Hello!

Cassie and I are travelling together for a year. We'd love to meet some locals to learn more about the places we visit, and to make close friends and memories along the way :)

Our trip is roughly:
Nov 2024 - Feb 2025 Patagonia, Nov/Dec in Chile and Jan in Argentina
Mar - Apr, India
Apr - May, China
June - Kazakhstan
July - Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan
Aug - Uzbekistan? Georgia? Nepal?
Sep/Oct - China? Mongolia? middle east?
But we always just plan a few days in advance. Usually just one day in advance.

We both love spicy flavorful food and trying new things. We do not eat much meat.
We like accompanying locals to experience part of their local life, and going to cultural experiences, trying new food, hiking and seeing nature. We really love hiking and do lots of it whenever we can.
We really really love mountains, especially snowy ones. Our favorite trips are Patagonia, Xinjiang, the PNW, the Colombian Andes. Anywhere where there's mountains, snow in the distance, changing ecosystems as you climb higher, and some trails and we'll enjoy it.
We're both pretty quiet, and we don't like clubs or places with loud music. Cassie doesn't drink alcohol nor do any drugs. I never drink much.
We also like scuba diving. We prefer reefs and marine animals over shipwrecks or depth.

We both grew up in Texas and went to university in Houston, then lived near San Francisco for a few years for work. After the pandemic Cassie lived in Tokyo for 3 years and Jesse was a digital nomad, mostly in Asia and Latin America. This profile used to just be for Jesse, and most of the references are for him.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

We want to learn about new places, make new friends, and find good local food and cool local spots that we wouldn't find otherwise.

We don't have goals to travel to x number of countries or anything like that. We don't care about political boundaries as much as geographic regions.

When hosting, I (Jesse) just really like sharing. I like sharing the places that I know and like, and like helping others have nice experiences like I've had. I always have local friends that I share as well. You're invited to everything we do together.

Interests

• cooking
• walking
• gardening
• movies
• music
• hiking
• backpacking
• camping
• scuba diving
• snorkeling
• parks
• mountains
• food
• tea
• forests
• trekking
• plants
• diving
• deserts
• long walks
• spicy food
• drinks
• gardens
• bonfires
• cactus
• senderismo
• montañas
• bosques
• camping and hiking
• matcha
• gardening,
• hacer senderismo

Music, Movies, and Books

Cassie reads a lot of fantasy. I listen to lots of podcasts on economics and history.
Some of our favorite movies and animes are:
Cowboy Bebop
Dan de Dan
Dorehedoro
Everything Everywhere All at Once
Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood
Into the Spiderverse
Odd Taxi
and most films by Miyazaki

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

(these are all for both of us together)
Scuba dived with sea lion pups in La Paz
Saw humpback whales jumping in Hawaii
Walked among the trees of Sequoia National Park
Hiked the Narrows and Angel's Landing of Zion National Park
Road tripped Houston to Colorado, and San Francisco to Salt Lake City, and SF to Seattle, and the loop of national parks around Las Vegas, and along the California coast, and around the Olympic Mountains in Washington, and Seattle to Whistler
Ran into black bears several times while hiking
Uni harvesting in tidepools off the California coast
Spent 2.5 months in Patagonia, driving south from Santiago until Ushuaia and back north through Argentina, hiking a total of 649 km with 35 km of elevation gain.
Road tripped across Xinjiang for two weeks
Road tripped across the Yucatan
Saw sunset over the clouds in the mountains of central Taiwan
Explored Angkor Wat
Saw the northern lights dancing over a lake near Seattle
Experienced Holi in Vrindavan and Mathura
Saw the cremations and Ganga Arti in Varanasi
Road tripped through Tibet from Lhasa to Lijiang

For just Jesse
Dia de los Muertos in Oaxaca
Mardi Gras in New Orleans
Thaipusam at Batu Caves
A sailboat trip from New Orleans to Galveston and back for several weeks, catching most of our food ourselves each day
Got to see Meteora, Samarkand, the Hagia Sofia, Calakmul, Petra
Saw sunsets over the sea of clouds in Huang Shan, and Mt Tamalpais
Went on a safari in Kenya at the Masai Mara
Climbed to 16,000 ft in the Cordillera Blanca in Peru
Went to a few all night raves in Colombia

What I Can Share with Hosts

Mostly we like spending time with our hosts, exploring the surroundings together, trying the local food, and learning about the local life and culture. We'd be happy to buy you dinner or other meals or at least help pay for groceries.

We have lots of stories, recommendations, suggestions, and contacts around the world that we can share. And of course, if we're ever hosting somewhere else in the world you'll have a place to stay as well :)

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belize, Brazil, Cambodia, Canada, Cayman Islands, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Ecuador, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Netherlands, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Romania, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Uzbekistan, Viet Nam, Virgin Islands, British

Countries I’ve Lived In

Brazil, China, Colombia, Japan, Mexico, Thailand, Turkey, United States