If there's one thing you will never waste your money on it's Travel... -Trevor Noah
ABOUT THE AUTHOR & THIS PLACE
Hi! I'm Carlos and welcome to "urbntraveler" a collection of my favorite travel experiences. There will generally be one intro post (example: Intro to the Swiss Alps) with links to lots of experiences (example: Swiss Alps: hiking Lauterbrunnen to Mürren)
I'm increasingly capturing epic experiences "in the moment", therefore the intro post is not a requirement ;)
Read on for more about how this project came to be.
Otherwise, head to the experiences!
Why I travel...
La Partida/The Start
I’ve been traveling most of my life first out of necessity and eventually out of curiosity. I was 6 years old when I boarded an airplane for the first time. I left Chile and embarked for a new life in the United States. There was so much happening, the rush through immigration, the knowledge that my mother (a 5 ft, 100 lb lady) and I were carrying our worldly possessions in 2 suit cases which either of us could easily fit into. Those who know me, know that I’m scatter-brained, there’s whole sections of my life I have ZERO recollection of, yet I remember this vividly. I remember contemplating the grandeur of the Andes mountains as we climbed to 30k ft. I remember climbing above the clouds for the first time and actually thinking we were over the Ocean; what was then a dense low pressure system. If you couldn’t tell my mom gave me the window seat. Moms are good like that.
The Middle
While most of my American friends spent their summers at summer camps, I was in Chile. With my extended family spread out about the north and central regions (Antofagasta, Calama, Valparaiso..). This involved many regional trips, some of them longer than my actual flight to South America. Chile is a long country and a bus ride from Antofagasta to Santiago was ~21 hours back then. Chile was endowed with geography as diverse as it is majestic. I fell in love with it, and by High School convinced my buddies to follow me to the great Chilean North (seriously, it’s the driest desert in the world, and it’s beautiful). Eventually I made my way to Peru and Bolivia, both of which will have a post at some point!
A love of language (I'm a native speaker of Spanish) brought me to study German in high school. In college, I had the opportunity to work and study abroad in Germany, which turned into a 6 month long exploration of Central Europe. My weekdays were spent in cow country, weekends were reserved for cities readily accessible by rail.
In college I enrolled in Mandarin courses and eventually I made my way to China, which opened up East Asia to me.
Now
I took a sabbatical from work in 2021 and moved to Berlin, Germany to complete my language study. I'm now happily back in NYC, which is starting to feel like home :) All in all, I’ve traveled to 100+ cities/urban centers, across 5 continents. Many well known, some less so.
About the Author
Carlos is an engagement manager at a large consulting firm. He specializes in Media & Tech and works with clients in both the US and LatAm. Carlos also writes this travel blog and coordinates socials and events in NYC: linktr.ee/carloskenobi
Carlos completed a PhD in Materials Science at UPenn and published twice in Nature. He worked up and down the Americas as a strategy consultant post Penn (incl. US, MX, Brazil, many other markets) and is now based in Williamsburg, NYC. When not hacking away at his laptop he's running long distance, doing calisthenics, planning the next trip and looking up concerts to go to.
Carlos is fluent in Spanish and English, proficient in German (B1) and can survive in Mandarin.