I was surprisingly sad to leave Mompiche. I haven’t been sad about leaving a place since Itacaré in Brazil so I thought that was just because it was the first place on my trip and I was a fresh traveler. Well, as it happened again, it seems like it was more about having a sunny beach, a hobby and awesome people around. When traveling solo, that feeling of community created by several people all living, breathing the sport they love, makes for a nice change. I could easily have stayed in Mompiche long term but the plan was always to travel north through Colombia and then continue to Central America, and I’m a sucker for plans.

But, after seven months I find myself at the end of my budget. I’m about to hit the the mark of 70 000 NOK (close to 8000 USD) in a couple of weeks. I never actually expected to make this amount last me a year, but I like making strict budgets so I’ll work harder to keep them. So now I need to restrict my traveling and get a job, no way around it. And since I don’t have enough money to travel around to find that place where I want settle for a while, I find myself getting more and more drawn towards Brazil again. I’m guessing central can wait.

When I suddenly got the wonderful news that one of my best friends wanted to come visit, there was no more time to think about it. I had to make a decision about where to spend my remaining months of this trip, and that ASAP. It literally took half an hour from my friend asking me where I would be in a month till we were looking at tickets for Brazil. I had yet to go to Colombia, but we would both like to do some surfing so I would have to move to another country by the time he would get here. So to save money and traveling, we would have to meet in the country where I was planning on settling for a bit, Brazil.

Having tons of fun in Mompiche, I had constantly been pushing the date going to Colombia and now I was suddenly in a rush. Three weeks from Mompiche to Brazil! Colombia had to be done by speed traveling. You know, fancy cruise tourist style. Take a picture and move on. After hearing about all the travellers falling in love with Colombia, I sort of felt bad about missing out, but at this moment there was only Brazil in my head. Getting there in early March would mean 4 months of sun and surf without thinking about where to next. Only downside after a couple of months getting slightly better at Spanish is, of course, that I now have to learn Portuguese. Yey…