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Are you interested in visiting African continent?

Yes! I'm interested in anywhere really. In the near future I wish to visit some countries. Stay tuned.

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🎊 New Year's 2023 🥳

Spent the NYE season in Portland, Oregon this year where I explore the unfamiliar city for the first time and met up with old friends. For a while now, I had Portland on my list to travel to and decided that this year's NYE was the opportunity to do just that...also I am fairly close to Amtrak while made things convenient 😉.

During my stay I had the opportunity to visit a wonderful, and random, museum in Klamath Falls, Oregon with my seatmate due to a three hour stoppage for Amtrak. They had to switch conductors so we figured why not explore the town as it was like a ghost town. Afterwards I finally reached Portland and begin the adventure!

I did a quick Google research of places to do/visit while there and came across a few landmarks and restaurants to check out. A hotspot is Voodoo donuts and Sillze Pie, both were delicious spots. My fav was Voodoo, those donuts were definitely "magical". Next up I hit up some art gallerys and landmarks of Portland. Granted it was raining most of the time here so getting a photo at times was tricky.

During the adventure, I caught up with some friends from school and hung out. We had a chance to catch a Blazers game who were playing thr Warriors...and of course the Warriors won :)

Throughout the stay I made some friends at the hostel and we hung out a bunch and celebrated New Year's together. It was a cool group and made the trip that much more.

Overall, the trip to Portland was great and awesome. Wish I could of explored around the coast as it is Whale Watch season! Next time though.

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Hey Terrance, I enjoyed the PR pics. I'm glad you all were still able to have fun. I'm curious. What are your top 3 next destinations? -Lynn

Hi Lynn!

The next three spots I'm thinking of at the moment are Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia. Hopefully by summer then it can happen. 🤞🏾

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I don’t want to ask you anything, but your blog is just cute (:

Thank you!

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Hurricane Season in the P.R. 

Took a trip out to San Juan, Puerto Rico to celebrate an amigo’s cumpleanos, big 30. The trip was planned and booked months before news broke out that a hurricane, Fiona, would be coming into town and making her way through of things. Fiona cleaned through the majority of the country taking out electricity, creating floods, and demolishing buildings and any other objects in her way. 

As the trip approached there was a severe doubtfulness that the trip would be canceled and the trip would not occur. After in-depth conversations and news coverage watch amongst the group of people scheduled to attend the trip, it was monitored that Fiona did not impact San Juan as much, thankfully, and that there were power generators going on throughout the city to keep business, buildings, and lights running. So the group took their chances and headed out to San Juan! 

Upon arrival, we noticed that San Juan was not affected as serve compared to the west of the country and that our news coverage paid off. During the entire trip at the place, we were staying, one of the fanciest AirB&B’s I ever stayed in, we did not have any issues with power, hurricane Fiona, and floods. In the old San Juan district, a good half of the area was dark at night due to still not having any power but other than that the entire trip went smoothly and was enjoyable. Everyone was pleased, especially the birthday boy as he celebrated the new and beginning chapter of his thirties.

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3rd Time The Charm?

Had the opportunity to visit an amigo who currently is studying in Mercia, Spain for his grad program. I orginally believed my friend was studying in Madrid so I booked a flight there, however, upon discovery he was not but instead in Mercia! Which I had to buy an extended flight there 🥴 In the long run it all worked out.

Merica is a small, nice town surrounded by mountains. From a high view, it is a beautiful scenery to see. It has an international university, UMAC, where students from all around the globe attend. Since it is summer, most of the students were gone, so had an opportunity to observe and witness the local community and their culture as well got to meet some of my amigos classmates and hangout with them. I forgot to mention this is all during a lovely...heatwave 😁 My friend was in the middle of writing his thesis so I spent only a week there and had a few days to spare before returning to the states. So guess where I decided to spend those days? Yup! You guessed it, Madrid. It all came back in full circle.

Madrid was beautiful with much more to see and explore, being the capital of course. I spent four days there walking around, embracing the tourist side in me. The orginal plan was three days in Madrid but woke up one morning to a wonderful notification that my flight was canceled so I extended a day. Not a bad place to be in, right?

Spain was a great time and wondered why I've been there the most at of all my visits to Europa? Maybe something in store down the road? Who knows! But it is always a pleasure to visit this awesome country.

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DATE: 6/19/22 - 6/26/22 

LOCATION: Antigua, Guatemala 

¿Hablas Español?

This summer I took a one-week course at the Antigua Academy in Guatemala. I was signed up for 5x a day week, 4-hour Spanish tutoring sessions + staying with a local host family. 

To start off the summer right, I decided to take a trip to Antigua, Guatemala! I have been itching to begin my travels in Latin America and saw this as a prime opportunity. I’ve had friends give recommendations to a Spanish program they took while there called Antigua Academy, while there I signed up for a 5x a week Spanish course where I was tutored 1:1 with a Spanish instructor. To say the least, it was a slow start. Also while there, I optioned to stay with a local host family during my stay and had three other housemates who also lived in the U.S. 

After classes concluded, I roamed around town and took in the Guatemalan culture. Observing their colorful architecture, cobblestone roads, scenic views, volcanoes, and, of course, food. It’s about a 25-minute walk to cover the whole town. While on the adventure I occasionally had conversations with a few of the locals either in English or Spanish. A nice atmosphere all around. After walking around I would come home to my host family and have lunch and dinner with them. There I had an opportunity to speak and conversant with them, in Spanish of course. It was a slow start and not much conversation went in-depth, however, as time rolled on, aka, my Español skills improve, the conversations at the table grew stronger. We would get into conversations for up to an hour sometimes! My head would hurt from all the thinking, translations, and listening but well worth it. 

Met quite a few cool people in the program, mostly from the U.S. or Europe, and learned they too, had limited Spanish background experience and/or skills. So it felt good to know I wasn’t the only one struggling ;) The whole stay was a perfect uno semena (1 week) and instantly one of the better trips that I had. Guatemala was a perfect choice to begin my adventures in Central America and be #2 on the list of Latin countries traveled to. I am looking forward to continuing the adventure.

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DATE: 12/29/21 - 1/2/22 

LOCATION: Seattle, Washington 

New Year…New Me? 

Since returning back to the states, I haven’t done a whole of traveling, plus, that COVID thing messed a lot of things up. So traveling restrictions were slightly being retracted and I saw an opportunity arise. I haven’t done much at all traveling inside the states, only two other states to show for - Colorado and Georgia. So I considered doing something different for the new upcoming year. I had a friend who was living in Seattle and decided to go visit him and explore around town. It was the rainy season up there and heard flights were being canceled, so I decided to take Amtrak instead. It was a 22-hour 1-way from Oakland, CA to Seattle, WASH, and well worth it! Being it was my first trip in a while it was nice to unplug and take a longer route to a destination. While on the train I  saw amazing surroundings of snow and mountains. The snow on the ride up there was a nice prelude to what I would expect when I arrived. 

When I arrived in Seattle I was greeted by the cold windy weather that was surrounded by snow. I immediately knew I didn’t have the proper clothes for the trip but lucky my friend picked me up in the nick of time. During my stay, I got to explore the jazzy-vibe city and see the lifestyle covered in snow. Seattle has quite a few eye-catching architectural buildings if you’re into that, and a lot of cool cafes and restaurants. During NYE I had the chance to celebrate it with my friend and his group and friends and enjoy the upcoming new year. For me, it is always a true treasure when you can connect with the locals, of any area, and have a good time. 

This trip definitely was the spark to start doing more traveling inside the U.S. and see what the homeland has to offer. Looking forward to exploring more.

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Rocky Mountains, Colorado - Summer 2009

During the summer of 2009, I spent 5 weeks in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado. I was signed up for a backpacking and mountaineering trip where it would change my life. Within the course, there were 5 other students “campers” and 3 mentors.

The program was broken into three sections: First, the mentors would show us the ropes of how to survive and sustain during the trip. Second, during the middle of the course the mentors would take a step back and let us, the campers, lead the way but still be around to ensure we understood what we were doing. Third, the mentors completely stepped back and were out of the picture. The campers were fully in charge of navigating tasks and duties.

Among the campers, each of us had a duty throughout the day: Two cookers, one for leading the group to the next destination for that day (were we set up camp), a group motivator, and one for as the helper for the leader of that day. Each job rotated every day. It was challenging at times due to not knowing how to read the map to lead the group in the right direction, cooking the food correctly, learning how to set up a tent, avoiding wild animals, hiking up mountains, and much more.

Before the trip began, we encountered a huge man on a ATV coming down the mountain with one of the biggest smiles I’d ever seen yet. He saw us standing there, curiously observing him. Our mentors explained that we were a high school group camping in the area. After hearing, he release a Santa Claus like laugh and says that this trip will change your life and you will enjoy it. I thought he was nuts and high off the thin altitude. As we went our separate ways, I thought about what he said and it stuck with me during the rest of the time in the program.

Throughout the course of the trip we trekked at least five miles a day on foot caring a 30 pound backpack that carried our livelihood, tents, and tools. We encountered all various weather from hail, lighting, strong winds, rain, and scorching  heat. On top of that we encountered some wild animals such as hornets, coyotes, and bears! A moment that sticks out to me was the day we saw the bear, black bear, I froze and my eyesight became fuzzy. I couldn’t believe what was in front of my eyes, it’s one of the first time in my life where I felt “alive”, that I felt, “oh shit, this is real...that’s a fucking bear that could maul us if it truly wanted to” (luckily it didn’t). As well, climbing mountains at 4: 00 AM in the morning so we could beat the strong winds. I will never forget the day I slipped and fell down the side of a mountain that we were walking across. It happen all so quickly and suddenly, I was behind my peers and next thing I know I’m seeing all white rapidly in front of me. Luckily I paid attention the previous day to the training and procedures on what to do if you find yourself in the situation that I was suddenly in. I got my ice pix and stabbed it into the snow to halt my progression down the mountain. I was okay and fine, just a little shocked as was everyone else. During the lunch break we shortly took after that, one of my peer campers gave me his PB&J sandwich to cheer me up.

During the entire trip I cried, got angry, was depressed, homesick, complained, and begged to go back home. But overall I stuck through it and made it. I survived all that mother nature has to offer us and also challenge us with and at the end of the trip I felt like a better and new version of myself. My lack of confidence and dignity was defeated there and replaced with a new found confidence and pride. As we all said goodbye at the end of the trip and took the airplane back home, I remembered what the guy on the ATV said and agreed...this trip did change my life, I just didn’t know yet exactly how.

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Batu Caves, Malaysian Trip in 2017

During the first-semester winter break, I went on a trip with other PCV’s (Peace Corps Volunteers) in the program. Our first destination was to Batu Caves, Malaysia, then to Kuala Lumpur, and then to Thailand. For this blog, I’m just going to talk about the trip to Batu Caves!

We were stoked to get away from the country, Indonesia, for a bit to roam around other parts of Southeast Asia. As tourists, we had to take advantage and hit popular attractions. Batu Caves was a no-brainier to start things off. Beginning with the 140-foot statue of Murugan, the lord of the universe and God of War & Victory. There were tons of people gathered around to take a selfie with God in gold. Afterward, we headed up those nice flights of stairs you see to the left Murugan and entered the main Batu Cave.  

After reaching to the top and a few stops to catch our breath, we were greeted with a pile of bricks at the top of the steps in front of the cave’s entrance. Curious about the observation, we headed towards the bricks in search of an explanation. After a quick scope, we saw a note from someone that read, “Please take one brick or as many as you like. I need help bringing the bricks down into the cave. Thank you.” So we decided to take one brick, each, down the steps to enter the cave. Not knowing what to expect when reaching the bottom, we all survey the area and soon spot a pile of bricks.  We walk over and drop off the bricks and in the distance, we hear a thank you. It was from a worker inside the building on a construction site in the cave. 

Inside the cave is spectacular! I didn’t take many photos of the cave inside unfortunately but you can get a glimpse from the two I have. Huge beautiful waterfall in the back of the cave and a few rest areas for tourists to relax and enjoy the scenery. There were other, smaller, caves around and so we headed over to check them out. I wasn’t interested in viewing the other caves so much and hung out around the entrance with some of the “locals”. They were small, came in packs, and made it known that they live in the area too. Known as “Batu Cave monkeys”, the Long-Tailed Macaques roam around the area looking for food. Many tourists offer Long-tailed Macaques food even though it’s not encouraged. When tourists aren’t paying attention to their personal belongings, the Macaques have a reputation for snatching tourists’ personal belongings. So one should be careful when traveling there. 

Overall, the trip was a success and an enjoyable time. If you’re thinking of a trip to Asia, Malaysia should be on the list. The beautiful Batu Caves are a definite recommendation and place to see!

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Vietnam

Summer of 2010 in North part of Vietnam. My first time out of the country! Highly nervous but excited to adventure out into a world I was unfamiliar with and learn a different culture from mine.

For five weeks I volunteered at a special needs boarding school in Hanoi. Played games with the kids, count numbers in English and Vietnamese, and exercises. Btw, if you're wondering who's the kid pulling my head back, we called him "Headbanger", he was the most hyper but friendly kid there.

This was how I began the decade of the 10's. By the end I'd had traveled to 19 more countries while living overseas in a cumulative 3 years! Who knew that this start would lead to such a horizon of traveling. I look forward to the new decade of the 20's to see what small step leads into a pro founding new adventure/journey.

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Oakland, California

At the Oakland library, had the opportunity to hear and meet Fredrike Newton, wife of Black Panther co-founder, Huey P. Newton.

Fredrika told stories of how she met Dr. Newton, what he was like, the struggles he faced operating the Black Panther movement, and the leading moments of his assassination.

The room was packed, all ages gathered to hear the remarkable movement of such a great organization and person. Adults in the audience, who were kids back then who grew up during the movement attended and shared memories to the younger generation. Detailed on how truly powerful the movement meant to them.

Gained so much information, would have been an honor to meet Dr. Newton if he had still be alive today✊🏾

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First friend of the pack to get married, just like it was yesterday we were freshmen at the dorms. Whole day of celebration, dancing, and laughter. 🎊👫🏽

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Rosarito, Mexico

With the end of summer approaching, had the opportunity to visit Mexico for the first time!  Glad it finally happened, wish to visit again and see more cities it has to offer.

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Elephant nature park in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Over a weekend event, we had the opportunity to meet and interact with rescued elephants who have either been physically abused or mistreated. The park is home to 79 elephants. In the 1990's a woman, Lek, started a park and foundation to help mistreated elephants. Lek has worked effortlessly and constantly during her time. Many battles with the Thai government over rights and fairness for the creatures. Which is why she has opened her park to anyone and everyone interested learning about the past/current situations of her dream to make a better life for the elephants.

During my short time there, I've gathered much information about: elephants, Lek, on going battles, and plans to expand the park. Truly a treasure to experience and meet the endangered animals. Had the opportunity to roam around the park and see the big beautiful creatures and hear their stories as well feed several of them. The bond within a heard is remarkable. There was a clear message to NOT ride elephants, due to, it is not natural and injures the animals body structure. The park is not just home to elephants but to 200 cats/dogs, 50 water buffaloes, and 20 horses. The dream of Lek's is strong and desirable. She showcases what one person can do to make a change. I will pass on from what I've learned and in hope spread her message.

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Habitat for Humanity: Chiang Mai, Thailand 2019

Past week got the privilege to work/volunteer for the Habitat for Humanity build in a village in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Spent a week working with friends and peers helping a family in need. The family lost their home to a collapse and had to live in an rented apartment. The mother, joined by her two children who both have illness, struggled to find a home. Lucky enough they got accepted into the program.

An emotional scene when the family expressed their gratitude towards us for helping them. A lot of hard work and labor but ultimately worth it every day. A short week but a very rememborable one. Glad I could be apart of this.

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5th and final stop: Seoul, South Korea!

A month long adventure through half of Asia and the tour comes to a close with one of the most desired destinations on the map, Seoul. I had no clue what to expect upon entering the country, coming from Japan, I knew it would be a twist from the other Asian countries previously visited. As I toured around the city I got a feel that I was back in the U.S.! From the streets, shops, to the behavior of the people. I was stunned, it felt I was in the U.S. but in an Asian format. I was walking down a street when I overheard shouting. A woman was yelling and kicking boxes towards one of the street cleaners, guess guy made a mistake? She went on for several minutes then walked off. With that, I'd never saw that in my two plus years of living in Asia until South Korea.

The lifestyle is hard working, people get home late from work and just want to jump in bed. A guy I met at the hostel I was staying in stated if you keep an sharp eye on people, they come home drunk. I've witnessed several folks like that as he explained. One woman was passed out on the floor of the metro, people took photos of her and didn't help her. I'm not saying this doesn't happen anywhere else but just shocked of the whole experience.

To my surprise there were many tourists here from all over the globe. There's actually a section where you can find a diverse pool of folks from Middle East, Africa, and other parts of Asia all with shops...and no, they didn't come because of K-Pop. Speaking with few locals, they don't even like K-Pop themselves aha.

The whole trip was exciting and wonderful, I'd go back if I have another chance. I made out those two examples simply because, in my opinion, felt like a U.S. vibe while I was there (Seoul wise). I'm positive it's different outside the city, which I'd like to get a chance to see if I can.