Colombian American Nikki Vargas (Wanderess) had parlayed her lifelong passion for travel into a successful blog. But she knew something was wrong when she found herself fleeing solo to Argentina and Iguazú Falls just weeks before her scheduled wedding. Vargas's frank, engaging memoir, Call You When I Land, charts her love of travel and the ways it has helped (and occasionally hindered) her in her journey of self-discovery. The child of Colombian immigrants, Vargas had an urge to go from a young age, helped along by her dad's passion for airplanes. She recounts her childhood trips, the months she spent in France living with a boyfriend, and her eventual launch of a travel blog, the Pin the Map Project. The blog allowed Vargas to hone her writing skills, connect with readers who shared her love of travel, and even hop on a few all-expenses-paid press trips. Eventually, though, she decided to take a larger leap by founding a feminist travel magazine, Unearth Women.
Vargas weaves vivid descriptions of her travels in with her personal and professional journeys, sometimes emphasizing relationship dramas or her own cluelessness as a 20-something trying to make it in New York. Readers may wonder at some of her decisions, but travel and writing, Vargas's twin guiding lights, always reemerge to steer her in a different direction. Though some of Vargas's leaps (travel-related and otherwise) end in spectacular crashes, she keeps telling her story with resilience, hope, and an eye for the next exciting destination. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams