RONNIE & Michelle
Careering OffAfter over 30 years working, Ronnie & Michelle have decided to take the gap year (or two!) that we missed out on at the usual time. We have had stressful careers in Technology and Finance until now including start-ups and self-employment.
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The kids – Cameron & Daniel – have fled the nest to pursue their own adventures in life, leaving only the cats Tiger and Lexey to tie us down.
Following a health shock and seeing what has happened to many people we know around our age, we decided not to wait until we are in our 60’s and retired before resuming our love of travel and seeing the world. We are in the fortunate position of being able to pause working for a while.
It’s now time to career-off.
THE BLOG
Minka, Taganga, Tayrona, and Santa Marta
We visited Minka, an "eco-village" in the Sierra Nevada mountains. At our lodge, there were lots of Hummingbirds which came to feed on the sugary water provided. Ronnie, Tim, and Rob hired mountain bikes and got hot and sweaty cycling up the steep dirt road to a...
Cartageña
We took a short flight to Cartageña, arriving late in the afternoon. Freddy, our guide surprised us with horse and carts to take us to dinner. Awww Rob and Tim worse for wear after Pina Coladas The next day we had more time to explore the old walled city. After dark...
Cartageña leaving dinner
When we arrived in Cartageña we had a leaving dinner as we had reached the end of this part of the Colombia tour. We were losing 4 members of the group, but gaining 4 Aussie girls for the next stage of Colombia. As is customary, Ronnie wrote a poem for the group, and...
El Peñol and Guatapé
We went to El Peñol, the second largest monolith in South America after Sugarloaf Mountain in Rio de Janiero. We climbed the 705 steps to the top. There is a major hydro-electric dam which flooded the valley. The government relocated people to a new town. Flooded...
Medellin
We had a long bus journey to the beautiful city of Medellin. It's famous for art which centres around Botero, famous for his paintings and sculptures of oversized bodies. Botero Sculptures in the Plaza The "sticks" light up at night Nicknamed the "French Fries"...
Salento
Next stop was a small town called Salento. We swapped from the bus to some Jeep "Willys" to travel further up the mountain roads to Cocora valley before starting a hike. Many of the Jeeps were surplus after the second World War, and shipped from the USA to Colombia....
Colombian Coffee
We took a short, 30 minute flight over the mountains to Armenia in one of the Coffee regions. [That's Armenia the town, not the country we visited a few months earlier!] We then took an educational tour of a coffee plantation. Checking out a fun coffee grinder first...
Beginning in Bogota
We landed in Bogota with a couple of days to explore the city before meeting our small tour group.We were pleasantly surprised by Bogota. The guides we read hadn't really rated it, and we were expecting just a big, dirty city. Instead we found an interesting city,...
Central America Adventure
The next installment of our Gap Year travels begins on 2 Jan (2020) - Michelle's birthday. We start in Colombia in Bogota. The focus will be on brown powder (coffee) rather than white. In Colombia we're joining a G Adventures small group tour. Then we do indie...
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