Hi, everyone. You're listening to Women Who Travel, a podcast from Kondayas Traveler. I'm Meredith

Carrie, and with me, as always, is my co-host, Thala Erica Koglu. Hello. A few weeks have gone by

during the pandemic and in the before times, where I haven't thought about packing up and moving across

an ocean to try something new,

and I can't imagine that I'm the only one. This week, we're joined by two women who made the jump

to leave the U.S. before COVID hit to talk about what it's really like to move abroad.

Joining us from Bogotab is Catalina Mayorga, founder of El Camino Travel and co-founder of the

Casa Violetta guesthouse in Nicaragua.

And Rachel Coleman, a social media strategist and one of our former traveler colleagues,

is joining from her apartment in Berlin.

Thanks for joining us.

Thanks for having us.

So I want to start with a question that is very much for the both of you,

which is, what has the last year been

like for you both, especially with travel restrictions and COVID precautions limiting your

movement? I mean, I feel like the last year has been just general chaos and a lot of time spent

at home like it has been for everyone.

That's actually like one of the interesting things about living abroad right now is life seems to be the same no matter where you are

because everyone is at home working from home every day

and daily life hasn't really changed that much.

Last year, I was basically my second year in Berlin and basically found myself being stuck in a city that I hadn't really spent much time in because the year before that I was traveling all the time in my new home of Europe. So it's been a very eye-opening year where I've learned a lot about myself,

but also this place that I've chosen to be my new hometown. Yeah, it's been a whirlwind of

...