Hello all! My name is Mariana Garrido, I'm 26 and I am originally from the small city of Coimbra, in Portugal, where I lived until I was 20 years old.

At the age of 20, I went on Erasmus to Florence, in Italy and after that everything changed. Some months after coming back, I went to live for 1 year and 3 months in Bogota, where I worked as a Political and Human Rights analyst. Later on, I enrolled in a master's degree that took place between 3 cities - Glasgow, Dublin and Prague - and I have never stopped moving! I also recently spent some time in Brussels doing an internship at Oxfam.

I'm currently taking an 8 months Gap Year in South America, starting in Colombia and moving to Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. My boyfriend Amaru Mestas is travelling with me, you can find us at ig: @_avervamos. We'd love to find hosts and have interesting chats during this time :)

I love long talks about culture, politics and human rights just as much as food.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Reasons why I'm on Couchsurfing:

1. Because it can help me and other people to travel even if we don't have the financial capacity to pay for a place to stay.

2. It's a great opportunity to meet people on the basis of solidarity and intercultural curiosity.

3. It's a sustainable alternative to do tourism without contributing for gentrification of cities!

Interests

• culture
• books
• music festivals
• politics
• business
• foodie
• walking tours

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

We actually won a national level contest called Gap Year Portugal that awarded us the Gap Year we're currently taking. Even though it's quite low budget, it's still incredible!

What I Can Share with Hosts

Nice conversations, company, and maybe cooking :)

Countries I’ve Visited

Albania, Austria, Bulgaria, Colombia, Ecuador, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Kosovo, Montenegro, Portugal, Serbia, Spain, United Kingdom

Countries I’ve Lived In

Belgium, Colombia, Czech Republic, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Scotland