Since I was a kid, the only thing I really wanted to do was see the world. I loved history and was always fascinated by other cultures - and I wanted to experience it all. Unfortunately, I wasn’t lucky enough as a youth to be able to backpack around the world or live abroad (life circumstances and poverty have a way of crushing those dreams for most of us, don’t they). So, I didn’t get my first taste of international travel until I was in the Navy; and even then, I had to wait a few years because fate is a cruel bitch and I got shore duty for my first set of orders. I was 29 before I finally set foot on foreign soil. But once I finally had the opportunity to be overseas, I seized every opportunity I had to explore and was frequently the group organizer. After I got out of the Navy, it took a few years before I was in a financial position to start traveling. When I finally did, I couldn’t stop. I had found my bliss. Credit card debt be damned – I’m going anyway. This has always been my dream to see the world, and it finally started coming true in my late 30s.

By random occurrence (or fated design), I found myself in Mexico in 2017. And I fell in love. Latin America spoke to me and touched my soul in a way I still can’t explain or fully understand; I just knew it made me happier than I’d ever been before. So I kept traveling whenever I could, started learning Spanish, and got my Master’s in World History with a focus on Latin America. For seven years I’ve been traveling Latin America, mostly solo, and making all the arrangements myself. I fell in love with the bustle of a local market, forests so rich and pure you could smell the color green, and glaciers that reflect every shade of blue the sky has ever shown. I fell in love with the sounds of Howler Monkeys, Grackles, and Giant Amazonian Otters; the smells of the forest after it rains; the taste of dulce de leche, asado, and pisco sour; the cold Patagonian wind in my hair, the touch of ancient stone placed thousands of years ago by a man not so different from us, and the warm hug of people that quickly become old friends. I’ve fallen in love with it all. And now it’s time I share it with you.