Table of Contents
What travel brochures leave out about adapting, exploring, and building a home abroad.
I arrived in Colombia in 2013 expecting an adventure.
What I did not expect was to stay long enough for the country to stop feeling like a destination and begin feeling like home.
Living here has taken me through large cities, small pueblos, mountain roads, coffee farms, luxury hotels, horseback rides, difficult relationships, motherhood, homesickness, reinvention, and the ordinary routines that eventually replace the excitement of being somewhere new.
This page brings together my writing about that wider experience.
Some articles are practical. Others are personal. A few capture places and moments that have already changed since I first wrote about them.
Together, they show the difference between visiting Colombia and actually learning how to live here.
Living Abroad After the Novelty Wears Off
Moving to another country can feel courageous and romantic from a distance.
Then everyday life begins.
You have to understand how people communicate, how appointments work, what your neighborhood feels like after dark, how much patience bureaucracy requires, and what happens emotionally when the people and places you once called home continue without you.
Homesickness and Life Abroad
Homesickness is not always a sudden desire to leave. Sometimes it arrives as a quiet sense that you no longer belong completely in either place.
This personal essay explores the anxiety, self-doubt, and emotional dislocation that can appear after the excitement of moving abroad begins to fade.
The Most Annoying Parts of Life in Colombia
Loving a country does not require pretending that everything works beautifully.
This article looks at the daily irritations, misunderstandings, delays, and cultural differences that can test your patience—and occasionally your sense of humor.
What Experienced Foreign Residents Wish They Had Known
Writers, travelers, photographers, and long-term residents share what they learned about working, traveling, and adapting to life in Colombia.
The answers reveal something important: there is no single formula for succeeding here, but curiosity, patience, and realistic expectations help.
Colombia’s Coffee Region
The Coffee Axis is frequently reduced to green mountains, colorful towns, and cups of coffee.
Those images are real.
So are the traffic, steep streets, tropical rain, transportation challenges, class differences, bureaucracy, security decisions, and the emotional work of building a community.
My life in Colombia has been shaped largely by Pereira, Manizales, Caldas, Risaralda, and the smaller communities surrounding them.
Adventures and Artifacts in Quinchía
Quinchía is not a polished tourism product.
Its mountains, indigenous history, mining culture, stories of political violence, and local legends make it one of the more complicated places I have explored in the Coffee Region.
This article follows my visit through archaeology, oral history, hiking, conflict, and the strange feeling that some places reveal themselves only when the timing is right.
Reserva Cauquitá: An Eco-Adventure Near Pereira
Guadua, birds, insects, forest trails, and the particular chaos of exploring nature with a small child.
This is a quieter story about leaving the city behind and experiencing the biodiversity surrounding Pereira.
Life in the Coffee Axis
What does daily life here actually feel like?
This article explores the good, the beautiful, and the occasionally infuriating parts of turning a region that began as a curiosity into the place where I built a home and family.
Weather and Microclimates in Colombia’s Coffee Region
Colombia does not have one climate.
Altitude can change the temperature, humidity, sunlight, and rainfall dramatically within a relatively short distance. Understanding those microclimates matters when choosing between cities such as Manizales and Pereira—or deciding whether a rural property is as comfortable as it appears in photographs.
Cities, Hotels, and Urban Life
Colombia’s urban experience changes dramatically from one city to another.
Bogotá can feel enormous, gray, creative, aggressive, sophisticated, and unexpectedly peaceful—sometimes during the same afternoon.
Pereira is warmer, more commercial, more spread out, and closely connected to the surrounding metropolitan area.
Manizales is vertical, cooler, intellectually active, and built around mountain corridors that can make even a short journey feel like an expedition.
A Different Side of Bogotá
Bogotá is often described through traffic, crime, cold weather, and concrete.
This article looks at another side of the capital: coffee, food, green spaces, farmers’ markets, creativity, and the small pockets of calm hidden inside a city that rarely slows down.
Inside Hotel Movich Pereira
A look at one of Pereira’s more recognized urban hotels, including its food, design, social spaces, and role in the city’s business and hospitality scene.
Because hotel offerings change, treat this as a personal account of my visit rather than a current guarantee of services or pricing.
Horses and Rural Colombia
My relationship with horses began long before I moved to Colombia.
Here, horses are more than a recreational interest. They are connected to rural identity, agriculture, festivals, social status, family traditions, and regional history.
Colombia’s equestrian culture can be beautiful, highly skilled, commercial, traditional, and controversial. It deserves more than a generic horseback-tour description.
Equestrian Vacations in Colombia
Colombia offers mountain trails, fincas, agricultural landscapes, and strong regional horse traditions—but the quality of an equestrian experience depends heavily on the animals, guide, equipment, and expectations.
This article is written for travelers who care about the horse as much as the scenery.
The Paso Fino Colombiano
The Colombian Paso Fino—also known locally within the broader tradition of the Caballo Criollo Colombiano—is central to the country’s horse culture.
This article explores the breed, its movement, its cultural place, and the difference between a basic tourist ride and an experience designed for someone who actually understands horses.
The Colombia Behind the Postcards
Colombian happiness is often misunderstood.
People here can be warm, social, humorous, and highly skilled at enjoying the present without living free from hardship.
That distinction matters.
A culture can celebrate loudly while carrying grief. A person can appear cheerful while managing financial pressure, family obligations, insecurity, or memories of conflict.
Why Colombians Often Appear So Happy
This article considers the role of family, humor, music, social connection, resilience, and appreciation for the immediate moment.
It is not an argument that Colombians are happy all the time. It is an attempt to understand why joy remains so visible in a country with a complicated history.
Thinking About Living in Colombia?
A successful move requires more than choosing a city from a list.
You need to consider:
- climate and altitude;
- transportation;
- housing;
- healthcare;
- security;
- family needs;
- language;
- social integration;
- how you will spend an ordinary Tuesday after the vacation feeling disappears.
My book, Coffee Axis Living, was written for readers who want a more honest understanding of long-term life in Colombia’s Coffee Region.
It covers the practical and cultural realities that traditional travel guides often leave out.
About Erin
I’m Erin Donaldson, an American writer and long-term foreign resident who has lived in Colombia since 2013.
Through OpenMindedTraveler, I write about travel, relationships, culture, and the realities of building a life abroad. My current publication, Coffee Axis Living, continues that work through reporting and commentary from Colombia and across the wider Americas.
Questions, media inquiries, and relevant collaboration requests can be sent to: