⚠️⚠️⚠️ IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A DATE OR SEX, I SUGGEST YOU GO TO TINDER.
COUCHSURFING IS NOT A DATING APP. I WON'T GET INVOLVED WITH YOU IN THAT WAY. REALLY. PROMISE YOU. CLEAR? GREAT, LET'S MOVE ON ⚠️⚠️⚠️

"Strangers are friends we have not met yet", read it in a coffee shop somewhere around the world.
Soooooo, let's meet! 😁

I was born and raised in a small town in Brazil, but when I was 16 I did my first trip abroad, and I still remember the feeling of when I crossed the boarding gate and left everything I knew behind.
That trip changed me and my way of seeing the world.
From the day I came back, I started to search for ways to travel the whole world!

I believe short trips are nice to relax and see the beauty of the countries, but living in a country is what I seek the most because is that how you deeply get to know its culture and people, so I chased opportunities to do so: I went to Poland to teach English to kids, to Hungary to show my culture and help in a kindergarten, to Peru to conduct a leadership workshop to teenagers, got a scholarship to go to Argentina and Colombia to study one semester of my Bachelor, went to Bolivia to work in an orphanage home with handicap children, worked as an Au Pair in Luxembourg, UK, and Iceland, and volunteered in more than 15 projects through work away in different countries.

I have an educational travel Instagram with a few thousands followers where I give insights on how to travel on a low budget and share knowledge about the culture, history, sociology and politics of the places I visit www.instagram.com/pelagalaxia

👶 P.S.: I work in childcare and education, so I love to be around kids, especially very young ones - I'm specialised in newborns, babies and toddlers - so if you have small humans at home, I can play with them or babysit for you! 👶

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Sure I could pay a hostel and just have a nice bed waiting for me in the end of the day, but there are things that the money doesn't buy.
Normally these are not even "things".
I don't care about sleeping in someone's floor as long as we get the chance to share a tea, a story, and a smile.

Once I was eating dinner with my host and she said: "you know what, Ana, in the last 3 days we hang out every evening. We cooked together, you taught me new recipes and so did I to you; we played games, you show me a nice one with the regular cards and you learned a new rule for UNO; you shared stories about your travels and gave me tips about the places I want to go; I learned about Brazilian history and you learned about my country's one. I felt that even if I did not move, every single evening I was travelling".

I think that these lines define exactly what Couchsurfing is and why I'm on it.

Interests

Hiking, waterfalls, caves, beaches, and exploring nature, are top priorities!
Other than that, mundane things like going to the supermarket, cooking dinner together or picking up the kids at school are my favourite experiences when travelling - this is how one gets to know life in a country for real.

I certainly will ask you a lot of questions about your country's history, politics, health/educational/bureaucratic systems, holidays, religion, view of life, philosophy etc. But you can be sure I will be sharing all I learned on these topics during my travels to +100 countries. So how about we travel the world together through a conversation?

• cats
• culture
• dancing
• education
• cooking
• politics
• hiking
• history
• social science
• mountains
• sarcasm
• montessori
• extraordinary
• popcorn
• ordinary

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

- Hitchhiked in Colombia for the very first time in 2015 (and haven't stoped doing it since then)
- Dove in the Blue Hole in Belize
- Did the Inca Trail to get to Machu Picchu
- Explored the deepest cave in South America in Bolivia
- Being part of AIESEC and all my experiences related to it
- Walked over the frozen sea in Finland
- Volcano Boarding in Nicaragua
- Going through the secret catacombs under the Basilic of San Peter in the Vatican and seeing the bones of St Peter 1m away from my eyes (and I'm not even religious)
- Build a house in one weekend with NGO TECHO Argentina
- Was really close to death on 5 different occasions (years apart) and they were all lack-of-air-related problems, and, apparently, I survived all of them
- Watched Croatia x France in the World Cup 2018 finals in Zagreb (they lost, but the party was amazing!)
- Jumped in the longest train in the world and crossed the Sahara desert in a wagon full of ore in Mauritania
- Got a job in Iceland so I could spend winter chasing the Northern lights
- Walked 980km on the Camino de Santiago (St James Way in Spain)
- Visited every single country of a continent: Europe (between 2013-2022). And also of the Middle East ( in 2019/2022)!
- Been to 100 countries before I turned 30yo.
- Lived on a boat for 5 months and sailed across the Caribbean.
- Drove 1250km around Mongolian steppes on a motorcycle, even though I didn't know how to drive a motorcycle before the 1st day lol.
- Met people from more than hundreds of different nationalities, shared stories and created memories with them :)

Teach, Learn, Share

Well, the culture of my country is so extend that I could talk about it for like hours and hours.

Quick Brazilian history class: the land was occupied by native indians when the Portuguese invaded it in 1500, then they started to kidnap people in Africa and bring them to work as slaves in Brazil; when the slavery was prohibited, many Europeans from Italy, Spain, Germany, Poland, France, Switzerland came to work in Brazil. After WorldWar II, we welcomed lot of people from Middle East and Japan as well.

So, we took the cultures of all these places and mixed together to make "the Brazilian culture".

It's amazing, I know hahahahaha

Nevertheless, I'm still really curious about all the other cultures out there and want to learn pretty much about them all!

What I Can Share with Hosts

Laughs, food and memories!

If I stay with you or we hang out, you can be sure I will write you a reference. I think it's the minimum duty of a couchsurfer to thank the members for their time and help their profile be more viewed!

Countries I’ve Visited

Albania, Andorra, Anguilla, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Bolivia, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Bulgaria, Chile, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Côte d'Ivoire, Denmark, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Egypt, England, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Grenada, Guatemala, Honduras, Iceland, India, Iran, Iraq, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Kosovo, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Martinique, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Namibia, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Northern Ireland, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Palestine, Panama, Paraguay, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Qatar, Romania, Russian Federation, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Martin (French part), Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Scotland, Serbia, Sint Maarten (Dutch part), Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Syrian Arab Republic, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turks and Caicos Islands, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, Uruguay, Vatican City State, Virgin Islands, British, Virgin Islands, U.S., Western Sahara, Yemen

Countries I’ve Lived In

Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, England, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Peru, Poland, United States