirate I would have definitely done the same as Henry Morgan and set Providencia as my base for hiding my loot and relaxing after some hard months of pirating. Instead, we headed to beautiful Providencia as tourists (not pirates) on a very little plane from neighboring San Andres, and spent a few days snorkeling, exploring and relaxing (unfortunately not finding any hidden treasure). The island was an English colony, Spanish colony and pirate hideout before its current incarnation as a chilled out spot for its Caribbean residents and tourists. Unfortunately the island now looks very different than when we saw it, due to a devastating hurricane that tore across the island. We loved it so much, and it’s a beautiful spot that deserves to be rebuilt and reinvigorated. 

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Cartagena is an old colonial port city, famous for culture, castles, beaches and general good times. I loved Cartagena; it’s winding narrow streets, countless sidewalk cafes and many spots to sit and people watch with a nice cold beer. Cartagena’s walled old town dates from the sixteenth century, and is in juxtaposition with it’s modern counterpart that sits just down the beach. The city is now a bustling mix of tourist destination as well as Caribbean home to almost a million people...room for two more 🙋🏻? 

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From Santa Marta we hopped in a minivan and headed to Tayrona National Park. We had heard that the park has some of the most beautiful coastline in all of South America, and we were absolutely not disappointed. The park sits where foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains meet the Caribbean Sea. and is complete with jungle, lagoons, coves and white sand beaches leading out to the stunning blue sea. Tayrona itself was a little busy on the beaches closer to the entrance, but as we ventured to the furthest beaches the crowds thinned and it was just us, a few others and the monkeys. And to top it off, our hotel was incredible and gave us access to a private stretch of beach just a few kilometers away from the park boundary, it was like a little slice of Tayrona all to ourselves (and some old French dudes). 

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Nestled in the Sierra Nevada mountains outside of Santa Marta sits Minca, a cute town surrounded by verdant forest and picturesque waterfalls. We headed to Minca for a day trip from Santa Marta and had a walk for about 10000 hours (really about 3) to some waterfalls, viewpoints and to a working coffee plantation where we took a tour. The plantation had been in operation for around 100 years, and still used most of the original machinery...pretty cool! Definitely worth tearing ourselves away from the beautiful coast for. 

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We set out on a holiday from our holiday to the Caribbean coast, first stop Santa Marta. Santa Marta is a busy port city, and was the first Spanish settlement in Colombia. Basically this means that it’s fill of colonial architecture and culture, complete with a whitewashed cathedral and cool street art around the city. It’s in a sweet spot between the Sierra Nevada mountains and the Caribbean Sea, making it a popular destination...not hard to see why! We stayed in a posh hotel a little bit outside the city, step out of the door onto the beach type of place...starting the holiday right!

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Even though Bogota is a sprawling city of millions, it is possible to be in the countryside within a few hours (give or take what feels like an eternity if there’s traffic). Once you leave the city you pass through vast plains and into the department of Cundinamarca. Santi’s grandparents built a ranch out in the mountains in a lovely town called San Francisco; it’s stayed in the family and is now run by his auntie (albeit downsized as she lives in Bogota). Because she’s super nice and Colombia is all about quality family time, the whole extended family go and visit the ranch frequently...which meant bbq, dancing and more cousins than I could count! 

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Another Spring Festival, another holiday! This year I headed to Colombia with Santi for a few weeks...which actually ended up being a few months because of the whole world going to pieces situation. But that’s nothing to complain about for me, I got to spend two months exploring Colombia! Santi is from Bogota, so we started the trip spending time sightseeing and meeting family (a lot of ‘holas’ and broken/awkward Spanish from me). Bogota is absolutely enormous, around 8 million, and it’s sprawling. The city is roughly divided into the North and South, with the historical district as the centre point. I had visited Bogota a few years ago, but this time I was with someone who actually knew the city and speaks Spanish...what a difference! We went on some historical tours, ate cheese with hot chocolate (not impressed), went to the top of Monserrate, ate at some posh trendy restaurants and generally had a fantastic time. We spent everyday doing something fun in a different area, and still managed not even to leave the Northern part of the city...Bogota is absolutely enormous. Bogota definitely deserves more than it gets credit for; it’s incredibly diverse, dynamic, historic and full of super fun bars and restaurants (and that’s really what’s important haha). 

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Another weekend, another ferry journey! Chinese mega-city Shenzhen is easily reached by a one hour ferry journey from Zhuhai, so Santi and I jumped on a ship and went to Shenzhen to explore during the National Day Holiday. Flags and tourists were out in full force, and we found the city surprisingly clean, pleasant and cosmopolitan. There’s a park that features miniature versions of famous places and sights in China, as well as little areas which show a representation of each province including traditional shows. The whole thing was cool if not a bit bizarre, but the highlight was definitely the dance/circus show at the end of the night...who doesn’t love giant creepy puppets! .We caught up with an old friend from work, and even managed to squeeze in a few art exhibitions (the watercolour museum had an interesting exhibition on for National Day, all of the works were celebrating China in some way). We spent the last night drinking cocktails on a rooftop bar in the downtown area, watching the light shows put on by the enormous sky scrapers. 

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Back in china and...back on holiday! After my lovely lovely summer in the UK I headed back to Zhuhai to go to work and to my new apartment. The journey took it out of me so it was time for another holiday haha. Dong Ao island is one of the small islands that run along the coastline of Guangdong, and easily reached by ferry. I headed there with friends to celebrate coming back to China, which is a good of an excuse as any to go on a banana boat and drink cocktails! 

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Before I headed back to China, Mum and I hopped on the Eurostar over to Paris for a weekend (how very flash of us). We stayed in a lovely air b and b not too far from the train station, and very close to a restaurant that served super delicious and super rich food...the cheese board almost had me not moving to China haha. We had a lovely time wandering round, seeing some sights and being very arty and cultural at the Musee D’Orsay (nicest lunch cafe setting ever). After Mum went back to Scotland I headed to Lorient for a long weekend to meet my friend Loic, and check out the annual Celtic Music Festival. Lorient is a lovely city in Brittany, famous for its coast, Celtic music festival and for having one of the giant submarine bunkers that the Nazis built during the war. I don’t think there was a better way to end my summer as a tourist at home than seeing art, eating cheese and dancing to fiddle music. 

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The best bit about this summer was finally being at home for a good amount of time. What’s not to be happy about when you’re surrounded by this scenery and drinking Campari Spritz with mum in the back garden. 

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Luckily for me, while I was back in the UK in my summer of funemployment, so was Andrew! He was between work contracts and had the summer free to do super fun activities...so we decided why not go camping in Cornwall for a week! The weather was perfect, cliffs majestic and campsites beautiful. We hit as many iconic spots as we could, with some accidental gems thrown in. We even got pissed in Newquay...nothing says tourism in Britain like that!

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Back to the UK! I’m a bit behind on photos, but that’s because I had so many good times last summer so I took loads and loads of photos. I headed back to the UK in June for a summer of funemployment! Katie and Shaun had an awesome wedding and I bopped around the country doing a bunch of fun stuff and seeing everyone I had missed. I basically was a tourist in the UK for the summer, and it was awesome. 

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About an hour on the train from Shanghai sits Suzhou, an idyllic city famed for its canals and gardens. Never one to pass up a good canal, I headed there for a day trip on one of my last days of the holiday. The canals used to be functional, and spread throughout the city . Now, they’re confined to just a small tourist area... but I have to say it’s a damn nice tourist area. Lovely trees and cafes line the canals, with plenty of spots to sit and people watch. I squeezed in a visit to the Master of Nets Garden, one of the classic gardens of Suzhou that comprise Suzhou’s gardens as a UNESCO world heritage site. It’s a beautiful and harmonious medley of art, nature and functionality and originally dates from 1140 when it was called  Ten Thousand Volume Hall (pretty sweet name).  I ended the day at the 2,500 year old Pan Gate and its surrounding scenic complex. The gate formed part of the ancient wall surrounding the city, and through a complex of land and water gates was once the only entrance to the city walls. Suzhou was a lovely little tranquil break away from Shanghai and the perfect end to my holiday; you can’t go wrong sat reading a book and eating ice cream in an ancient and lovely city. 

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Out of all of the cities I’ve been to, Shanghai is right up there as one of my favourites. It’s huge, but incredibly interesting, super cosmopolitan, clean, and surprisingly beautiful. As a whole its a mix of traditional China and modern megacity, with a sprinkling of colonial Europe thrown in. I spent a week there, which was enough time to explore the different areas of the city, and lounge in some super nice parks while eating ice cream. Art, architecture, music, food, nature...if it wasn’t for the debilitating pollution i’d be there right now!