CURRENT MISSION
I am a happy retired publisher helping others to enjoy life.

ABOUT ME

During 20 years I worked as publisher in the WTO in Geneva and in a small publishing house. Before that I worked in marketing and advertising in Latin America and the United States. I studied literature, marketing and agronomy. I researched and published about the Irish in Latin America, food and music relations and art history in the international organizations (some publications are in Wikipedia). Now I am writing about travel and the experiences I had with my bicycle: Granada-Istanbul (2024), Granada-Santiago de Compostela, and Melilla-Tanger in northern Morocco (both in 2023).
"Bikes and Cultures" (blog): https://bikesandcultures.blogspot.com/

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

One of the great things of Couchsurfing is that human contacts are free. If you put a price to everything, you will see dollar signs everywhere.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE
With my family, we lived one year in Cape Verde. The following nine months we travelled through eight countries in South America. We surfed with many hosts and got to know better the region thanks to CS and hitch-hiking. Since then, we learnt the good flavour of hosting unknown guests and making good friends staying at home in Switzerland and France. I also met an amazing crowd of hosts and other friends when cycling from Spain to Turkey.
I hope to keep meeting many more marvellous CS people.

Interests

Cooking and listening to good music, guitar playing, reading, bikepacking.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

Hitch-hiking 3,000 km with Brazilian truck drivers. Sowing maize in the hills of Cape Verde's Santiago island. Walking the Andes from El Bolsón (Argentina) to Cochamó (Chile). Trying the amazing Peruvian cuisine. Playing guitar with Cape Verdean musicians. Hiking in Bariloche. Visiting the Cerro Rico mines in Potosí. Walking in Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta. Dancing with fellow couch surfers in Puyo, Ecuador. Building my own guitar with a Russian luthier in Granada. Cycling the plains of the Pianura Padana in northern Italy. Chatting with the old chaps at a park in Elbassan, Albania. More? A rainy afternoon playing a sad ballad at home. Estelle in the blue sea of Croatia. My daughter's attentive stare while I was meditating. The happy faces of the people celebrating the Jumuah in their best finery at the Sultan Ahmet Park of Istanbul.

Countries I’ve Visited

Albania, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Cabo Verde, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Côte d'Ivoire, Ecuador, England, Equatorial Guinea, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Macedonia, Montenegro, Morocco, Netherlands, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, United States, Uruguay, Venezuela

Countries I’ve Lived In

Argentina, Cabo Verde, France, Spain, Switzerland, United States