CURRENT MISSION

To conquer Latin America! (en el buen sentido)

ABOUT ME

I see myself as an easy going, down to earth and uncomplicated person but someone with an adventurous spirit. I try to be open minded, respectful and I am curious about other peoples and cultures. For that reason I love travelling and have spent a lot of time living outside my homeland, mostly in Latin America the continent which stole my heart. I would say I am interested in humanitarian issues and politics but definitely not adverse to going out and having a good time. I enjoy chatting about world politics and exchanging points of view so if you are that way inclined we can relax have a couple of drinks and put all the ills of the world to right :). Despite that I feel I have the attitude to live and let others live how they prefer.

I have spent the last 2 years working for NGOs, first with street children in Guatemala City, and last year co-ordintating socail development programmes with adolescents and young adults in poor barrios of San Salvador, El Salvador. My work in NGOs has been from the perspective of psychosocial development mainly of children, teenagers and young adults covering a range of themes like: self-esteem, relating to others, conflict resolution, gender equality, sexuality, healthy habits among other things.

PHILOSOPHY

Some of my favourite quotes which embody my philosophies in life:

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has".

(Margaret Mead)

"I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I needed to be"

(Douglas Adams)

"El ser humano no se engrandece por lo que sabe sino que lo que hace con lo que sabe"

I am not a religious person but I indentify strongly with eastern religions like buddhism and taoism and my philosophy on life derives largely such belief systems. I dont believe in heaven and hell or that anyone will suffer for eternity for their mistakes. Quite simply I feel that our actions towards others in the here and now determine our fate, every action has a consequence. I try to let this guide me in life, but hey Im not perfect, nor an angel and continue learning from my mistakes.

Broadly speaking I like the idea of a good socialist system and the idea of living with the things I need, not necessarily what I want or desire. I believe that a proper socialist system fosters a sense of compassionate duty that is inherent in all human beings to help others less fortunate than ourselves. Has such utopian system ever existed, probably not but I believe that it is what we should be striving for. On the contrary I feel mercenary, purley capitalist system conditions us to be driven soley by self-benefit and stiffles our sense of community and compassion towards others.

As such I am against corporate greed, commercial globalisation and the concentration of wealth into the hands of the greedy few, which seems to be the prevailing trend in world politics today. I feel that a system of rapacious global capitalism is making the poor poorer and increasing the gab between rich and poor whilst in the meantime destroying our planet. I feel a lot can be learnt from poorer people living in "developing" countries, Ive learnt from my travels that real hapiness comes through living an austere, modest existance and not a materialisic, ostentatious one. For that reason I am a man who enjoys lifes simple pleasures.

I dont really hate anything but what I dislike in people are racism, materialism and people driven by superficial things, like earining money just for the sake of having money or bigger and better "things".

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I have been travelling or working away from home since I joined the project so I have only played the role of "guest" so far. As soon as I am able to and find a stable place to live (where that will be I am not sure yet) I intend to host whenever possible and pay back my debt to humanity :0

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

I have to admit that I got into this project by accident. I had the fortune to meet a great couchsurfer in June 2007 in Guatemala in quite unusual circumstances.. Its a bit of a long story but here goes: after oversleeping on the morning my plane left Guate for England I arrived 30 mins before the departure time of my plane at Guate airport, due to a stroke of enormous good fortune my plane was delayed by 3 hours!.. My relief was shortlived when I realised I had left my passport in my friends house, but with 3 hours to spare and my friend only living 15 mins drive away I saw no need to worry. My friend left in her car to go and collect my passport from her house whilst I waited in the queue to check-in my luggage feeling mightily relieved. After an hour waiting I started to wonder what had happened to her but still saw no reason to worry; after 2 hours waiting for her and only an hour to go before my plane left I started to panic again. I left my queue with all my luggage and started to look around frantically for a pay phone from which to call my friend. I was a approached by a boy who obviously recognised the site of a confused tourist in need of help and offered me the use of his phone. I called my friend and she informed me that on the way home to get my passport she had a puncture and had to wait for her Dad to come with a spare wheel to fit it. In the end she arrived back at the airport 45 mins before my plane left and I got my plane!

Despite this being one of the more stressful experiences I can remember in recent times two good things came out of it. The guy I met at the airport is a couchsurfer and introduced me to this great project and secondly I made a new friend.

Interests

4 years ago I spent 4 months travelling round the indigenous, mountainous parts of South America and completely fell in love with the continent and its people. Since then I have focused most of energies on trying to get back here to spend as much time here as possible. I love travelling here and hope to get the chance to see much more of this continent and other parts of the world.

I love trekking, especially in the mountains (despite the inevitable pain and physical suffering it entails). Also scuba diving, snowboarding..

To wind down I love to get into a good book or films

Im not much into extreme, "adrenalin sports" travelling but love trekking in the countryside, climbing volcanoes, beaches, jungles etc. Also I enjoy going out in Latin America

I have enjoyed travelling here but found the experience of settling in one place and getting to know and working with local people much more rewarding.

• books
• drinking
• politics
• movies
• traveling
• scuba diving
• snowboarding
• buddhist
• sports
• rock climbing
• religion
• tourism
• beaches
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Books: Noam Chomsky, John Pilger, Eduardo Galleano, Mark Curtis, Phillip Dick, William Burroughs, J.G Ballard, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, George Orwell, Aldous Huxley, Arthur C. Clarke, William Gibson, Irvine Walsh, Ken Kessey, Jostein Gardner, Fitjof Capra, Paul Farmer, Oscar Wilde, Karl Marx, Emanuel Kant

I love sci-Fi books, also politics, philosophy, comtemporary fiction and occassionaly spiritual books.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

To work with street children and was a humbling, rewarding and definitely life-changing experience.

Having the opportunity to work with adolescents in poor neighbouhoods in San Salvador was a profoundly moving experience, honestly these are the happiest and most gregarious kids I have known in my life despite the gravity of their problems. They welcomed me in and after some time treated me as one of their own.

I feel extremely fortunate to have had priceless experiences like this in life. Really no amount of money can replicate the way encounters like this make you feel and impact you.

-Scuba diving in Belize

-5 day trek to watch the sunrise over Machu Pichu, absolutely breathtaking!

-Snowboarding in the Alpes.

Countries I’ve Visited

Aruba, Belize, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Cyprus, Ecuador, El Salvador, France, Gibraltar, Greece, Guatemala, Honduras, Israel, Kenya, Mexico, Morocco, Nicaragua, Panama, Peru, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Tunisia, United Kingdom, United States, Venezuela

Countries I’ve Lived In

El Salvador, Guatemala, Spain, United Kingdom

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