About Jo

Antics of a Foulmouthed Vagabond

Hi! I’m Jo, a Portuguese travel addict and seasoned expletive juggler based out of the US.

At age 3, before I had even started to travel, I was already nagging my parents daily to drop me off at the nearest train station and let me set off on a round-the-world trip by myself. I would empty out my Lego box and pack it with all the travel essentials any experienced adventurer knows never to leave behind: a pink rubber frisbee, a Lego brick separator (?), 25 cents, and a handful of Lucky Charms marshmallows.

Despite my obvious preparedness to tackle the road on my own, it was not until I was 17, after multiple hostile family trips abroad, that I was finally allowed to try my hand at traveling sans parents. All I had to do was promise to answer my mom’s twelve daily phone calls and five text messages to ensure I had not been abducted or disintegrated under the weight of my newfound freedom.

Still, that ersatz taste of freedom was all the confirmation I needed that living in my home country could not be in the cards for me. I desperately needed out of that miserable comfort zone I had never wanted to be a part of. I needed foreign landscapes. I needed foreign culture and languages. I needed foreign fare. And yes – I’m not going to lie – I needed foreign men!

I look like shite in this photo (even the macaque is judging me), but I love how it looks like an old Polaroid

My Escape

I spent the following eight years earning my bachelor’s and master’s in marketing and struggling with severe depression between trips abroad, and later on bitching away at office jobs that made re-watching Girl With a Pearl Earring sound appealing. Nearly a decade spent daydreaming about rainforests and deserted beaches, and preparing for my move across the big pond to the US.

Much to my surprise and my parents’ chagrin, I had fallen in love with the US upon my first visit, having discovered there was more to Uncle Sam than guns, burgers, and fries. There was also Krispy Kreme.

At the time, I naively believed setting roots somewhere outside my home country would be akin to traveling full time, which would indubitably appease my chronic wanderlust. And it did, for three weeks, after which I began to feel the intangible walls of geographic stability closing in on me once more, leaving me stir-crazy and gasping for freedom.

Jo at Disneland wearing Minnie Mouse ears

Showing Minnie Mouse up at Disneyland Paris

My Second Escape

Going nomad had to be the answer to my predicament. I dedicated another five years to achieving that goal – or six months, if you subtract the time spent diligently ~~sampling~~ studying the American male fauna – and breaking up my time in Atlanta with trips to my beloved Asia, to Central America, and to Oceania.

This blog is the product of a life of travel and wanderlust, and years and years of procrastinating (my specialty) sharing my experiences and crazy thoughts, for fear of not bringing anything new to the highly competitive travel blogger table.

The Atlanta Beltine has some of the best (and cutest) street art I’ve seen!

How is My Travel Blog Different?

My goal is to entertain you with my travel musings, not the search engines with strategically curated keywords.

While I like to pepper my posts with a sprinkle of useful information and/or tips, you won’t find many comprehensive guides here. Instead, I’m offering you a front-row seat to my travel fuck-ups, my occasional victories while on the road, and my love life as a gay expat and globetrotter.

So leave your shoes at the door, right next to my decorum, and sit back. Enjoy what – I hope – will become your weekly travel humor fix!