Category Archives: travel thoughts

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Mexico’s Mountains: Iztaccihualt Volcano

25 May 16
Heidi Kumm
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2 comments

Some mountain adventures lend themselves to long, elaborate stories. Others…well, others are such an in-the-moment experience that I cannot wrangle the right words to truly explain what happened. My week in the mountains of Central Mexico is the latter. Just during the two days we frolicked along the trails leading up to Iztaccihuatl we survived three thundery snowstorms, wandered way off trail twice + literally danced down the mountainside courtesy of some “energy pills”. There aren’t words to describe that…so, instead I’ll share photos + two video mashups of our time on Iztaccihuatl. You can decide if we had any fun!

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Mexico // A Little Bit of Everything

16 May 16
Heidi Kumm
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4 comments

I’ve been in Mexico for…two weeks? In that nugget of time it feels like I’ve seen a tiny bit of everything Mexico has to offer, so far. I say “so far” because I still have a full month of wandering left to do. My Spanish isn’t getting much better but I am getting more confident in using it. There’s no way around it — I stick out like a sore thumb here so the locals are quick to humor my attempts at communicating with them!

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Staying is easy; so I must go.

06 May 16
Heidi Kumm
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No Comments

I was standing on the corner of a busy street in a foreign city. It was my first time venturing out into Monterrey, Mexico on my own and I wasn’t sure of where I was going, what people were saying or how the hell to cross this street where it looked like everyone was playing human frogger. On the inside I knew I would survive to find the park I was looking for but on the outside everything about me screamed “confused tourist”. I could feel myself trying to be invisible with my crossed legs, fidgety fingers + averted eyes. I knew I couldn’t blend in + I was yet to dig up to confidence to own my foreigner status so I instinctively opted for invisible.

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Summer Shenanigans: Mixing Work + Play

05 Apr 16
Heidi Kumm
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7 comments

Spring showed up in February…but winter came back with vengeance in March. The mountains still aren’t sure what season it is, bouncing between fresh powder mornings and slushy afternoons. We might get another dumping of snow, in true Colorado fashion, but in my mind…summer is just around the corner. So close!

Heck, my version of summer kicks in before April is officially over! I actually have a lot on deck for my summer, but not in the traditional sense. I’m trying something new — combining a full-time job with a consistent travel-for-fun life. I’ve spent the last few months plotting, planning, working + negotiating to make this happen, and now it’s about to start happening!

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Monterrey’s Mountains: Pico Norte of Cerro de la Silla

17 Mar 16
Heidi Kumm
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7 comments

From the snow to the sunshine…in posting order + in real life! I’m in the process of repacking all that winter camping gear into my car for a weekend of car camping + trail running + rock climbing in Moab. It’s a sorta solo, sorta group trip. I’m headed that way to take on another outdoor education class [lead sport climbing] but it sounds like I’ll have plenty of free time to explore trails…trails without snow!

Speaking of trails without snow, La M wasn’t the only mountain we hiked while I was down in Monterrey, Mexico. It was only the beginning of a handful of adventures out onto the trails near the perimeter of the massive city. We had settled into an AirBnB near Cerro de la Silla, a really nice neighborhood that butts up against steep mountains leading up to a jagged ridge.

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Monterrey’s Mountains: La M in Chipinque

10 Mar 16
Heidi Kumm
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5 comments

In mid-January I had a chat with my scheduling manager at the hotel, asking for 5 days in a row off…any 5 days. I had no idea what I was going to do with my time off but after weeks of working two nearly fully time jobs I needed a breather. She picked the dates that worked best for the schedule and I started perusing the internet for cheap flights.

I ended up booking a flight to Monterrey, Mexico where I knew I’d find a familiar face, cheap tacos and an excuse to work on my Spanish. Come late February…off I went! I was giving myself a mid-winter trip to Mexico, where I wouldn’t see a drop of salt water but I would find the top of a few urban mountains.

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Reality Czech: A Rural Workaway Experience

08 Jan 16
Heidi Kumm
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one comments

When I decided I needed to put my “tourist card” to use for the last few weeks I had in Europe I started looking into Workaway opportunities in a variety of countries. A few days after I started my search I had myself set up with a Workaway host in rural eastern Czech where I’d be helping out on a small homestead. I wasn’t sure of all the details and didn’t ask a ton of questions — I think the overwhelmingly positive experience I had with Chalet Martin had me dropping my guard a bit. Luckily it all worked out great…here is the full story, as I wrote it with pen + paper in my bunk in my downtime during my stay at David + Anna’s small farm.

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Vienna: City of Stone

06 Jan 16
Heidi Kumm
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2 comments

On my flight into Vienna, Austria I mentally prepared myself for another tourist filled city, just in case. Of course I was seriously hoping Vienna would feel a lot more like Zurich than Zermatt but I figured if I kept my expectations in check I’d be able to avoid the crushing frustration that came with my arrival at Zermatt. In the end, all that preparation was for naught…I almost immediately fell in love with Vienna. Yea, love. My infatuation for Vienna even put Zurich in second place.

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Playing Tourist

02 Nov 15
Heidi Kumm
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5 comments

I have spent the last seven weeks settling into life at Chalet Martin in a small town in the Swiss Alps. I’ve slept in the same bed, cooked in the same kitchen, stashed my shoes on the same shelf + shopped at the same market for almost two months. It’s like I’ve been legitimately living in a tiny mountain town in Switzerland…exactly the experience I planned for when I left the States. It’s been nice. It’s gotten comfortable. It’s time to change. Yea, I know. Why fix what’s not broken…but I’m almost out of time to wander Europe so rather than stick to the comfortable I’m headed beyond the borders of Switzerland.

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Tour de l’Argentine

29 Oct 15
Heidi Kumm
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one comments

One of my questions for Merlin while coordinating my WorkAway plans in Gryon, Switzerland was “how’s the hiking + trail running in the area?”, turns out Merlin was not lying when he said the options are endless. From the day I arrived the Tour de l’Argentine has been mentioned by multiple people, yet it still took me about 4 weeks to actually get out there and run/hike the loop. It did not disappoint! And I really should have done it earlier because now I really want to summit l’Argentine but I’m running out of time!

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