CURRENT MISSION

A rolling stone, with no direction home...

ABOUT ME

I'm an easygoing person, who loves traveling above everything (hardly a surprise on CS) and meeting people from around the world! I really enjoy everything associated with travel: food, music, books, photography, dancing... In general I travel to absorb as many new things as I can!

I was born and raised in Colombia, and I am also Chilean citizen on my mother's side. I studied literature and worked as a high school teacher, before switching to journalism, which allowed me to live in four countries and travel through five continents during the last five years.

After living in New York, Paris, Madrid and Beijing, I returned home in 2013 to work as a political journalist at La Silla Vacía, a very innovative online project for political and investigative journalism. I also worked in Government in the office leading the peace talks and now I am back to journalism as a freelancer.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

My first approach to the CS world was actually as a journalist, when I was working for Clarín national newspaper in Argentina and wrote a story about it! Since a long time age, I had been dying to try it out.

I am now addicted to it, having done it in 14 countries. I have not only met some extraordinary people on these trips, but they have made my journeys even more unforgettable, by sharing their practical advice, their favourite corners, their political and historical insight, and their books and music. More than anything, I am happy to say they have become my friends.

Interests

Film, Art, Music, Journalism, Food, Traveling, photography....

My Flickr account (in process of updating): http://www.flickr.com/photos/andresbermudez/sets/

• arts
• books
• literature
• theater
• photography
• concerts
• dancing
• salsa dancing
• dining
• cooking
• wine
• beer
• desserts
• reading
• traveling
• socializing
• music
• cycling
• hiking
• teaching
• journalism
• tourism
• beaches

Music, Movies, and Books

My music, in no particular order.... Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Richie Ray & Bobby Cruz (ok, these three are the top of the list). Then come the Velvet Underground, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Who, Roxy Music, Dave Matthews Band, Radiohead, Sigur Ros, Leonard Cohen, Morrissey, The National, Soda Stereo & Gustavo Cerati, Fito Paez, Charly Garcia, Amadou & Mariam, Cesaria Evora, Ali Farka Toure, Toumani Diabate, Salif Keita, Toto la Momposina, Petrona Martinez, Buena Vista Social Club (all of them), Celia Cruz, Chavela Vargas, Juan Luis Guerra, Astor Piazzola, Bajofondo, Madredeus, Chocquibtown, Bomba Estereo...

My books, those that have really marked me... Too loud a solitude (Bohumil Hrabal), The master and Margarita (Mikhail Bulgakov), If on a winter's night a traveler (Italo Calvino), July's people (Nadine Gordimer), Midnight's children (Salman Rushdie), The hallucinating world (Reinaldo Arenas), One hundred years of solitude (Garci­a Marquez), Pedro Paramo (Juan Rulfo), Embers (Sandor Marai), The widow killer (Pavel Kohout), Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi), Long walk to freedom (Nelson Mandela)

Movies, a lot of them old and black and white... The rule of the game and The crime of Mr Lange (Jean Renoir), Citizen Kane (Orson Welles), The third man (Carol Reed), The eclipse and Blowup (Michelangelo Antonioni), Closely watched trains (Jiri Menzel), Hiroshima mon amour (Alain Resnais), Vertigo (Alfred Hitchcock), The apartment (Billy Wilder), All about Eve (Joseph Mankiewicz), Kanal (Andrzej Wajda), Sur (Fernando Solanas), All about my mother (Pedro Almodovar), V for vendetta, The secret in their eyes (Juan Jose Campanella)

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Ilha de Mozambique - A tiny, dusty city on a remote island, hauntingly beautiful and very far away from the world. One of the most beautiful and out of the way places I have ever visited.

Prague - My favourite city in the world and possibly the place I have fondest memories of. There is nowhere better to get lost and wander around. I spent a couple of months exploring its alleys, corners and beer halls, while doing research for my university thesis on Bohumil Hrabal's Too loud a solitude.

Buenos Aires - A city made for me. When you see so many people reading in the metro, book shops on every corner, liter beers costing one dollar, people buying the actual newspaper, neverending theater and concerts, and all of this in Spanish... you know it's perfect.

Parque Tayrona, Colombia - Endless beaches surrounded by rain forest, sleeping in hammocks, no electricity and very few people... Paradise on earth and probably my favourite place in my homeland.

And so many other stunning, aweinspiring places I constantly remember: Torres del Paine, Lisbon, Chechaouene, Sibiu, Cesky Krumlov, Angkor, Essaouira, Granada, Zamosc, Machu Picchu, Brugge, Oaxaca, Uyuni, Ouro Preto, El Chaltén, Fez, Maramures, Mompox...

Teach, Learn, Share

I love photography, salsa dancing, listening to music and going to concerts, beer and wine accompanied by conversation, desserts, cooking Colombian arepas, art museums, rummaging through old bookstores, wondering around a city with a travel guide, reading (print) newspapers, bike riding and hiking, exploring every corner of a place that calls my attention...

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Austria, Bahamas, Belgium, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, France, Germany, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Lesotho, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Mexico, Morocco, Mozambique, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Swaziland, Switzerland, Thailand, Uruguay, Vatican City State, Venezuela, Western Sahara

Countries I’ve Lived In

China, Colombia, France, Spain, United States

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