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Ok, this sounds like a movie.
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Our next guest planned a trip to her homeland of Guatemala and
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met the man of her dreams during the trip.
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It's been two years since the fateful trip and she recently posted
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a video on social media that went viral.
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We saw it and we had to talk to her about it
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Welcome to the show,
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Isabella Andreoni. Thank you so much for coming on the show
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We've been trying to reach out to you and we're so
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glad that we finally were able to and you're here with us
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So what inspired you to plan your solo trip to Guatemala
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Yeah, I feel like it was a culmination of a
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lot of different things.
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There were two main reasons that really pushed me to do it
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I had been working for this place for two years and
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I felt like my job got to the point where it kind
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of consumed all aspects of my life.
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And so June of 2022 I decided to step up from my
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position and I had no plan set in place,
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didn't know what my next steps would be.
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But I started traveling and I had a few trips planned
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with some friends. And I've traveled,
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I've been fortunate enough to travel a lot throughout my life.
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But I realized I've never done a solo trip.
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So it got me thinking and I was born in Guatemala,
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but I was adopted as a baby and I grew up here
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in the US and I've only been back one other time since
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my adoption in 2019.
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So I decided what better place to go on my first solo
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trip than to Guatemala.
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I booked my flight and,
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you know, a few days into the trip is when I
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met my now boyfriend and I would have never imagined the trip
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to play out the way it did.
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I bet you couldn't have imagined.
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That's crazy. You went solo and,
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and, and you're like now.
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So exactly. Can you tell us like your first encounter with
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the tour guide Manuel?
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And was there an instant connection?
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Yes. So it was really such a world wind.
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I want to say it was love at first sight,
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but it was pretty close to it.
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I'm not going to lie.
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He was my tour guide.
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So we were in a group of about seven other travelers from
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Germany from Italy. Me being clearly Guatemalan looking but sounds super
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American. And I think that kind of piqued his interest from
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the beginning because as a lot of people do,
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he started speaking to me in Spanish and my Spanish is not
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so great. So I kind of had to explain a little
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bit of my life story with him as I do with a
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lot of people when they start speaking Spanish to me.
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And I felt like for the first time in my life,
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this person was honestly just genuinely curious about my story and didn't
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pass any judgment on me for why I didn't speak Spanish,
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even though I was born in Guatemala.
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And I think looking back,
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that was definitely a moment where I knew I had met someone
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special because like I said,
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it was the first time in my life,
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especially from a male that was just,
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you know, accepting for who I am and the circumstances for
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the way my life had played out and I had no control
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over that in the moment,
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I don't think I realized I realized how much effect that would
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you know, now that we're two years together,
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I think back to the moment where I knew and that's the
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moment I always go back to.
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So you felt like you could be like,
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like yourself, like you didn't have to put up a front
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or nothing or worry about him,
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judging you that's so important in a relationship.
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What led you to share your love story on social media?
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Because you know, it was two years right?
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And then it was like,
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oh, I want to share my story,
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like what inspired you to share?
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Yeah, I feel like I'm an open book,
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you know, whether we're in person or even online on Instagram
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tiktok, whatever the platform is,
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I try and be super vulnerable because when I first started posting
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it was mainly about my,
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my experience being adopted from Guatemala and in such a short amount
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of time, so many people reached out saying that they feel
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similarly or they've had a similar experience and they're happy they can
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have someone to relate to because I feel like Guatemalan adoptees is
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such a niche community.
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And there's not really a lot of representation for people with our
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experience in mainstream media.
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And I picked up on that very quickly.
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And so I just continued to posting about my journey and
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also time went on Manuel became part of my journey.
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And so it was really easy for me to continue to just
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post those, you know,
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little moments in our relationship and whatnot,
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that's crazy. I mean,
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the whole thing, it's like,
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would you recommend like you'd recommend like women that are very like
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you know, I want to start something new.
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And would you recommend them taking a solo trip?
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Oh my God. I tell everyone like,
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if you have not had the chance to do a solo trip
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try and make that happen.
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And when you solo travel.
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It pushes you to be comfortable with a lot of the things
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that you're uncomfortable with and it pushes you outside of those boundaries
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It teaches you to advocate for yourself.
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And the biggest thing I took away was being comfortable with my
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own company. That was something I always struggled with.
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I always felt like I had to have plans on a Friday
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night. Like God forbid,
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I stayed in alone and just watched the movie by myself.
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That was something that really scared me.
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And now I'm the complete opposite.
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I love your, I love my solitude that.
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Yeah. No, I think the more we get older it
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starts to like you love being alone,
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you start to realize that.
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Right? So now you're a long distance couple.
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How do you guys make it work?
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Yeah, that's a great question.
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I will always say being in a long distance relationship is not
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for the week. But to me it was all worth it
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if we just, it's such a special connection and I figured
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if it's meant to be,
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it will be. And now we're two years in and we're
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still going strong. Yeah.
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So that's good. I'm so I'm so happy for you guys
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Thank you. It's amazing.
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And how does he feel like,
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and, and if you guys have any plans for the future
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you know, we're constantly planning what the next thing we
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get to do together is last holiday season,
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we decided to raise money for one of the villages in the
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town that he's, that's cool.
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That's really, really cool this coming holiday season we're doing the
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same thing when I go to visit him.
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That's amazing. It sounds like you guys have the same kind
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of like the same interests that are you guys very similar?
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You guys are very similar.
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I think so. And we definitely have our differences,
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definitely. But I think the things we care most about and
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like our values were so similar and I've never had that before
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I love them. Oh my God,
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Oh my God. I kind of want to take a trip
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now. I think you should have.
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I want to just roll the dice where I go.
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for both of them and where can people find you on social
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media and keep up with the foundation?
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Yeah, I'm on Instagram and tiktok at I dot Andreoni.
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I post a lot on my tiktok specifically about my adoption story
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and about the community work,
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my boyfriend and I do so you can check it out if
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you want to get involved.
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That's awesome. Thank you so much.
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