*** Before sending a request message, please read all ABOUT ME, and all MY HOME section. ***

Hello everyone! I'm Andres, originally from Colombia, but currently living in San Francisco. I try to live my life with joy and peace. I appreciate friendship and I try to be surrounded by interesting people that generate me trust and good vibes. I believe that differences enrich us, and respect unites us.

If you want to know a little bit more about me, you can read some of the references people left me.

I live with my partner Helena, who is a from San Francisco. We both speak English and Spanish. I also speak Portuguese and a little bit Italian, and Helena speaks Mandarin and Cantonese.

We are vegetarians (not vegans yet, we still have dairy, eggs and honey).

We are atheists, but we are not monsters, we are just normal people who don't believe in deities.

San Francisco is mainly known for:

● Being a main center of liberal activism and cultural movements in the USA (The Hippie counterculture, the peace movement against the Vietnam War, the gay rights movement, etc).

● The particular Victorian/Modern architecture (Golden Gate Bridge, Alamo Square, Lombard Street, Alcatraz Island, Palace of fine arts, De Young Museum, etc...).

● The diversity and its particular neighborhoods (Haight-Ashbury: The Hippie neighborhood; The Castro: The gay neighborhood; Chinatown; The Mission: The Latinx neighborhood; North Beach: The "Little Italy", etc...).

● The easy public transport across the city, the steep hills, "Karl" (the name of the particular fog of SF).

● The bunch of tech companies that are located in San Francisco and the Bay Area in Silicon Valley (Airbnb, Google, Microsoft, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Uber, Twitter, Mozilla, etc...).

● Well known universities located in the San Francisco Bay Area (UC Berkeley, Stanford, UCSF, etc...).

● Very important sport teams of the main national sports (Football: The SF 49ers; Baseball: The SF Giants; Basketball: The Golden State Warriors).

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

Because it has allowed me to know a different world that I am used to and incredible people.

Interests

• culture
• books
• documentaries
• dancing
• cooking
• wine
• beer
• coffee
• walking
• politics
• anime
• movies
• board games
• traveling
• coding
• hiking
• backpacking
• languages
• hitchhiking
• nature
• vegetarianism
• biking
• society
• playing music
• hanging out
• making friends
• listening to music
• environmentalism
• diversity
• trash tv
• keep learning

Music, Movies, and Books

Movies: Soul, Manderlay, Team America, In the name of the father, Midnight express, Edward Scissorhands, Cronica de una fuga, The Motorcycle Diaries, Freaks, The Dark Knight, Häxan, Intouchables, Maciste all'inferno, Interview with the Vampire, Good will hunting, Pi, Turtles Can Fly, A Clockwork Orange, La danza de la realidad, Memento, La noche de los lapices, etc.

Music: From Heavy Metal to Pop, Salsa, Tango, Classic, etc, we are super versatile with music. http://www.lastfm.es/user/Andres_Ochoa

Books: La vida es sueño, La resistencia, J'irai cracher sur vos tombes, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, Expediente negro, Venus in Furs, Man's Fate, Blindness, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Der Antichrist, Funerales en América, Werther, The Art of War, Los Negroides, Del amor y otros demonios, Du contrat social, Parto de sombra, Whore Banquet, La ciudad y los perros, Desassossego, Boulevard du Rhum, etc.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

● Dawn in Palomino with Sea, River, Moon, Sun, Fishermen, full color sky, beach, jungle, snowy mountains, everything at the same time, just magical.

● To have to camp in the Nazca desert and see the most beautiful sunset, with a sky of ALL colors, and witness a shower of stars after all.

● To know people whom I do not understand anything due to the idiomatic barrier, and finally being the "best" friends even though I didn't understand them anything.

● After losing so many things in life, to learn to detach myself of material things and understand that are just things, you can recover them, things that really are worthy have no monetary price.

● Traveling by motorcycle and Hitchhicking in South America.

● Surviving traveling with 0 money.

Teach, Learn, Share

Teach: Spanish, Portuguese, prepare some meals, play some musical instruments, make kazoos, some things of Engineering and computers, some Latin dance.

Learn: Whatever.

Share: A walk, a bike ride, conversation, visit somewhere, do some interesting activity in the region, share travel experiences and give some advice.

What I Can Share with Hosts

I can offer food prepared by me, a good conversation and some songs played by me with the instruments I travel. I can also help to do whatever you need. I offer my time.

Countries I’ve Visited

Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, United States