(Reading D.K. Broster in the hotel hammock. Couching at the Door is an excellent collection of creepy stories!)

I’m home! Pretty much every trip I take seems like the best ever, and Colombia is no exception. I’ve got plenty of photos and stories to post, but for now I just want to show you how I spent my last three days in Cartagena, after Kate went back to D.C. and Sierra home to Bucaramanga.

I wrote. A LOT. Don’t look too closely at the scribbling—it’s still a rough draft—but you get the idea. I went down to the hotel café for coffee, headed out to a vegetarian restaurant for lunch each day, and one afternoon I took some time out to visit the Palace of the Inquisition, but for the most part I just wrote. Leaving my laptop at home was a very good idea. (You can pick up WiFi at most hotels and cafés in Colombia.)

After Cartagena I took the bus to Bucaramanga to hang out with Sierra for a week and a half or so. (I went with her to school and watched her teach! She cooked fabulous vegan meals and threw a dinner party in my honor!) I got a lot done in Buca too, but there’s definitely something to be said for self-imposed social isolation when you’re looking to–figuratively speaking– kick your own took. Nova sometimes books a hotel room for a weekend so she can write non-stop, and I’d really been wanting to try it myself. I managed to find that essential combination: an inexpensive but comfortable hotel (i.e., where I can sit for hours and no one will bother me), no company, and no WiFi. That was all I needed.

Once I’d written enough to feel that glow of satisfaction in the afternoon, I treated myself to a shake. Mango + spearmint = BLISS!

I’ll tell you more about what I’m working on once I’ve actually finished the draft. Until then–more about Colombia! (And Turkey too, I still haven’t finished blogging about Turkey!)