Today we’d like to introduce you to Carolina Ayala.
Hi Carolina, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’m a journalist with a great love for exploring new places, cities and countries. That’s why I started @adondevacaro, an instagram page where I get to share my wanderlust.
My passion for travel started in 2011. That was the first time I travel abroad. I went to London to study English and I learned so much more than that. I realized that there was so much to discover: places, flavors, traditions, cultures, and it was life-changing. So every time I could, I traveled. It wasn’t easy. Life happened. Work happened.
Then in 2016, I moved to Houston from Colombia. And it opened up a huge opportunity for me to explore hundreds of activities, parks, restaurants, etc. in my new home. After a while, my friends and coworkers here started to treat me kind of as a guide to the city and nearby locations. I loved it.
Fast forward to 2020 when the pandemic hit and travel by airplane wasn’t an option, I decided to explore Texas. I’ve visited the major cities here before, but that was it. This time around I focused on small towns and I was amazed to find such colorful and interesting locations. I shared them on my instagram account and people were so interested that that’s when I understood social media as a tool to help people to discover and enjoy new places.
A year later I had to move back to Colombia, so I took this as an opportunity to pursue my love for travel full-time and to share with my online community the beauty of my country, hoping to inspire others to explore, not just Colombia but their own cities and countries. That’s why my personal motto is live life through the eyes of a tourist: with excitement and admiration, always looking for new adventures no matter where you are.
Now that I’m back in Houston, I plan to continue with this beautiful journey and show people the wonders of Texas.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
It wasn’t and hasn’t been a smooth road for sure. There’s a lot of competition on social media and building credibility is a hard task.
But I know I have my own voice and I love to create quality content that can help people to discover where to go for their next vacation, their honeymoon, etc. And It makes me happy every time that someone reaches out asking me to help them with destinations and itineraries.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I studied journalism and I worked as a news producer for four years here in Houston before I moved back to Colombia. During this time, I was awarded with 4 Lone Star Emmys for newscasts and special coverages. This is definitely another facet of me that I love and I’m proud of.
This job was a huge learning opportunity and also helped me to understand the city dynamics. It also gave me tools to understand my audience and to produce content that talks to them.
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
I’ve always had this creative side since I was a kid. I used to write poems and stories and I had a book filled with them. I was also very shy and quiet.
So I always knew that I had to overcome this in order to pursue my career and my dreams. I took theatre classes during my early teen years to help with that and it did!
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adondevacaro/
