Category: travel blog

Travel in What Pictures Cannot Capture

January 27, 2026 by Cassandra Johnson
Travel in what pictures cannot capture.
Travel in that, from which pictures can just borrow a piece.

When I first landed in Merida, I did not expect to stay so long, though I thought it efficient to run out my tourist Visa. (180 days).

I look at my photos, yes picturesque, yet they do not capture all the beauty and anguish interwoven into the weeks. They don’t match the ease I felt sitting in the sun after a long project and drinking agua fresca. Salsa in the bar. Daily free performances. Restaurant stands. Cute shops. The pictures do not capture the taste of a good Mexican meal, only the appearance and sometimes, they mistakenly highlight a tasteless Yucatecan one.

The pictures are graciously appreciated yet also inconsiderate of the anxiety I felt leaving a nice Merida neighborhood for an inconvenient one.

Pictures borrow a piece from the scenery, they borrow a piece from the nostalgia, they borrow a piece from the senses that engage in the moment. They borrow from the delight and sometimes veil the anxious spirit. They borrow and allow a revisit to the places, to the feelings and sometimes uplift a moment that was not uplifting and alternately dull a moment absolutely beyond exhilarating.

The experiences were unimaginable. I am glad I tested out a desire to see the Mexican city among the many, and look forward to soon seeing if the feelings, both okay and good, are still there. Yet, short, round-trip ticket, this time.😊

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Far-reaching

January 26, 2026 by Cassandra Johnson
Feeling within the capacity to be strong enough
Knowing well the reserve of willingness and resilience
Feeling the mirage of perceived limitation
all the time, knowing the goals obtained. As well, projected.

I started talking to my new coach just one week ago and connecting with her again this week, I knew we were a good match. Being yourself without having to prove yourself is one of the nicest places to be.

Safe space lies in authentic encouragement and likewise, in the acknowledgment of skills and accomplishments. Being seen.

Being encouraged to continue to do work that aligns with my passions is satiating. I thank her for the tools to progress even further and to be kind with even the personally coping steps that landed at my past goals, just the same.

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Unlocked

December 31, 2025 by Cassandra Johnson

The stumbling blocks along  the path. Duly recognized.

No reason to be ashamed when what is true is that you made it through.

 A past survived. No need to let go when the world continues to hold on to you.

[May 2026 publications, additions]

Life lessons. Varying. Aptly recognized, I now have more information to take on my next project plus travel endeavors. Maybe there is an enhanced way to complete my translation, teach a student, and travel to South America? There may be parts I can skip altogether.

Without reinventing myself. I can embrace the highlights and the issues I have had to improve my steps and continue helping local and international communities.

A Little Direction

December 30, 2025 by Cassandra Johnson

I took a couple of local trips. Perhaps, I will be able to work something out in January too.

I am working out some combination to include volunteering and working but with some significant changes that work better for my schedule and the assistance I can provide to the organization I choose. I will circle back around as updates come.

The first year of my blog captured a lot of my volunteer thoughts abroad. I highlight Peru and my previous experiences with disaster relief, in particular. I also have some time that touches a little on volunteering in the US. I always wanted to do both, but there are times when I feel it becomes tainted by the leadership structure.

There are other times I joined projects in my home state before doing so in DC, when I first moved to DC, and other projects in places like Ecuador and Bolivia, but what I want to do also becomes limited by my job. Overall I am intrigued to volunteer some more, because I feel it fits well into continuing to learn with others and grow together. This time, perhaps, my efforts will just be a little different. My work experience may lean a lot more to what I can do and also changing who I am.

Cali, Colombia

November 30, 2025 BY CASSANDRA JOHNSON

Cali. I had a feeling I would really like this major Colombian city. Nice and warm, I found myself taking a stroll each day looking for a particular food spot or coffee shop. From a variety of points, I could work/chill with a little dessert and a warm variation of a sweet beverage. Cafe mocha, cappuccino, etc and by now, I had also developed a taste for Colombian coffee. The only factors slowing me down were the hills and the steep drop offs, some occasional rain. I was continuously walking up, reminding myself that it was going to be so much easier coming back, but honestly the steep downslopes were something one should brace for as well.

Well, I made it and I notice that once I know there is a spot within reach, no matter how far, I am compelled to get there, even foolhardily. I laughingly remember a friend getting lost from his hostel in Cochabamba, Bolivia and he said something to the effect that if you are going to wander off, don’t do it downhill, seeing as how he had to return at the opposite angle, righting himself up a steep incline.😊

I leaned into Cali’s ambience. People were friendly, not too particularly focused on what my story might be, but still engaging, treating me as if I could be from there or aptly treating me like a welcome guest. Cartagena would later prove similar, though the weather was much hotter.

Cali had left me curious. It was a place where more people looked like me and previously, I had just spent a day or less there. Fortunately, I was able to stay for about 12 days this latter time, since I could be flexible with my bus tickets from there back to Bogota. I liked purchasing them in person on the day of my trip, leaving my bags in the bus terminal luggage storage, so I could be free to walk about and eat in the city, leaving any weight behind. I also left them behind when arriving before accommodation check-in times.

I knew the bus station well by now. I had taken to the budget travel option over the flight I took into Colombia primarily when I arrived the very first time in Colombia and stayed in Medellin.   

Cali is a place I could have stayed for a majority of my 90-day Visa but I was also ready to get back to the chillier Bogota for a work minus distraction strategy that Bogota was more suitable to me for, and what I needed to fit in before stopping in Cartagena and getting out a somewhat underrated country, before I was required to leave altogether.

Some Days

November 28, 2025 by Cassandra Johnson

Recently, I had the nice experience of helping a South Korean adult student study his English. I use a platform that allows me to help students through general conversations with whatever they would like to discuss or by using structured lessons.

I prefer logging in when I have extra time, I rarely have regularly scheduled students. I prefer not having a set schedule whereas I am able to engage with people who choose to call me when we both happen to be online. We make a good match, because they can look at my profile and/or intro video and decide if they would like to use their lesson time with me. I once volunteered teaching English as a second language for a couple years on a set schedule in DC, 6 months alongside other volunteer work in Peru and again when I explored church for a while. The online space has opened it up to me again.

The students are from a variety of countries with different goals for learning English, which could be professional, academic or as a hobby. I enjoy getting to meet them and even seeing that some of them select me again when we happen to be online at the same time again.

The online English tutoring platform is where I spend some of my spare time, only keeping a set schedule from time to time, when students especially request it. Now that I work as a full-time freelance translator following a long line of other work experience (most recently in non-profits), I like having this additional side space as it still speaks to my literary and language passions and sharing international experiences.

Fitting

October 31, 2025 by Cassandra Johnson

Accepting all I deserve?

It’s coming easier.

I am reminiscent of how not to deny myself. I am reminded not to expect less. I am reminded of insistent examples.

I am reminded of my 31st birthday via my brother and us sharing ideas and outlooks.

I am swept up in the memory of that birthday, of inviting friends to share the date with me, to enjoy our time together. I do not remember being especially hungry. I enjoyed the food. I enjoyed the drinks but I mostly recalled the satiation being filled by the company and their intentions.

I am struck by the memory of a celebration of many friends from different parts of my life coming together and how supported I felt in their respect for each other out of their own interests and their respect for me. I love seeing them in their element and not too focused on me, unnaturally, but very fluidly focused on me and our relationships.

I was captured by them, captured by the presence we stayed in. Wrapping up our goodbyes intermittently as they had to leave, I am struck how I could ask for what I really wanted and be treated so deserving.

What I really was reflecting on is how stark it could be to stay in this mode when life’s pressures mount around you and you’re most likely in work mode.

Interestingly in a space of employing so much effort, a lot more factors like bosses and profit work to the effect of convincing you of not being deserving and of extracting more of you than is willing to be given in return. I have been talked out of acknowledging what I deserve in these spaces but now I am reminded. Examples of being deserving are insistent and luckily, my family/friend support system is as well.

Rather Than

September 30, 2025 by Cassandra Johnson

Tossing around stories with friends for Happy Hour or during dinner following all too familiar office politics, I kept an optimism that maybe countered the arbitrary criticisms leveled from my boss. Maybe the natural optimism came from a young lifetime of hoping and daydreaming.

I always felt like there was more to everything, so much more to come. Maybe all the books and novels in my arsenal did that too. After the fairytales, into the stories, through the essays and falling out of the plays, there was some underlying promise of relief, release. Good times. Deep laughs. Good meals. A dive into all that my senses could soak up was my trained escape from a heavy day. A lot of goodness could be outlined by the security and fun I had in a childhood of fun with siblings and a family I could trust with my quirkiness and true thoughts. My already fantasizing mind was filled with optimism to counter my criticisms. My backdrop of support, affection and progress stood up to bad experiences and mistreatment.

This was the norm I became increasingly aware of when I embarked on my own, from large campus and graduate from The Ohio State University to eventual work life in DC . I was pretty excited about both. Work became increasingly less exciting, however. I know there is something more.

Turns out a lot of work holds space for office politics and underpayment. I saw this come about even if it was not already present and it didn’t seem to be so bad. It hurt my boss’s mind that I could be discredited and only be temporarily discouraged and angry. I knew that my progress and sustainability really was based on the need to be okay and the hope that my good times would visit me again and again. My dreams had shown themselves to be kind to my reality, so I swallowed a lot of the work stress.

Even just letting the workday wash away from me in my apartment after work or at the gym was a lot to start to let go. Eventually, I wanted more. I needed more freedom while I also worked on doing something meaningful.

Stretching out on the sofa or cuddling into my armchair, eating my favorite meals, I got to relax maybe just for the evening or for two whole days before Sunday dread and Monday morning. Everyone at work looked forward to Friday, a telling tale of this not being the ideal environment or way we would prefer to spend our time, although there were varying levels of getting into the activities of the job. I would not mind and enjoy some parts, while dreading other aspects of my work. Is it just natural?

I could no longer do it. I needed to go away for a while, maybe forever and I found myself back in San Juan, then Mexico, Peru, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala and Panama City. I needed to take these trips again, away from the toxic work environment, working on my own to get back to myself and not fighting through infringing work ideas but rather more of me, getting to know me and focus on me, being independent, working on my own, being my daydream.

City Stops

August 31, 2025 by Cassandra Johnson

When I landed in Medellin, Colombia, I thought it would be hard to leave the airport without taking an overpriced taxi to my accommodation.

I was surprised to find just going up one floor, through the food court-like area that I could catch an Uber very much like I could in New York City or Washington D.C.

Before calling one, I went to Juan Valdez coffee shop to get my bearings. I was so familiar and comfortable with Peru, what was Colombia going to behold for me? Juan Valdez coffee shops would be a regular backdrop along with indie ones. I would find a variety of experiences and a variety of people, naturally.

What I noticed primarily was the “Tranquilo” cultural mantra that many guys and women would direct at me.

Sometimes my overly gracious words in a hotel suite or a grocery shop would translate into not being from there, and they were basically telling me to Relax and Chill. No big deal.

I was pleased. I would rather be overly nice than flippant, and the people here seemed to like me.

They were surprised I had learned Spanish. They were even more surprised I now worked as a digital nomad. They made guesses like “Teacher”? “Student”? and were further surprised when I answered “Translator”.

I thought back to starting to travel again, but this time as someone working on the road (across the skies), by first returning to San Juan, Puerto Rico. I was glad to be transitioning from traveling to volunteer to traveling while working.

This was challenging, however, because most people around me were on vacation. Now it was Medellin, Colombia. Before it was Puerto Rico. Then it was returning to Peru to see if I wanted to go ahead and secure an apartment there for part of the year.

My first challenge was going for the budget friendly hostels. I later learned that spending more on hotel and AirBnBs here and there helped me focus on work and then do touring and hanging out in my downtime.

Hostels did not typically seem to design in remote working spaces but as I traveled more, I found those that had some nice ones.

I also found that Medellin, Colombia had some super affordable coworking spaces. They were abundant in both the Laurel and Poblado neighborhoods. I especially liked Laurel. It was more my vibe and it had both fancy spots and bohemian ones – sometimes intermingling in the middle.

I remembered how I find my flow and then forget sometimes but it was really nice to connect and try intermittently to get between rainstorms and hanging out and working. I was curious if Bogota could be as nice. Imagine my surprise that the vibe and actually less party atmosphere of it compared to Medellin actually led me into enjoying Bogota more. Could I snowbird there, while enjoying family in the U.S.?

Ending Begins

August 30, 2025 by Cassandra Johnson

When I accepted that I would not be able to visit Peru again for another year, and my 90-day Visa was coming to an end, I was okay with that. I was nostalgic in the way one could get right before leaving a place and experience of which they have grown quite fond. Peru had again become my temporary home. I had a good run and being that it was my 4th visit, I bargained on how I would return. 

I had ended my visit this time, after some apartment seeking in the San Isidro neighborhood but also thought about how convenient it would be to live in the area of Miraflores, where I had been spending most of this recent time. 

However, I wondered if me navigating these decisions in the capital this time was altogether too different, since my true affection for Peru started in the city of Pisco versus this metropolis. I would later question if I could also translate that to Cusco, retrying this home to Machu Picchu as well. Lima had always mostly just been a travel-through city, even after the extended stays, so yep, this could almost be like acclimating to any major city in a number of places. Still that could work for my aging lifestyle. I am not mad at all at blending all life’s modern conveniences with Peruvian culture and cuisine.

Consequently,  a time for a decision on a long-held dream had now reached me just as I again reached my dream South American location. I was still just deciding on where specifically to live in Peru, or was I?

Another thought lingered around overall just connecting with people, so I pivoted between accommodations and events to find both a nice comfortable setting and a local group of friends. Setting up a life with conveniences and support for part of the year abroad and another part of the year back home was my broader plan. Setting up a life to thrive while working as a digital nomad, translating from anywhere was also key.

Yet, following this repeated trip, I gradually realized I wanted to continue seeing more. Maybe my dream could even be played out in another South American country and/or across multiple ones. I set my sights and my next experience on Colombia.