LET'S TRAVEL THE WORLD?

I traveled for the first time when I was about four years old. It was a trip with my grandparents, from Rio de Janeiro to Belo Horizonte, on the train known as the Vera Cruz (also called the Silver Train). The trip was overnight, and my grandmother, grandfather, and I traveled in the private cabin of a sleeping car.

This trip shaped my personality. From a young age, I became interested in careers that could take me, physically or virtually, outside my little world as a suburban Rio de Janeiro boy. (Being suburban in Brazil generally means that you belong to a family that is, at most, lower middle class, without access to most of the cultural facilities considered markers of social and intellectual prestige.) Travel agent, missionary, translator and interpreter, tour guide, language teacher—I think all of these have crossed my mind at some point.

But my family was poor, and despite my determination, the chances of my passion for travel turning into actual trips were quite remote. Even so, when I was 19, I traveled with a group of friends to Paraná for a long weekend. This is me, this friendly young man, at the MAE (Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology) of the Federal University of Paraná (UFPR), in Paranaguá. The photo is from November 1978.

This second trip—now for the first time without the guardianship or supervision of any family member or tutor—consolidated the certainty that, although I didn't know exactly when or how, travel would always be at the top of my list of wishes, dreams and projects.

It still took a long time for me to be able to afford longer trips in time and space. In fact, they only became more frequent starting in 2006, when I was able to save money for this purpose, plan itineraries, and hit the road.

To conclude this introduction, I want to make it clear that I don't intend to make this blog a travel guide. There are many online, some very good, but they're a collection of experience stories, especially for people who are no longer so young and/or who took some time out of their lives to be able to explore this big wide world. Shall we?