#04 - How I fell in love with the world

(and with experiencing as much of it as possible)

My travels began at a very young, when my parents (or mi abuelita!) would take my sister and I back to our motherland, El Valle, Colombia. They wanted us to experience and cultivate a love, connection and reverence for the land and treasured people which made us. Every trip left its mark, and was experienced through a unique lens as I came of age. It has been one of the greatest gifts, to come to know and love the country my parents left in hopes of a better future for us.

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As I child, my family would bring us to events, concerts, gatherings, and experiences which hosted people from around the world. Latin America, Austria, New Zealand, BRAZIL! I was introduced to the diversity of cultures beyond my own Latino heritage. These new ideas, arts and joyful interactions opened my eyes to the beauty that every place and people in this world has to offer, as well as an insatiable curiosity to experience as much of it as I could!

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As I entered adulthood, I had the opportunity to travel to New York City once a year. We are fortunate enough to have dear family in the city, who would kindly welcome me in, offer me an extra key, and wish me well on my adventures in the city! Autonomy! Freedom! Public Transportation! It was the beginning of my solo-ventures. I would head out the entire day, and sometimes a good part of the night, walking through central park, writing my experiences down in the journal, getting lost on the subway. exploring until my heart was full.

My Sister & I at the Rockefeller Center, New York City, December 26th 2017

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As I continued maturing in my professional career as an entertainer, the world of travel opportunities opened through my music. My first paid trip was a private event to El Paso, Texas. I was 21. It blew my mind. The company put the rental car in my name and I explored the city every evening after our series of shows. My musical performances would go on to take me to private events around Florida, the nation, and eventually the world. I learned to make the best of each occasion, to see and fully experience each place and it's local customs. I would run about and see as much as I could.

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In 2016, at the age of 22, my travel life and world view changed forever. I was scouted by an agent who offered me a choice between 2, 4 month cruise ship contracts as a Solo Entertainer. I quickly jumped online and cross-referenced the ship names with their itineraries during the time I was to be aboard.The 1st contract option was a 3-day loop of the Caribbean for 4 months. The 2nd was 2.5 months of 14 day, farther-reaching loops into the Caribbean, Central and South America, with stops in Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica, !!!COLOMBIA!!!, the US Virgin Islands, St. Marteen, Barbados, and a number of other incredible islands I had never been to. This contract EXCITED me! As I scrolled further into the itinerary, I noticed a special voyage labeled "Transatlantic to the Azores... (what are the Azores?!?). I clicked on that cruise and discovered our first port after a 5 day oceanic crossing would be the island of Ponta Delgada, followed by a final destination in Lisbon, Portugal... mainland Europe. :O​

I got SO excited about my discovery, that I called my agent to confirm the 2nd offering, and asked for an extension from 4 to 6 months (I had discovered the ship would to continue 7-8 day loops throughout the Mediterranean, visiting Spain, France, ITALY, Malta, Monaco, Greece and Turkey!!!) My agent was hesitant at first, with it being my first contract. (Who knew if I'd like it!) I reassured her, I would be just fine lolol. As for my work, I was to play 3-4 hours a night, with a night off every 2 weeks. It was during this time that I developed a love for expressing my creativity through live looper performances, incorporating vocal harmony, beatboxing, bass guitar pedal, and lead/rhythm guitar lines. The rest of every waking moment, I was either getting off the ship to explore the ports of the regions we were visiting, or dashing back to the ship in time to start my evening performances haha. (I developed a reputation with my friends in ship security for being the last aboard, but always in time to not be left behind :) By the end of the 6 month contract, we had visited 55+ cities in 16 countries on 4 different continents!

Apart from the directly experiencing the cultures of the Caribbean, Latin American and Eurasia, the ship itself was a melting pot of incredible, kind, dynamic and diverse humans from around the world. The crew came from the Phillipines, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Russia, India, Indonesia, Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro, Argentina, Spain, Greece, the USA, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand to name a few. I got to share many laughs, adventures and wonderful memories with these incredible humans, and enjoyed friendships that have stood the test of time! It was during this time aboard that a British friend of mine shared his interest in exploring Iceland. "Iceland?! Tell me about it!"​​ I fell in love with tales of the Nordic island, its ring road, volcanoes, waterfalls, iceberg lagoons, continental rifts and the Aurora Borealis... After taking in the whole presentation, I had made up my mind. I was going to find a way to get to Iceland. My time aboard had emboldened me, enough to even consider this a possibility. This conversation was the spark to the additional 6 week, post-cruise solo-venture I took throughout Europe.

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My time aboard the cruise ship ended just after my 23rd birthday, on July 23rd, 2016. I was dropped off close to Rome for my flight back home, which I promptly skipped. A few weeks prior, I had booked my one way ticket back to the states from Reykjavík, Iceland. My flight home was set for September 8th. I had 6 weeks to get from Rome to Iceland, with a personal goal of seeing as much of Europe as I possibly could on the way. During that 6 week period, I was able to visit 23+ cities in 11+ countries, including experiences in places I had only ever read about in school, the centres of European culture and history, Venice, Prague, Madrid, Vienna, Budapest, Warsaw & Krakow, Munich & Berlin, Paris, London.

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My adventures in Iceland were the "cherry on top", as well as the most challenging of the whole trip. I encountered myself there in a way that culminated the entire 7.5 month experience in a profound way. 5 days of adventuring in and sleeping out the back of my rental, a 4WD 2016 RAV4 stickshift. Eaach. night the temperature dropped into the 30's, with a high of 50s in the day. I was cold. I got a little sick, (half exhaustion, half weather). I drove almost 1,000 miles and had one relatively near death experience. I still remember the lessons I experienced there; humility, reverence, awe, tenacity, courage, trust, and a special knowing that I was never alone, that I was guided, cared for and loved. I got to see so much, and yet, still have so much left to see. The final gift of the trip was getting to see the Aurora Borealis. It had arrived early that year. I spent 3 nights watching one of nature's most wondrous spectacles from either inside or on top of my car, in the middle of nowhere, Iceland.

At this point in my life, I've had the opportunity to visit 35 incredible countries and experience their peoples, culture, music and magic. I am forever grateful to music and the incredible human beings who I collaborate with. They have given me the chance to continue seeing the world and its people, while sharing the music that I love most.  I fell in love with travel because of the adventures I encountered, the magic, connection, tenacity and self-reliance that those adventures bring forth, but most importantly, because of the incredible human souls I've encountered on every journey.

Moraine Lake & The Seven Sisters, July 2019, Banff National Park, Canada