If you don't know this about me already, I LOVE TO TRAVEL! It's my favorite thing to do and if I could, I would be traveling the world with my favorite travel partner (my husband) all the time! Last year we traveled to Ecuador to experience the sights, sounds, and tastes of this beautiful country. You can read my blog posts from Ecuador here. After having traveled to Peru and Ecuador, we seem to not be able to get South America off our minds! With that being said, my husband and I will be taking our longest trip to date back to South America this summer! We will be splitting up our 1 month trip between Bolivia and Colombia and we couldn't be more excited! 

We usually travel using a group travel company called G Adventures but this time we are roughing it and doing it all on our own. After many trips we feel ready to branch out and navigate these two beautiful countries ourselves (it also helps that my husband's first language is Spanish, so I have a built-in translator). I've also been working on my Spanish, so we will see how that goes. My parents aren't too thrilled about this trip but I promise we'll be fine Mom and Dad!

I wanted to give you guys a simple overview of our trip and answer a few common questions we've been getting from friends and family members. The travel style is obviously very different than what we've experienced before in terms of length, planning, and the fact that it will be just Michael and myself. 

As I've already mentioned, we will be traveling for 1 month. We originally planned for longer, but it just didn't work out with Michael's work schedule, so we're pushing that off until later on. We are also planning this trip very loosely, meaning, we have a general idea of where we're going and what we want to see but that's about it. (Insert my Mom rolling her eyes and looking up the US Embassy numbers for Bolivia and Colombia here.) 

What made us pick these two countries? We originally went back and for between South America and Southeast Asia, but we ultimately decided on South America because we just love it so much and we still feel it weighing heavily on our hearts to see more of this continent. We loved our time in Peru and we really loved Ecuador (so much so that we almost didn't leave, no really.) Argentina was high on my list but trying to get there is so expensive and we've both heard amazing things about Bolivia and Colombia so we just kind of picked them! We booked our flights using our points on our AAA Credit Card and we're headed there at the end of June! 

What are you going to do there? I'm not going to give you a detailed layout of our itinerary, mainly because we really just don't know what we're doing yet and because I want to make sure I have something to tell you about once we're there! So here's a quick overview of the major things we'll be seeing and doing (the ones we know so far, at least!)

We will be flying into La Paz, Bolivia and staying for 5 nights in a hostel. There are a myriad of things to do in La Paz including a Free Walking Tour through Red Cap, visiting the Witches Market, Cholita Wrestling (we are so stoked about this--just Google it and marvel at the strangeness of it all), Churches, markets, and more! There are also a few day-trip excursions we will be taking like a trip to Death Road, which involves mountain biking down a tiny, windy road famous for killing people... (THIS IS NOT MY IDEA, PEOPLE. Michael will be engaging in this activity while I catch up on coffee drinking and blogging). Another popular day-trip excursion is to Tiwanaku, an ancient civilization and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Suffice it to say, La Paz is jam-packed full of activity. 

After La Paz, we'll be headed to the main event (for me) Salar de Uyuni! This is what I am looking forward to the most! Salar de Uyuni is the world's largest salt flat offering visitors spectacular views of the most stunning natural wonders! We will be doing a 3 day tour and roughing it (according to all of the other blog posts I've read from people who have done the 3 day tour.) Sleeping in freezing cold hostels with no running water and only rationed amounts of food--we'll see how this goes!

After Salar de Uyuni, we'll be headed to Sucre, Bolivia for a few days and then back to La Paz to fly to Bogota, Colombia! 

We have the basic framework of where we'll be going in Colombia but that's about it. We know we're headed to Bogota then to Jardin then to Salento (coffee capital, YAS) then to Medellin and finally we'll end in the beachy town of Cartegena for a relaxing time before we fly back to Charleston! 

How will you be getting around? With the exception of our flight into Bolivia, our flight between Bolivia and Colombia, and our flight home, we'll be using public transport--buses, trains, taxis etc.

How did you plan and prepare for this trip? Pinterest is a traveler's best friend when it comes to planning! I always use Pinterest to look up blogs and articles about countries we're traveling to. Michael also has a friend and co-worker who traveled and lived in both countries for awhile. He's been answering all of our questions and helping us along the way. 

Here are also a few of the blogs we used to help us prepare:

• The Borderless Project--The Ultimate City Guide to La Paz, Bolivia
• The Borderless Project--Salar de Uyuni: The Ultimate Guide to Planning Your Trip
• Along Dusty Roads--Our Eight Favourite Places in Colombia
• Along Dusty Roads--23 Things to Know Before You Visit Colombia

So that's all for now! Do you have any questions about our upcoming trip? Let me know in the comments below and be on the lookout for my extensive post on what we're packing for our 1 month trip to South America coming soon!

For the love of travel,

Emily