Stories Beneath the Surface.

My First Attempt to Reserve a Reformer in Medellín Ten years of Caribbean sun have taught me to bargain for bananas in the Colmado and gossip about béisbol with my Dominican neighbors, yet the morning I tried to book a Pilates reformer in Medellín I sounded like a malfunctioning voice note. I mixed up “reformador” […]

I still remember the first time I tried to haggle for a celeste-blue taza in Ráquira, the small Andean town that Colombians call the nation’s pottery capital. I had flown in from Santo Domingo on a long weekend, armed with what I thought was decent Spanish—after all, I had survived ten Dominican years of bartering […]

El choque que casi arruinó mis vacaciones I was two hours outside Medellín, windows down, vallenato humming on the radio, when a delivery moto tried to overtake me on a gravel shoulder. Metal kissed metal, his mirror snapped, and we both skidded to a dusty halt. My first reaction—after checking that no one was hurt—was: […]

My First Rooftop Revelation in Cartagena I was twenty-three, fresh from New York and still rolling my r’s like a broken lawn-mower, when I decided to spend a long weekend in a newly opened boutique hotel inside Cartagena’s walled city. The website promised “sunset cocktails and a seductive roof terrace.” I could string together basic […]

Last July, while the Caribbean sun roasted my adopted home of Santo Domingo, I booked a budget flight to Bogotá for one simple reason: I wanted to ask Gail Simone a question. Not online, not through a pre-screened fan email, but live in a jam-packed hall at Colombian Comic-Con. Ten years of island life had […]

When My Dominican Rhythms Met Colombian Footlights The first time I stepped into a small black-box theater in Medellín, the walls were sweating from the afternoon humidity, and my sneakers still carried a fine dusting of white sand from Las Terrenas. Ten years as an expat in the Dominican Republic had tuned my ear to […]

When the Wi-Fi Crashed and My Accent Got Me a Front-Row Seat I still remember the humid Thursday morning when I landed in Bogotá for my first cyber-security seminar. Ten years of life in Santo Domingo had trained my ear for the melodic Dominican “r,” yet the moment I greeted the Colombian event staff with […]

I still remember the first time I wheeled my battered mountain bike onto the glossy tiles of Bogotá’s El Dorado airport. Ten years of life in the Dominican Republic had tuned my ear to Caribbean rapid-fire chisme, but Colombia was a different cadence—softer consonants, the occasional voseo, and mysterious cycling lingo. A guide in an […]

Un cafecito que cambió mi diciembre Ten years in the Dominican Republic have trained my ears to the rapid-fire rhythm of merengue and the equally fast Spanish that accompanies it, but it was a chilly December afternoon in Bogotá that truly stretched my tongue. My friend Juliana invited me for la Novena, a nine-day countdown […]

The Morning I Forgot the Juice Box Chaos in Bogotá It started with my five-year-old pointing at his Spider-Man lunch bag and squealing, “¡Papi, el jugo!” We were already halfway to his Jardín Infantil in Chapinero, Bogotá, and the juice box was still sweating peacefully in our apartment fridge. A Dominican neighbor would have teased […]

Two Fridays ago, after a dawn flight from Santo Domingo to Medellín, I checked into my usual Airbnb, dumped my backpack, and headed straight for the public pool in Laureles. Jet-lagged legs appreciate chlorine, and my brain appreciates the language tune-up that only a chatterbox receptionist can give. The pool, a 50-meter municipal gem framed […]