Hi there!
My name is Adam McConnaughhay. I was born here in South Carolina and spent the first decade of my life living in the Lexington/Red Bank Area before moving to the Shandon area of Columbia in the 5th grade.
After graduating Dreher High School, I attended the College of Charleston, where I studied History, Latin American Studies, and Political Science. After graduating, I went to work for a year as a volunteer teacher in a small town south of Cartagena, Colombia.
I fell in love both with Cartagena and with a Cartagenera named Susana. I spent over a decade more there, working at a bilingual school teaching history between trips to the beautiful Rosario Islands or other neat places in Colombia.
In mid-2018, I decided to start a website on my experiences and Cartagena Explorer was born. After years of being a side gig and providing a small amount of extra pesos in my pocket and a global pandemic, I’m proud to say it is now my primary source of income and generates upwards of 40,000 views a month.
I’ll be honest, I probably could have stayed in Cartagena forever, but my wife wanted the same experience of living somewhere else as I got to enjoy for a decade. In early 2022, we permanently relocated back to good old Columbia, South Carolina.
While I miss Cartagena, it’s been great being back home, and now I am embarking on hopefully building this site to be just a useful a resource and success as my Cartagena site. The thought of building up another site is a bit daunting, so I’d love any of your Facebook likes and shares and word of mouth to others.
Most importantly, though, I hope you find the content on the site useful, whether you live here in SC, are visiting SC, or just here to learn a little.
Cheers and Happy Exploring!