Practical Wanderlust

Off-Beat Couple's Travel Blog

Playa Blanca on Isla Baru Cartagena, Colombia. Isla Baru is located less than an hour from Cartagena and home to the best beaches in Cartagena!
Latin America

Travel Guide to Playa Blanca & Isla Baru: Cartagena, Colombia’s Island Paradise

Isla Barú, located just off the coast of Cartagena, Colombia, is the kind of tropical paradise that most visitors to Cartagena envision when they book their tickets. Palm trees, bright blue Caribbean sea, sandy beaches, fresh seafood and fruit juice… heaven, basically. You can visit Isla Barú for the day, sunning on the shores of stunning Playa Blanca, or you can choose to stay overnight, which is what we did. Read this travel guide to Isla Baru for more tips about visiting Isla Baru and Playa Blanca, and our pick for the best Isla Barú hotel!

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Cartagena, Colombia is one of the most photogenic cities in the world. We've visited several times, and we're sharing the most instagrammable places in Cartagena to take photos during your trip to Colombia!
Latin America

The 10 Most Instagrammable Places in Cartagena, Colombia

Cartagena, Colombia is one of the most photogenic cities in the world. Around every corner there’s a 400-year old cathedral, a colorful mural, a balcony laden with flowers, or a rainbow-colored street. We’ve taken several trips to Cartagena and find ourselves returning to the same photogenic spots over and over again! In this post, we’re sharing all of our secrets to finding our favorite spots to take photos in Cartagena. You know, for Instagram. Because if you don’t post about it on Instagram, did you really go?

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Watching the sun set over Santa Marta, Colombia, with the Sierra Nevada mountains in the background. Santa Marta is one of those places you'll end up going when backpacking Colombia, even if you don't quite mean to.
Latin America

How to Get from Cartagena to Santa Marta: A Complete Guide

Cartagena is the starting point for most travelers visiting the  Caribbean coast of Colombia. But too often, visitors to Cartagena don’t venture outside of the city limits and explore the rest of this amazing region. That’s a HUGE mistake! There are a zillion amazing destinations nearby, from Minca to Parque Tayrona to the Lost City to the Tatacoa Desert. But before you can dive into all that the northern Colombian coast has to offer, you’ll have to get from Cartagena to Santa Marta, which is the jumping-off point for most of these spots. Luckily for you, we’ve traveled between Cartagena and Santa Marta many times over the years. Here’s a step by step guide to getting from Cartagena to Santa Marta!

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What to pack for Colombia: the ultimate packing list for this South America travel destination. Everything you need to backpack in Colombia!
Latin America

What to Pack for Colombia: The Ultimate Packing Guide

Packing for a trip to Colombia can be really challenging. After all, Colombia is home to about every diverse landscape you can think of: the tropical Caribbean northern coast; the hot, humid Amazon; Medellin’s “eternal spring;” the cool, mountainous region around Minca and Santa Marta, and the cold, high-altitude city of Bogota. After spending a month in Colombia, we’ve got all the tips you need to pack your bags and go in our ultimate guide to what to pack for Colombia. Plus, get a free downloadable checklist to help you pack!

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30 things nobody told us about before we went backpacking in South America!
Latin America

30 Things No One Tells You About Backpacking in South America

We spent 5 months backpacking in South America. Although each of the countries we visited was as unique and different from one another as can be, we did notice a few universal truths about backpacking in South America… things nobody told us about before we left. In no particular order and in various degrees of usefulness, we’ve compiled our observations into this list of 30 things no one tells you about backpacking in South America!

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ABOUT

Meet Lia & Jeremy

Recent Posts

  • Are you in a shopping mood this month? We're not exactly the types who run out to queue in line on Black Friday (we actually tend to book flights on Black Friday - they're usually pretty cheap). But we're totally the type to add a bunch of stuff to our online shopping carts and then sit and lurk, watching and waiting. If they go on sale, we buy. If they don't, we either end up buying them later on, or we forget about our shopping cart totally, which means we probably didn't want or need that stuff in the first place. . I made a decision years ago to spend money on travel instead of "stuff," and my budget can confirm that I've held firmly to that goal. But sometimes shopping and travel go together. This photo is a perfect example: there's the cozy merino wool multi-use travel scarf by @@royal_robbins which has made its way into my suitcase for every trip since I got it. Or the hemp @prAna shirt beneath it, my new favorite travel t-shirt. Or my @aviatorusa black jeans, which I'm so obsessed with I rarely wear anything else, whether I'm home or on the road. . It's gotten to a point that I rarely buy clothing that I don't consider to be travel-friendly, and I have a rotating crew of reliable travel staples that I wear again and again from trip to trip!.So even though I'm not stocking up on big screen TV's or whatever (is that .. what they're called? Flat screen? Laser ... wait that's printers. I'm kind of a luddite, y'all) I will checking in on my favorite travel brands to see what they're up to ... and yes, buying myself some goodies! I've been writing up Gift Guides as I go to help you shop too. Click the link in our bio to take a look at a few of them, plus links to some of the clothing that I'm wearing in this photo! . What will you be shopping for around Black Friday? Drop me a comment below!
  • Our love language is travel - and one of our favorite ways to spend time together when we're home is to escape on a weekend trip, just the two of us. #AD . Even though we run a couple's travel blog, only one of us works on the blog full time - Jeremy is a teacher. So while I gallivanted off with friends to frolic around in fall foliage in the Eastern Sierras and eat pasta in Italy, Jeremy stayed here in the Bay Area, watching the 3 local trees that actually change color slowly turn brown in the 75+ degree weather (fall is actually our warmest season here). . Even though I love travel, I miss Jeremy whenever he isn't like, literally in the same room as me. And after a long trip, there's no better feeling than coming back home - whether we travelled together or apart. We miss each other, our couch, our kitchen, and our backyard, too. . This year, since we don't get an official fall here in Northern California, we went out and picked up some fall decorations to decorate our little apartment. This was a huge deal, because neither of us has ever bought holiday decorations before, and it felt like a grown-up life milestone. We went out onto our patio (another life milestone), opened a bottle of @Line39wine Cabernet Sauvignon, and just sat together, laughing and talking and reuniting after a few weeks apart. We sipped our wine - it tastes like currant, blackberry, long drives through California wine country, and ripe plum - and pretended that it was 50 degrees and our backyard was filled with real, crunchy leaves. And we celebrated... because all things considered, we're living the life of our dreams - together. And it feels pretty darn amazing. . What's your favorite way to celebrate fall... and is there wine involved? 🍷🍁Drop me a comment below! . . .#line39wine #celebratetheseason \\ Disclosure: MSG 4 21+
  • At age 16, "body positivity" was a foreign concept. I couldn't wrap my mind around the idea of not just accepting my body, but actually embracing it. It was too flawed. It was the source of too much pain. It was a battleground for my own inner demons - a fight not actually related to my body at all but to control and autonomy over my own flesh, which had been stolen from me. . Trigger warning: I'm about to talk graphically about eating disorders. Please practice self care if you're feeling vulnerable today! . At the peak of my struggle and self hatred I was so clinically underweight that my body had shut down many of the functions it considered unnecessary in the face of starvation. My body was consuming its own muscles to survive. My hair was falling out. My skin was gray. My hands were red and swollen from stomach acid. Eating disorders are not glamorous. They are not beautiful. They look like death incarnate. . But my story has a happy ending. Today, I not only LOVE my body, but I'm downright obsessed with it. Like, look at this cute AF pic of me chilling in this hot spring. How cute am I? I frolicked around in my little bikini in the valley of California's eastern Sierra mountain range like a desert nymph. I changed outside and didn't worry if someone saw me. I took adorable photos of myself and then edited them with love and care, admiring every curve of my body like a goddamn work of art. If it weren't for the difficult path I took to get to this level of self love, my perception of myself might border on narcissism 😍 . But I refuse to apologize for how proud I am of myself. How impressed I am with what I've accomplished. How grateful I am for all that I have. And how often I check myself out in the mirror like "oooh girl you lookin' like a SNACK today" no matter objectively messy how I actually look 😂 . My journey to self love was difficult AF, but it was the most important of my life. No matter where you are on your journey, know that I am here for you - and that I've been there, too. . Do you struggle with body acceptance and self love? Where are you on your journey? Drop me a comment below!
  • It's VOTING DAYYYY! 🇺🇸 Today is a really exciting day, y'all. Today is the day that we get to board the White House ship, throw everyone out who doesn't deserve to be there, take control and steer this country back in the right direction. So we're BASICALLY pirates. Is my metaphor a little bit of a stretch, considering this photo is of me in a kayak and not dressed as a pirate wielding the SWORD OF DEMOCRACY!?! ⚔Sure, fine, that's fair. But that doesn't make the message any less important: VOTE! Vote like your life depends on it - or at least, vote like OTHER people's lives depend on it. Because the future of our country is at stake, as is the health and wellbeing and safety of millions of people who are being threatened and displaced by the current government. Vote because the past 2 years have been a daily, horrifying disappointment, and the future has never looked so bleak. Vote because racism needs to crawl back into the shameful, taboo closet where it belongs, next to homophobia, transphobia, anti-feminists, and anything else that could be filed under the "definitely evil" category. Vote because humanity's very existence is threatened by climate change and we've got the world's tiniest window to make enough changes to possibly not go extinct... So, YES, VOTING IS LITERALLY LIFE OR DEATH. Vote to prevent a full-blown resurgence of fascism in the USA. Vote to show solidarity with refugees facing the awful choice of incredible danger or having their children taken from them and locked up. Vote to protect the rights of your LGBTQ friends, family, coworkers, and neighbors. Vote because we haven't given up yet, and because we haven't lost our democracy yet. Vote to protect your country and your fellow Americans. Just ... go vote! Need some help voting? The link in my bio has all the information you need about your polling location, whether you can register at the polls (you can in CA!), and other helpful info. Need some help deciding who and what to vote for? Visit VoteSaveAmerica.com to walk through every issue on your ballot and make informed decisions about who and what to vote for. Are you voting today? Drop me a comment below!
  • Leaping into the weekend like🕺... you guys can you tell I'm bad at emojis? I'm new to this. I have an Android. Please send help. . I've been trying to take weekends off all month and so far, so good! I know there's a whole cult of adoration around the busy entrepreneur who spends 20 hours a day working or whatever but like ... damn, I just want a life, you know? I work 16+ hours a day and I do NOT recommend it to anyone. It sucks! What's the point of all that hustle if I don't have the free time to actually reap the rewards of the money I'm earning? . There are a lot of start-up entrepreneurs and founders here in the Bay Area - like, I took a Lyft last week and my driver was a start-up founder - and we're all working at breakneck speeds. I get it. I really do. I love being my own boss and I love what I do every day, but also like ... can I have some time off, please? Maybe a vacation? And no ... travel doesn't count. Cuz it's my job. Whoops, didn't think that one through 🤣 . If you catch yourself idolizing the 70-hour workweek ... don't. It's not great. It involves a lot of stress and anxiety and overwhelm and anxiety and it also makes you a flaky friend/family member. Don't fall into the trap of thinking workaholics are better than people who've carved out balance in their lives. And while I'm on my soapbox, don't buy the line that quitting your job to travel is any better than earning a steady income to pay for your own vacation! . I guess what I'm trying to say here is that there's no "perfect" life. Don't look at anyone else's life and assume it's better than yours. Look at your own life and ask yourself how you can improve it. You don't need to compare yourself to anyone other than who you were yesterday. So keep pushing forward, because your goals and your dreams are valid and worth striving for - whether it's a hustle or more like a slow, steady amble. Don't forget to look around and enjoy the journey while you're heading for that finish line! . Are you a workaholic or do you have a work/life balance? Do you fall into that "grass is always greener" trap too (I sure do)? Drop me a comment below!
  • Happy November, everyone! How was your Halloween? 🍁We're at this weird point in our lives where we're too old to trick or treat, too young to know anyone with kids, too old to enjoy going out to a bar in costume and partying, and not grown enough to be able to afford to live somewhere that actually has trick-or-treaters (I've never had a trick-or-treater come to my house EVER IN MY LIFE). So Halloween is weird for us. We both LOVE it, but we also don't have a great way to celebrate it. So we channeled all of our excitement into roughly 53,000 calories of sugary snacks made to look like adorable Halloween-related things (all found on Pinterest) and delivered them to Jeremy's school for the teachers to eat. . I've always taken pride in my ability to make a fool out of myself on Halloween: I once showed up to work at my very business profesh corporate office wearing a shark costume. Nobody else dressed up, just me. I ran a meeting while dressed as a shark. Peak career highlight, tbh. . As a child, my favorite Halloween costumes were weirdly literal DIY costumes: I was a lamp at age 13 (I wore a lampshade on my head). I was sperm at age 14 (I wore a pillowcase and wrote "sperm" on it.) I was a trash bag at age 15 (I wore a trash bag). I was a janitor at age 16 (I borrowed our school janitor's supplies and cleaned all day). Did anyone else find my costumes as hilarious as I did? Doubtful. I've been my own #1 fan for a LONG time, y'all. . But although Jeremy dressed up for school yesterday, I didn't dress up at all. I had a REALLY great Halloween costume idea but I made the mistake of ordering the crucial pieces I needed from Amazon. Despite paying for super-fast shipping, it still managed to show up late. 😡 Sigh. Anyway, the costume was going to be amazing but I'm not going to tell you what it was JUST IN CASE I can cobble it together for next year. . Ultimately our Halloween was... uneventful. We walked around squeeing at other people's kids' costumes and then went home for wine & a movie. Halloween is probably the #1 thing I'm looking forward to about having kids! . How did you celebrate? Did you dress up? Drop us a comment! . Cozy shirt gifted by @royal_robbins
  • Do you ever get so caught up in the hustle that you forget to actually enjoy the results of your hard work? I know my last post wasn't exactly the most sunshiney - apologies to everyone who said it made them feel stressed out too 😅 it feels like I've been going full steam nonstop since January, when I started officially blogging full-time. I've been working like a crazy person for 10 straight months, y'all. Dayum. . But I tend to lose the forest through the trees. I get so wrapped up in work that I forget to step back and look at what it's gotten me - and celebrate myself. So let's gonna unapologetically congratulate ourselves today. . My hard work HAS paid off - literally. Like, my goal for the year was to out-earn my old corporate salary, and y'all, that's already happened. Check! ☑️ My new goal for 2018 is to earn 6 figures, and you guys, I think I'm gonna do it. I really do. I truly NEVER imagined that as a possibility when I started my blog as a fun hobby 2 years ago. Never. . Sometimes life has funny ways of reminding you to take a moment and look at the big picture. For example, some of y'all might remember that last December, I was feeling torn between blogging full-time and accepting a senior role at a company I love. Well, I'm happy to report that the same company reached out to me again, and I'm now finally working with them - as a blogger! It came totally full circle, and reminded me to look back at how far I've come this year. And... wow. Kudos, me. 🌠🏆 . So remember next time you're running around like a crazy person cramming to get everything on your To-Do list done: take a moment. Breathe. Step back. Look at what you've already accomplished, all the progress that your hard work has ALREADY brought you since you started. And get excited, because if you keep this up, big things are going to happen. . Also, umm... maybe let yourself take some f***king breaks once in awhile. Take it from me: you deserve it! . I've been celebrating me in this post, but I also want to celebrate YOU! So drop me a comment below letting me know what your hard work has accomplished you this year. Big or small, I want to hear EVERY achievement! Go on then, don't be shy 😉
  • October is a crazy month for us. When I was growing up, October was my favorite month. It was the month of crunchy leaves, Halloween costume shopping, scary movies and pumpkins. But now, without actual fall outside our windows to remind us of the changing seasons, it just feels like a stressful, busy month. . All month long, I'm frantically pumping out 3 posts per week (KILL ME) trying to get everything ready for the shopping sprees I know are coming in November. I'm still behind on posts from trips we took recently (Sorry, Bali and Italy, my bad) and I'm scrambling to stay on top of everything. . October is also one of the hardest months for teachers thanks to the end of the first quarter. Jeremy's struggling to stay on top of his grading and lesson planning, keep up with his own schoolwork (he's studying for his teaching credential) AND manage his team - he's in a leadership role this year. It's a LOT. . Most of our evenings look like this: Jeremy gets home at 6pm. I'm still working. So Jeremy sits down next to me nad works for a while too. Then we make dinner - er, I say "make" but lately we tend go out because we're too stressed and busy to cook. After dinner, the laptops come right back out and we continue working until 10pm. Rinse, repeat. Living the dream? Hardly. (Oh, in case you're wondering - NO, we don't live in this awesome cabin. This is a vacation home up in Guerneville where we spent a relaxing weekend last year!) . It's a struggle. We keep talking about crazy things like taking weekends off or enforcing a "no work after 7pm" rule, but we're not there ... yet. I've been searching for people to hire to help me with the blog (psst, know anyone??) but I'm still in WAY over my head. We've resorted to outsourcing basic household tasks, so now we're those Bay Area a**holes who pay a service to do basic chores for them, like laundry and the dishes (cringe). But it's the only think we could think of to stay afloat without going completely insane. . Do you have any suggestions for establishing a work/life balance? How do you cope when everything is insanely stressful and overwhelming and you can't seem to dig your way out? Drop me a comment below!

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