Jasmine Stephenson is a long-term traveler, writer, and editor who uses travel as a medium to push her personal boundaries, broaden her perspectives, and challenge her idea of what’s wrong and right. Please enjoy this week-in-the-life of Jasmine as she wanders around Colombia!
See also: Letters From Colombia: The Safety, The Food, The Life
This post was originally published in 2011 . It has since been updated for accuracy of links and content.
Day 1: Friday
9 am: Wake up to bad news. I broke up with my boyfriend earlier this week in Bogotá and hopped on a bus to Medellín immediately without realizing that he kept my passport to prevent me from leaving the country. I have a flight in 11 days. The bad news is that he says he has no time to bring it to a hostel so fellow travel writer Brendan van Son can pick it up for me. I spend an hour trying to be nice and convincing him that he owes me this one last favor, though really I want to fly to Bogotá just to punch him in the face. (See also: Travel Security, and How to Protect Your Passport)
12 pm: Cook myself a big, easy backpacker lunch of spaghetti with olives and Carve, a vegetable protein that’s made in Colombia.
3 pm: Head to Medellín’s botanic gardens. It’s one of my favorite places in the city to chill out and clear my head. I’m approached by a college student of about 21 who tells me I have a strong energy. Strange and random, but I needed the message.
5:30 pm: Spend another 20 minutes trying to convince the ex to bring my passport to the hostel. He finally relents and promises to do it.
8 pm: Get word from Brendan that my passport is in his hands. I’m so relieved! That’s one less thing I have to think about before my trip to Trinidad.
Day 2: Saturday
9:30 am: Wake up and do some work for as long as my attention span allows.
11 am: Head downtown to pick up souvenirs for my family in Trinidad before I leave the country.
2:30 pm: Meet up with Marcello from Wandering Trader (editor’s note: check out Marcello’s week-in-the-life here!) for coffee at Colombia’s Starbucks, Juan Valdez.
8 pm: Watch a movie with a couple of friends and spend the night in.
Day 3: Sunday
9 am: Wake up.
11 am: Skype my parents and sister and discuss my travel options with them for later this year.
2 pm: Spend the day tanning at my hostel’s pool and catching up with the owner.
Day 4: Monday
9 am: Wake up feeling inspired. I pound out a new post for my blog from start to finish without stopping.
12 pm: Head to my favorite sandwich shop in Colombia, Qbanos, for lunch.
8:45 pm: Watch the finale of Chepe Fortuna, one of Colombia’s most popular telenovelas. I never thought I’d actually get pulled into a local soap opera but Chepe has me hooked.
Day 5: Tuesday
12 pm: Head to a nearby mall to restock on clothes. Not my favorite activity, but some of my clothes are getting pretty backpacker-y and the change of climate I’ll be facing soon calls for it.
6:45 pm: Meet up with Brendan, Marcello, and Dave from Go Backpacking for a sushi dinner and to get my passport back.
Day 6: Wednesday
9 am: I plunge into administrative work for my two niche sites and work on those all morning.
12 pm: Head to Pueblito Paisa, a model village in the middle of the city that was built to look like a traditional regional pueblo. This is my 4th time in Medellín, so I figured I should check it out before I go back.
1 pm: Leave Pueblito Paisa. It’s really not that cool.
2 pm: Read through writer guidelines and try to match publications with article ideas I’ve been brewing.
3 pm: Empty all the contents of my backpack and revise all the things in it, chucking out what I don’t need.
4pm: Write a new post for my blog.
Day 7: Thursday
9 am: Today is another SEO/niche site building day. I work on answering a mountain of emails, organizing staff writers and working on the sites.
12 pm: Head to Qbano, my favorite sandwich shop in Colombia.
8 pm: Meet up with the editor of a magazine in Parque Lleras for dinner and to talk about writing articles for Colombia and some of my other upcoming destinations.
11 pm: Meet Marcello and Brendan at Bendito Seas, a club in El Poblado. It’s a bit young for me, but the guys are entertaining and it’s a fun night.
After traveling around the world, Jasmine decided to unpack her suitcase and settle in her favorite place in the world, Medellin, Colombia where she works on a variety of projects including social media work, as she has done for Travel Companion Exchange. Catch up with her on Jasmine Wanders and on Twitter.
before you breakup with someone make sure u got all your valuable items haha
Hello,
Very interesting week, cheers for sharing. Enjoy Mexico.
Best Regards
Andrew
Very nice plan for week planning Jasmine. This is really important to organize things for a smooth week duty and fun..
“… he kept my passport to prevent me from leaving the country.” Sounds like a fun guy, can’t imagine why you would break up with him. Should have got your passport then punched him in the face.