A nomad runs through my veins and I have enjoyed moving around, although both of my Grandmothers were from Mexico both of my Grandparents were not.
My first overseas experience was visiting Cuba twice in a summer camp when I was 9 and 10 years old. The second trip was a longer flight, when I was 13 I moved with my parents to Nairobi, Kenya where I lived during 3 of my precious teenage years. An important root of who I am is in the root of a Baobab in East Africa. In august 1989 I went on Safari to Masai Mara for the first time, during the time of the big migration from Serengeti to Masai Mara.
The nomadic cultures dragged my respect and interest I was clear then that I wanted to become an anthropologist expecting I would travel and live for long periods of time with the Samburu and their camels. I did some other very special trips, one of them was an 8 day camping journey from Nairobi to lake Turkana, what I recall the most is the value of silence, simplicity and the sky full of stars.
I was in 10th grade when we went to Lamu on a field trip, it is a small historic Swahili island in the Indian ocean. This amazing journey dragged me into an everlasting passion for traveling and a unique hearted liaison with the Swahili world originated on the fusion of the Bantu and the Arab cultures.
Another unique moment was when I spent the last day of the 19th Century riding a camel for 8 hours with the bedouins in Israel. I was back in time to celebrate new year's eve in Tel Aviv nightlife.
A few years later I visited the Sahara desert, I was again under the enchanted formula of the camels, the sky full of stars, the music and the silent night sleeping on a carpeted Tuareg tent. But the desert needs its counterpart… a loud city like Fes or Marrakech. Morocco became then my favourite destination, an african country very similar to Mexico and neighbour to my Dear Spain.
I currently live in the Silicon Valley in California, a mile away fro Netflix, 10 miles away from google, 5 miles away from Apple, 17 miles away from Facebook, 20 miles away from the Pacific Ocean and 50 miles away from Twitter in San Francisco.
Living here is a pleasure, we are surrounded by orchards, parks, lakes and beaches. This biodiversity allows us to have access to many locally produced products, we can eat a morning catch served with veggies from a local orchard, drink a local beer or have a glass of wine from a vineyard across the street.
Because of the high tech companies it is a very diverse population and because of history and migration the Mexican community is very big here and that makes it a lot easier for us to live in this area, we find cactus, corn tortillas and chili almost everywhere.
I move around to get my groceries in stores owned by different communities because every visit is a whole cultural experience. I get coffee in an Ethiopian one, veggies and lentils in an Indian market, ribs in a Korean store, fruit in a Chinese , seafood in a Japanese, dates in a middle eastern one.