What is it like to drive all the way from Mexico to Colombia as a family? We know it’s already February, but we still wanted to put together a retrospective video to commemorate everything we’ve been through. Our 2022-in-review contains never-released video footage. It’s also our longest video ever, almost two hours!
Even if no one watches all the way through, our main motivation is to create a record for Caspian to watch when he’s older. In fact, that’s one of the big reasons we launched our YouTube channel in the first place.
Watch now:
February 21, 2023 was our nine-year nomadiversary. We have been traveling full-time for nine years! But 2022 was arguably our biggest year yet, with more challenges, extraordinary experiences, and opportunities for growth than we’ve ever packed into one year.
As you’re watching the video and (maybe) marveling at everything 2022 held for us…the volcano hike, tornado, swarming termites, sicknesses, deep water crossing…all of it…just remember five-year-old Caspian was there every moment. He is such a trooper!
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On February 14, I (Brittany) was cleared to travel after my surgery. But short drives around Bogotá revealed my body wasn’t quite ready for vehicle travel yet. We finally packed up and left on Saturday, February 18. It felt like a big step.
We spent one night camping along a river with local friends from Bogotá (you may remember Juan Pablo from our recent video). We had descended from Bogotá’s 8,600-feet altitude, so we tried to adjust to the heat and humidity.
We spent the next two nights parked on the grounds of a hotel. There was a pool for Caspian and a sand pile where he played for hours. Eric holed up in the tent working on this video.
The next few days were tricky. Working our way towards Medellin, we stopped at a camping area on the beautiful Río Clara. There were many rave reviews about this quiet place. But what the reviews didn’t mention were the sand flies or chitras. After just a few hours, Caspian and I were covered in red, raised bites. Even Eric had bites, and he doesn’t usually get bitten by anything because of his Mayan blood. 😉
So even though we don’t like to drive every day, we headed out the next morning. Unfortunately, the main road to Medellin was closed for a cycling event! We had no choice but to back-track the way we’d come.
We ended up taking the northern route towards Medellin, which was several hours longer. We camped outside a hotel room for one night. The hotel fed us tilapia, pechuga a la plancha, and chicharrones. We didn’t sleep in the hotel room, but it was helpful to have a private bathroom and shower. Eric could also have some downtime to himself, recovering from the long driving day.
And even though we didn’t want to drive for a third day in a row, we sucked it up and headed out again. Our goal was to find a comfortable campground with good weather and no biting bugs where we could settle for a few days.
Thankfully, we succeeded! Be watching Instagram and maybe an upcoming YouTube video to see where we landed.
-B
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