Finishing my first week in the doctoral nursing program before heading back to Bogotá in mid-September.  (I’ll be keeping in touch with my professors via Skype, Scopia and a variety of on-line media.)

I am exciting to be coming back to a city that I have come to know and love!  In fact, my only regret is that I didn’t devote enough pages of the book to the city itself.  At the time, I rationalized that people who were interested in the city would be able to find plenty of information in the existing travel guides (and I am not a traditional travel writer) – so I devoted myself wholeheartedly to medical tourism, hospitals and surgery.  But as time has passed – I regret not sharing the city more with readers, since after living there for almost six months (and traveling all over the city daily), I certainly became intimately familiar with much of it.

So, readers will be happy to hear that I haven’t made that mistake with my latest book on Mexicali, MX – but I am just happy to be going back to Bogotá, a city that truly has captured my heart..

It’s insidious, you know.  The things that I initially didn’t like (like the ‘eternal autumn’ weather) become some of the very things that make me enjoy the city so much.   Bogotá is a city that has to be ‘known’ to really be appreciated.  If you don’t scratch beneath the surface of this vibrant, amazing place, then you really won’t see (and love) the city.

For example; that cool, mild weather, that had me groaning the first few weeks also made it possible for me to spend much of my time outdoors – exploring the city, walking miles everyday.  Spend a week sweltering in Cartagena (or Mexicali, in August, for that matter) and you will see what I mean.

The food that seemed plain and unspiced at first, became something to savor.  All of the exotic and tangy fruits, and ‘real’ food taste – unmasked by heavy additives let me appreciate how wholesome and unaltered it really was.  It made me appreciate the subtlety and complexities of the meals I was enjoying.  (If you drown everything in ketchup or hot sauce – what are you really tasting?)

So, in just a few weeks – I will be back in this wonderful, charming, whirlwind place that has claimed a little corner of my heart.