Perhaps it was Gabriel García Márquez and his One Hundred Years of Solitude or Isabel Allende’s Eva Luna that drove me to a small town, where they say the mail comes only once a month, in the middle of Central America. I wanted to learn the language, immerse myself in the culture. I was 19, my first time alone in a foreign country, and I never felt the pangs of homesickness. I reveled in the sense of adventure.
During that month I was studying Spanish, I visited a small lodge on the Pacific side of the country one weekend, five hours away from my host family’s home in Alajuela. I went alone and took a bus. It was hot. The sky was buzzing with dragonflies. But I wanted to explore.
When I arrived, I found that my ground-level room opened to a short path leading to a beach. It was a little bay so the waves were small and the sand was coarse. The shore was crawling with hermit crabs but I wanted to take off my sandals. The landscape was something surreal, serene, and stunning from all sides.
I was in Costa Rica, surrounded by mountains heavy with life. There is a grandeur and vibrancy that every dripping leaf exudes. Pura vida. In the water, in the air, in the soil. The land is so thick and alive; I feared I’d be swallowed by the trees if I wandered off path. Even in the wind, the falling leaves would blow against the open hands of other trees and it sounded like rain.
Writing and travel are passions I’ve pursued since I was old enough to dream of distance places. In college, I began my studies in international relations but I later realized that my true love is writing and that I could experience the best of both worlds in journalism. I studied creative writing in secondary school and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in journalism from San Francisco State University.
Today I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and continue to write and seek opportunities to inspire readers with stories and unique experiences from destinations near and far. My hope is to move tourists toward exploring the world in a way that will allow a deeper connection with the environment and community they’re visiting; to not just tour, but to participate in their world.
I have written for a variety of publications including Tango Diva, Everywhere Magazine, Your Life Is A Trip, and the Golden Gate [X]press. I have served as editor of the Filipina Women’s Network’s V-Diaries.
When not writing or traveling, I’m volunteering at a local community organization, reading books and magazines that come my way, urging myself through a few more lunges on the gym floor, sharing food and drinks with good company, and making a mess in my kitchen.