The months of March, April, and May were all spent house-sitting in Colorado. We took care of 14 different pets in 7 different households which we lined up with our Trusted House Sitters subscription*. Our main focus, besides taking care of our furry charges, was selling our van, Ballena Blanca. You can read all about that in my Goodbye to Ballena Blanca post. But despite our many responsibilities we did manage to squeeze in some sightseeing and some evenings dining out.
We started the month off in Denver with the dog Stella. Although this was a quick sit we were able to take Stella on a couple of excursions to a few parks. She got to ride in Ballena Blanca to one of the parks. She was a little nervous at first but seemed to enjoy the ride home.
Next, we were off to Fort Collins, north of Denver, to hang out with Jasper and Petey for 10 days. Jasper and Petey live in a small but comfortable apartment. We took them on walks three times a day. Because Petey is a little reactive we were always vigilant to keep our distance from other dogs. Luckily, we found a rather large open field to walk them in. Petey is a bit introverted. At the apartment, he would often go out on the balcony to hang out in his dog house. Jasper, on the contrary, was the kind of dog who enjoyed lying on top of you – even though he is hardly a lap dog. One of his biggest joys was tearing a brand-new toy apart (new toys were delivered while we were staying there). Besides walking the dogs we didn’t get out much here as we were concentrating on getting the van ready to sell. But we did go out to dinner once and took a hike in Lory State Park.
From Fort Collins, we drove south, past Denver to Pueblo where we spent 5 days with Gus. Gus, a scraggly little dog, was super easy to take care of. He free-fed and only needed walks around the apartment complex. We took him on a few outings, one to downtown Pueblo and another to see a castle in the mountains which turned out to just be a ride in the van. We failed to realize that if there was snow on the ground where we were there would be even more as the elevation climbed. The roads were too icy and snowy and we turned around. This is what happens when you spend years avoiding snow – you forget how it works.
We really enjoyed our next sit, 11 days with Copper the cat in Colorado Springs. Copper loves to go outside on his leash – even in the snow! Copper is pretty easy going but there is one thing he can’t stand – piano music. If we ever wondered where Copper was, Greg would play the piano in the house and Copper would show up complaining. Since Copper spent a good amount of time hiding every day and required less attention than the dogs, we were able to make a few excursions while we were staying with him. We visited the Garden of the Gods, took a ride on the Pikes Peak Cog Railroad, and hung out in the little town of Manitou Springs.
Back in Denver, we did a 3 day sit with Jesse and Chai. Jesse is a very talented fetch player. We enjoyed taking him to the dog park and flinging tennis balls for him. We attended a Colorado Van meetup while we were in Denver and met some other interesting van lifers.
Next, we drove over the Rocky Mountains to a 24-day sit in Grand Junction. We had one night free before this sit started and spent it in a hostel in Leadville, the highest incorporated city in the US at 10,158 feet. Unfortunately, it was too cold and snowy for us so we didn’t explore.
Our sit in Grand Junction was a repeat for Greg. This was one of his first sits through the Trusted House Sitters* app when he was traveling solo in 2022. Here we had two dogs, Bolt and Kobe, and a cat named Squeakers. Kobe hadn’t been a part of this household long and wasn’t here when Greg sat here before. He belongs to the homeowner’s son who was working overseas. So he was a bit of an unknown factor for both the homeowners and us. He ended up being the best dog, easygoing, loving, and curious. Bolt is a Border Collie and has way too much nervous energy. He loved to play fetch in the house and could do it all day. Squeakers kept to herself mostly downstairs where she had sanctuary from the rambunctious boys.
Since this sit was so long we had time to get out and explore more. Conveniently we were located very near the Colorado National Monument where we could hike. We also visited a couple of State Parks, and did a big excursion to Rattle Snake Canyon. For the trip to the canyon, we rented a Jeep.
After Grand Junction, we went back over the Rockies to Evergreen Colorado to hang with Finn, Meegosh, and Waldo. Finn is also a Border Collie, but a little older than Bolt. He loved a game of fetch but unlike Bolt he didn’t need to play all day long. We enjoyed taking him on walks around the lake in Evergreen. We also took him on a couple of excursions, one to Red Rocks Park and Amphitheater and another to Golden Gate Canyon State Park. Meegosh and Waldo were fun cats with totally different personalities. Our biggest challenge with them was keeping them from bolting out the door. We got out a lot more in Evergreen since we were only a short walk away from the town’s main street.
From Evergreen we returned to Leadville to kill a few days before our next sit. The weather was much better and because we were there for two nights we had a whole day to explore.
Our last sit was 9 days in Golden Colorado for Britty the cat. Bitty was sweet and easy to take care of. We were busy getting ready to leave the country so we didn’t do any excursions. We didn’t even eat out.
The Expenses
And here is what we spent for those three months…
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To see all of our expense reports, click here.
If you are interested in reading other expense reports from nomads who really know how to live cheaply while still having a good time, check out the blog from our friends Mark, Liesbet, and Maya at Roaming About.
Map of our travels
The Plan
The plan has been fulfilled! We are in Medellin, Colombia, South America taking Spanish lessons. Now we are planning for the coming months. We will leave Medellin in mid-August and take two weeks traveling by bus, stopping in other towns and cities until we reach the Ecuador border. We will cross into Ecuador and head to Quito where we will continue to study Spanish. In October we will head to another city in Ecuador, Cuenca where we will keep taking lessons. We have a 3-week house sit lined up in Cuenca. We are very excited!
Right Now
We are staying in an Airbnb in a cute little suburb of Medellin, called Envigado. We commute to school Monday – Friday on the metro. We just had a friend visit so we took a week off of school and played tourist. It was lots of fun. It also forced us to use our Spanish. Greg thinks we are getting better with the language.
As always I’m trying to catch up on the blog. I was going to write about our travels in Mexico City this past December and our 3 months in Colorado but those stories will have to wait. My next posts will be about being here in Colombia – an expense report for June and a blog about the week we spent in Cartagena.
Even though I have enough trouble writing this blog, I have joined another writing medium, Substack. I am hoping to find more engagement for my stories. I will mostly be reposting what I write here. But I also might include different content on Substack. Check out my site on Substack here. Because Substack can be monetized I will be sending any money I make from paid subscriptions to a friend in need. But because I believe in writing to share and engage, most of my content on Substack will be free.
*Trusted House Sitters has worked well for us. It is based on an equitable trade. We get housing, a break from the road and to visit places we might not have ordinarily gone, and the hosts get 5-star pet and house sitting (check out our reviews!). If you are interested in this kind of trade, click this link for 25% off a subscription to Trusted House Sitters. We will also get 2 free months!
**Click pics to enlarge and view in a slide show.
Hello you two!
Three months packed into one blog post! Rattle Snake Canyon looks awesome and so do the variety of dogs and cats. I’m so glad you managed to sell the van and are executing your “learning Spanish in South America” plan! Good idea doing this in the northern part of the continent as accents are really different in Chile and Argentina.
Thanks for renewing the family plan of DuoLingo and letting me use it. I should thank you more often for this, as I practice every day and it really helps me with the language!
Your expenses totally make sense. Preparing for a journey always costs extra. And, you only paid $500 for two plane tickets to Colombia? One-way probably, but that’s still awesome.
See you later this year!
Yeah, I really needed to catch up. Rattle Snake Canyon was great – but an exhausting hike. We would have never been able to make it there in the van. We are ready to buy a jeep now! – Not really. Con Gusto! You don’t have to thank us more than you have. I’m glad that you are using Duo and hopefully it is helping you with your Spanish. I only have 5 more units! So we probably won’t renew it next year.
If we had had more time to plan we could have gotten our tickets even cheaper – $380, but by the time we made reservations they had gone up.
Looking forward to hanging out in SA with you guys!