GlobeRovers Magazine, Dec 2019

GR: If you could spend the rest of your life somewhere other
than your current home country, which country would that be?
JL: I’m an expat in Morocco since 2006. I also lived more than halfyear
in countries such as Poland, the USA, Finland, Turkey, and
Ukraine.
After I finished university, and following a strong impulse, I moved
to the Sahara Desert with no plans. I just went looking for a place
where I really wanted to be. The rest happened naturally. Nowadays
I have a hotel and a travel agency in the city of Ouarzazate.
Living abroad is very rewarding because we can really immerse
ourselves in a certain culture through daily living with the local
people. Personally, and as I love learning languages, I always make
an effort of improving or learning more about a country language.
GR: Please tell us about the most incredible and memorable
experience you have ever had while travelling?
JL: Never a country I visited left me indifferent. I would go back to
all the countries I’ve been to. That is, everywhere left a mark in me
in their own way.
At this point, and after 20 years on the road, there are so many
memorable experiences that it is kind of hard to put a list together.
But just to mention a few: 1-year 4x4 campervan trip around
Central Asia and the Middle East; the Galapagos archipelago; few
months crossing the Amazon by boat from the Atlantic all the way
to Peru and Ecuador; an Antarctica expedition below the 66º; Egypt
to Sudan by boat up the Nile River; hitchhiking in the Jammu and
Kashmir mountainous region; road trip from Ecuador “Mitad del
Mundo” all the way to Ushuaia “Fin del Mundo”. Etc etc...
GR: Where was the biggest cultural shock you have ever experienced
while traveling and why?
JL: I have never been overwhelmed and culturally shocked during
my travels. Although visiting Mosul city in Iraq just a few months
after its liberation was a bit depressing especially due to the smell of
4000 rotten corpses inside the destroyed old city. The three years of
war with ISIS left devastating marks in Mosul, and both its historical
heritage and its people suffered irreplaceable losses.
GR: What is the most challenging destination you have ever
visited and why?
JL: Possibly crossing some parts of South Sudan and the Democratic
Republic of the Congo, where I had to be escorted by the UN
blue helmets after having some unfortunate encounter with local
people armed with machetes. Furthermore, on the trip, I got myself
into a Congolese hospital with Malaria. The whole story is very
complex, but basically it can be resumed to this.
GR: Based on your travel experiences, if you were to recommend
the one most amazing destination for intrepid travellers, which
place would that be, and why?
JL: Maybe the Yemeni Hadhramaut region which I had the pleasure
of visiting last year. Morocco due to its landscape variety and exotic
vibes, and of course Iran where I had the pleasure to spend four
months on three different trips.
GR: Which people by nationality or subgroup would you say
have been the most hospitable during your travels and why do
you say so?
JL: Without a doubt, all ethnicities inside Morocco, Iran, Turkey,
Afghanistan, and the Russian North Caucasian Federal District’s
YEMEN
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