Everything has changed since I bought my backpack (the 50+10L Curtlo Highlander; btw, my eternal girlfriend!) in 2004, in Brazil, for a roundtrip in South America. Since then, my backpack has inspired and given me so much energy to travel around. It has taught me that we are very, but very little when we are "out there", no matter where, just "out there" on the road.

At that time a friend of mine and I traveled from Southern Brazil to Colombia by land stopping at some precious and culturally rich places along the way. We didn't know at all where to go along the way. We just knew that we were supposed to arrive in Bogota after 13 days of departure. We had to make up our own way, which included going through some exciting paths such as farms were the FARCs were settled at. After almost 2 weeks on the road we hit Bogota and stayed there for a while before returning to Brazil.

During the whole trip we learned things by heart. We had only our intuition to trust. By the time we returned to Southern Brazil I knew that I would be embarking on various journeys that would challenge my perspectives about life. And I gotta tell you: challenging perspectives makes you a better person.

Years later I had the chance to live in Southern Germany for a couple of years while studying International Relations. Then I had the opportunity to live in Sweden while studying Peace and Development Work before going to Asia for the first time. Going to Asia really brought me different perspectives which I fortunately have kept with my entire persona. Thailand and China were specially eye-opening for me. I could not see the universe as the same after stepping my feet there. The richness of natural elements as well as human minds that I felt with my own heart along the way in Asia is one important pillar of my personality until this day.

If I could buy a huge piece of land or an island I would gather all the wonderful people I've met along the way all these years and create a new universe full of joy, respect, love, smiles, healthy food, slowness, silence, music, plants, fermentation, puerh, woodworking, cooperation, sun light, moon light, indifference regarding people's attributes and choices, peace, transformative communication, endless oceans so utopia would never be reached out, siesta, dreams, yoga, pure air, warmth, small houses, big hearts.

Coming back to Brazil in 2013 was also a challenge. My perspectives about life were transformed. My perceptions and opinions were no longer dilemmas but tetralemmas. On the other side it was and still is good to experience challenges about adaptation and integration in my home country as well. One can always learn and evolve through a new pair of glasses. I continue on the road as much as I can learning everywhere I go. In 2015 I opened a small filming company and started making films.

I currently live in Southern Brazil in a small town called Gramado and will soon start building a small studio in the woods for slow living and for my work in filmmaking.

INSTAGRAM
@mochileiromazz

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Hosting when I can makes me feel good for all the good people have done to me when I needed up until now. And using CS as a unique way to connect with wonderful places and people when I decide to hit the road gives me new and better perspectives about our existence.

Interests

International relations, local communities and cultures, unknown places and cultures, unknown music, unknown art, unknown literature, unknown maps, unknown people. Nature and peace, wildlife understanding, structuralisation of nature-man’s relationships, indigenous wisdom and mythical thought, poetics, hermeneutical methodologies and processes, panetics (the study of suffering), negative and positive transcendences, structural and cultural violence, direct and indirect violence, natural violence, inner and outer peace, negative and positive peace, phenomenology, psychology, anthropology, Western and Eastern cultural differences, trans-boundary processes, media at war and at peace, mediation and facilitation, negotiation and communicative processes, woodworking, samurai movies, wabi-sabi, puerh tea, forest bathing, agroforestry.

• wildlife
• arts
• writing
• literature
• documentaries
• make up
• movies
• traveling
• socializing
• woodworking
• survival
• music
• backpacking
• anthropology
• cartography
• communications
• international relations
• psychology
• mountains

Music, Movies, and Books

Films: I really appreciate consuming films on MUBI.

What I Can Share with Hosts

Random walk in town and surroundings, slow cooking, forest bathing, dog walk and any experience that adds to our evolution together.

Countries I’ve Visited

Argentina, Austria, Bolivia, China, Colombia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Laos, Malaysia, Netherlands, Paraguay, Peru, Venezuela

Countries I’ve Lived In

Brazil, China, Germany, Sweden, Thailand, United States