I Fly to Colombia with Just 500 Dollars

So my budget for 3 months in South America wasn’t very large to begin with—around 3k. After splurging by doing the Inca Trail and eating at top 10 world restaurants in Peru, I find myself with most of my money used up as I start my journey in Colombia. I flew into Bogota by myself yesterday, having finished my travels with my brother in Brazil. I will stay a few days here, then I will head to a smaller town to seek some kind of work to keep me going, whether that’s teaching English or volunteering at a hostel (or maybe even working on a farm lol). I have never been good at being frugal so this will be a big test for me as I try to make my remaining $500 last until my flight home on August first (almost 40 days 😅).

Brazil was freaking beautiful, from the lush harbor of Rio de Janiero to the sand dunes of Lencois Maranhenses. Well actually we couldn’t see much in Rio because it was so cloudy, but it did clear up for us the day we went hang gliding! We were extremely lucky; apparently the 45 second window we flew in was the only opening in the clouds from the past few days—we heard people waited for hours to fly but didn’t get so lucky. Wind in my face, gliding down from the top of the mountain towards the beach below was surreal as the sun was breaking through the clouds. I had been wanting to do this ever since I saw Rio (the bird movie). I will say that unlike skydiving where you get pushed off, hang gliding is even more daring in that you have to run off the cliff yourself holding on to nothing but your buddy. It was truly full-send.

Hang gliding in Rio

Sand dunes in Lencois Maranhenses