Why I Keep Returning: Deep Dives from Rio to Iguazu

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What up, everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Black Expat Podcast.
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My name is Carl, and I'm excited to be rocking with you guys for yet another
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episode. I am back, and I am podcasting from beautiful Rio, Brazil.
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I realize I can't roll my tongue on command like I used to.
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It's okay. I guess it comes with age. I don't know. But man,
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very glad to be back in the flow of podcasting. I will say the first two episodes,
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the recent ones, Well, a little rough because I was kind of getting back into
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it. I kind of, you know, had to find my mojo, if you will.
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Yeah, baby. You know, it's been 250 episodes. It's been a little bit of time
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off, but I'm glad to be back. I'm glad to be here in Brazil.
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Brazil is incredibly beautiful, right? I spent some time in Argentina.
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I spent some time in Sao Paulo, now in Rio de Janeiro. And it's been an incredible
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eight days that I've spent here.
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And it's so interesting. And I'm so glad that I actually waited to do this podcast
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episode because I was going to focus on, you know, why do I go back to a place?
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And what do you do when you go back to a place that you visited for the first
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time and you've maybe done 10 days, sometimes seven days?
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And if you're not lucky or fortunate enough to do 14 full days or even three full weeks.
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And Brazil is a great example of why, one, I want to come back for several different reasons.
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But I'll just start off by saying we spent some time in Aguazu Falls.
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This came from Victoria Falls and Zimbabwe in April, which was incredible.
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I haven't done the Iagra Falls, but Iguazu was amazing. Like we did the Brazil
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side, which kind of gives you that landscape layout of what the falls looks like from a distance.
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There's this incredible hotel called the Belmont. It's on top of a hill that
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gives you that view as well.
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And then we did the Argentinian side, which gets you really up close and personal with the falls.
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And you'll see on my Instagram soon as I start to post it over the weekend.
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Both sides has its own uniqueness to it, but man, it's just something to be
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said about the Argentinian side and how close you can get in the feeling of
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it and just the absolute beauty.
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And in Sao Paulo, I was only there for two nights and I was at the incredible Hotel Rosewood.
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And it was more art focused and more food focused and the people were nice and
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the shopping. That's the vibe I kind of got from it.
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But I do want to go back to spend more time to see different things because
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I was kind of, you know, I was on a tour, a fam trip, really getting to know the place so that
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when clients and travelers come to me and want to sell it, I can actually speak
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from a place of experience and knowledge and seeing things firsthand rather
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than, I Googled this or someone so told me this or TikTok. TikTok is great. Don't get me wrong.
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But there's still nothing like someone being able to talk you through what you're
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going to feel, what you're going to see, the senses, the smells of things from
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actually going to have experienced that.
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So I actually got to count. I think I'm on like, I think I've done a bunch of
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new countries already this year. I've done Sri Lanka, South Africa,
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Zimbabwe, British Virgin Islands, and now Brazil. And then I have.
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I have Sardinia. I have a few other places that are coming up.
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Peru that are coming up as well. But then, you know, when we were at Iguazu,
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which is the Argentinian side, and the few hours we were on the Brazil side,
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it's, you know, that's the nature, right? That's the Amazon. That's the forest.
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That's all that. And we kind of get a good dose of that. I went horseback riding,
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which is really cool, like through the jungle, which is an amazing experience.
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And then we went kayaking on this river and we found some hidden waterfalls.
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Like it was just a great experience. And all this is captured on my Instagram.
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And it's just a wonderful experience. And I think I know how to design a great trip.
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And Brazil doesn't have to be super expensive. Like the trip that I'm on,
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if I was quoting it for somebody, it would be about $15,000 for eight days,
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eight or nine days. It could be $10,000 if you wanted to change out a hotel.
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But I say that to say the hotel in Rio that we are at, which is Janeiro Hotel,
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is incredible. You have views of the beach, an incredible pool,
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rooftop pool that overlooks the beach.
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And they designed it in a way that captures amazing photos.
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Brazil beaches are how you see it on TV and how you think it feels.
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People are running along the beach, not on the beach, they created a trail outside
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of it so you can run and have the beach to your left and the buildings to your right.
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I rode a bike from one end all the way down to the other and it was just wonderful.
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Like the feeling, it felt like Miami, but different. You know,
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people are, you know, of course in shape, they're playing volleyball,
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they're playing football on the beach.
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People in the water the water it's winter time here in brazil in july but the
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water was warm they like usually in the summertime the water is freezing cold
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which i guess makes sense because it's hot i don't know but um today it was
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yesterday we went in the water was actually warm
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so it was again really really really cool things going on in rio and rio just
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like in the food brazil uh the steak we've had incredible steak brazil is a huge country,
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like it's massive it's so much to see there's so many hidden gems like of course
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you want to see the major cities you You don't want to go to Rio,
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you want to go to Sao Paulo, you want to go to Iguazu Falls,
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but there's so many other.
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White sand beaches and remote areas, it's great for hiking.
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There's so many other things to do.
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That leads into the topic of the podcast today, which is what do you do when
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you go back and why do you go back?
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I've gone to several countries, some countries several times.
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I've been to Cambodia a few times, been to Thailand a lot of times,
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been to Taiwan a lot of times.
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I lived in China, so I don't necessarily want to go back too many times,
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just a hassle with the visa to get there sometimes.
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I've been to Europe. I'm going back to some places a few times.
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I've been to Portugal. I'm going back there. I've been to Italy. I'm going back there.
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But what do you like because when you come for the first time right again Brazil
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is super fresh for me because I didn't think I was going to make it there this
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year I'm so glad that I did.
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Now that I'm here, I'm like, man, for example, I'm in the hotel.
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I have to check out at two and then I have to work until I leave at five and all that.
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But because of how I structured the trip and how it was structured,
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I didn't really get time to just, you know, sit and not sit in the room and do nothing.
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But like, for example, today, I probably would have spent three or four hours
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or five hours at the beach.
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I would have rode my bike up and down a couple of times. I would have did the
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morning on the beach workout class that they have.
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I would have went to a beach club and had drinks there. I would have went into
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the city to a club and bar hop, which is about 30 minutes from the hotel because
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it's like in the city, city.
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I would have honestly just sat at the rooftop pool and just hung out.
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I would have talked to more local people. I would have done a street food tour.
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I would have went to this restaurant. There's so many things that I wanted to,
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I would have asked more questions about. I would have went hiking.
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I would have learned more about the favelas.
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When you're here, you can't really just focus on favelas all day or interesting
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cultural things that you kind of want to get as much as you can.
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And again, because of my job, I want to know and have knowledge about as many
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things as I can. But sometimes that means you can't go super in-depth on it.
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And granted, you can read, you can TikTok, you can Google things,
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you can go back to school and learn about it if you really, really want to get into it.
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But there's sometimes like when you have a day to just, you know, today is my chill day.
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I'm on the beach, I'm at the pool, I'm eating good.
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Tomorrow is my educational day. Like I want to go, I want to learn about some
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things. I want to sit with a, with a guide or a local person and really ask
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those intensive questions and take notes and write things down,
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right? Write things down in your journal. Like this is what I learned in Brazil.
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So when your kids or your family or your friends in the future,
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they want to learn about it. They can pick up a book and hear your firsthand account of it.
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For me, I would podcast about it because this is something that's going to live
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on forever. And it's, I don't have to write and hurt my hand or you can type
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it, you know, however you want to document things.
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And then I'll have a day of just like hiking. Like I want to hike and then I
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want and then I want, you know what I'm saying? Like I want to be super active
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and I want to be at the gym. Like I want to do things like that.
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Or you can kind of do half and half. I want to hike in the morning, chill in the afternoon.
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Coming back allows you to really dig deeper, right? Because you have a sense of self.
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Like when I, you know, some people, they go to Cancun, they go to resorts a
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lot, and they, they know what they're getting into.
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So after the first, second, sometimes third or fourth or fifth time,
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when they go back, they know how to, they know how to sell it to people to come with them, right?
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They're like, man, you're going to do this. And I did this. And I did this.
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Like they can talk about it from such experience. I have a friend,
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Brittany Thompson, and she, you know, she sells Disney cruises.
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Make sure you guys hit me up and I can refer you to her if you want to go on a Disney cruise.
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But yeah, and she, the way she talked about it, like I remember I have a meeting
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with her and then I was, you know, I was asking questions and she was like,
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yeah, because I did this and yeah, and I did that.
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And I know about this cruise and this, you don't want to do that,
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but you definitely want to do this. And this costs this amount of money.
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And it's like, man, that level of expertise, you know, when you go to somebody
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and they can, and they're not talking about a tour package, but they're talking
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about the experience and they're speaking from experience.
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That is invaluable.
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And that gets me more excited and that leaves there's still going to be surprises
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on any trip but that leaves very few things that i i don't want to be surprised
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on the comfort of my hotel room
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i don't want to be surprised on you know the feel of it or the drinks or the
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food i don't want to be surprised on that type of things i want to be surprised
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on how it feels when i get there not the room but like the country itself
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like i want i want the vibes to be like man i'm so glad i came britney did mention
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this and it really did happen but it was even
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better than what she described, or it was, you know, different than what she
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described, like, because I'm feeling different, because I'm a different person,
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so I'm going to feel it and experience it a little bit differently.
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So going back just allows you to really and truly dig deep into the things that
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you want to dig deep into.
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And then, again, you just, the way in which you feel, like, I remember,
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you know, I've taken, you know, my few friends and even my sister to,
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you know, to Thailand and Cambodia, things like that, I think, and to Bali recently.
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And I think we stopped by Thailand for a second time on the way there,
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because, you know, when you're going that far, add another Asian country to
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go shopping. If it's Korea, go shopping, get your skincare.
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If it's Thailand, go there, get your drink on.
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Go in, see those elephants, the rescued ones, not the riding ones.
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But she was like, yeah, she's like, okay, I can do this on my own.
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I know how to get around. She was hopping on the back of scooters,
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getting around, getting her own money, getting her own food,
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getting her own massages as a single woman traveler.
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And it's like the way in which she approached it was just so different.
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Because when you travel halfway around the world, people don't want to admit
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it, but you're a little worried.
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For me, I know I have a very interesting stomach. I can only eat at certain
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places. If I see something, I'm not going to eat it.
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My business partner, he just went to India and he tried the street food and.
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We all know how that ended. So there's certain things, a way in which I know
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I have to experience things. But once you do it, once you're like,
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ah, when I come back, man, I know how to do this. I know that's the cab I should
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use. Like in Rio, don't take the Ubers. The cars be really, really terrible looking.
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But you can definitely take the yellow taxes. You can pay with your credit card inside the cab.
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So now you don't feel, you know, worried about how to get around.
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You know how to carry your bags. And do they actually snatch your cell phones?
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Yes, they do. So keep them in your pocket in certain places.
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Like once you know, again, that's the dangerous stuff, but there's other stuff you want to know too.
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But you know, there's just, there's just a different type of feeling that you
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have when you know a place and you visit it the first time you had,
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even if you had a bad experience.
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And I'm like, like, let me come back
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and try this again. Let me do it in a different way than I did it before.
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But also, man, there's just, it allows you to really dig deeply.
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I know a lot of people, I don't want to say a lot.
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There are people that, you know, travel just for the relaxation,
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right? My job is crazy. I want a quick three-day getaway or I want a seven-day
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getaway. I don't want to have to worry.
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I'm not trying to learn because some people's jobs are super intense.
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I ain't trying to learn nothing. I'm just trying to sip these drinks,
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get my massages, maybe go to the gym, maybe not sit out by the pool, go to the beach.
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That's the type of experience that they're seeking. And there's really nothing
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wrong with that. So when you want a different type of experience, like, you know what?
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I want to go to Rio to see Rio, not just for carnival. I want to go to see what
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the beach experience is like, see what the nightlife is like,
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see what the rooftop bougie bar experience is like, or see what the people are like.
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There's absolutely nothing wrong with that and to wanting to have that type
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of experience. Because, you know.
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Some places, it's a once-in-a-lifetime thing. Like, if I ever went to India,
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that would probably be the only time I went to India. Like, I went to Sri Lanka,
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probably don't need or want to go back.
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There's things I do want to see or I wish I had seen, but it's not compelling
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enough for me to be like, man, you know what?
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Because I really want to go back because I got so much of the culture.
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Where I got I learned so much and I was so overloaded from a cultural perspective
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that seeing some things it was not like a wonder of the world or something like
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man I really want to see this hiking trail like I'm not gonna you know.
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Go there in place of some place I've never been before. I'll always choose where
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I haven't been versus a place I've already been to unless, you know,
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it's for a conference or, you know, I just really like that place.
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Like earlier this year, I just spent two days, two nights in Bangkok.
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I was just there because I knew where to go get my massages from,
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like the really good high-end massages where I got, you know,
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I'm able to have the type of experience that I wanted to have,
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right? Which was luxury.
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That's what I want. And when you get the, you know, the discount coupons and
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all that, you're able to do that. Like I knew where I wanted to go and eat.
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I wanted to, and I knew a bartender that was there that knew me and knew the cocktail that I wanted.
00:12:48.753 --> 00:12:51.601
So it was a very personalized experience because I had built up that rapport
00:12:51.601 --> 00:12:54.698
when I was there before with my sister and with my best friend.
00:12:55.307 --> 00:12:59.051
So it's, you know, it's really, when you truly sit and think about it,
00:12:59.546 --> 00:13:05.763
like why the benefit and the value of going back is to own the experience more,
00:13:06.332 --> 00:13:08.331
right? Even if you don't plan your trips with the travel agent,
00:13:08.331 --> 00:13:09.786
which for some places I highly recommend.
00:13:09.925 --> 00:13:12.897
And again, I can definitely queue up because I've been to a lot of places.
00:13:13.373 --> 00:13:17.279
But if you don't plan with a travel agent, it's like, sometimes you need a round too.
00:13:17.500 --> 00:13:20.721
It's like dating. You test it out. If you like it, you go back to it.
00:13:20.721 --> 00:13:24.017
If you don't, you're like, I'm okay with not doing that again.
00:13:24.302 --> 00:13:28.853
And that's absolutely kind of how I view why you go back and what do you go back for.
00:13:29.184 --> 00:13:33.683
And it's for that deeper connection to a place, to its people.
00:13:34.231 --> 00:13:35.806
I have friends now, I think, that live here.
00:13:36.455 --> 00:13:39.939
Are living here part-time, you know, because they visited, I believe,
00:13:39.939 --> 00:13:42.909
I don't know if they visited, but if they did, or if you do,
00:13:42.909 --> 00:13:47.022
you can still go and visit and you come back, you know, I could actually live there.
00:13:47.637 --> 00:13:50.719
And I've been thinking about this, like I lived in Taiwan and in different cities
00:13:50.719 --> 00:13:55.973
in America, but man, what would it be like to just live and move to a different country again?
00:13:56.525 --> 00:13:59.119
When I moved to Taiwan, I knew the foundation of the language,
00:13:59.119 --> 00:14:01.900
but I didn't know it fully. I learned more as I was there.
00:14:02.405 --> 00:14:05.199
I have a foundational understanding of Spanish. It's like, man,
00:14:05.199 --> 00:14:09.087
could I live in Mexico? Someone that's on this trip with me is from Mexico.
00:14:09.354 --> 00:14:13.011
Could I live in Brazil where they speak Portuguese? Could I live in Argentina?
00:14:13.359 --> 00:14:14.758
Could I go to Italy and live there?
00:14:15.124 --> 00:14:19.209
Could I live in places within Africa? They speak English in Cape Town.
00:14:19.209 --> 00:14:21.088
Should I move to Cape Town for a little while?
00:14:21.588 --> 00:14:24.529
It really just makes you think, man, even if it's just for a year,
00:14:24.529 --> 00:14:28.130
like I said, give it six months. I always tell my younger sister, I'm like, man, no kids.
00:14:28.548 --> 00:14:32.289
Good job. You're working hard. Go live somewhere else, even if it's in America.
00:14:32.289 --> 00:14:36.519
But don't limit yourself when you don't have to be limited. And you have that
00:14:36.519 --> 00:14:40.309
spirit, that soul, that traveler spirit is what I call it, where you actually
00:14:40.309 --> 00:14:44.070
want to and can do this type of thing, where you live in a completely different place.
00:14:44.512 --> 00:14:47.299
You'd have to do it for a long time. Do it for six months. Do it for three months.
00:14:48.163 --> 00:14:52.449
Put your furniture in storage and literally pack up and go. You can work remote.
00:14:52.449 --> 00:14:54.601
You can live in Costa Rica where they speak the language.
00:14:54.937 --> 00:14:57.201
There's so many opportunities. And that is why.
00:14:57.904 --> 00:15:01.503
I think it's so important to go back because you learn so much about yourself,
00:15:01.823 --> 00:15:04.580
about the place, and also you challenge yourself. You think differently.
00:15:05.143 --> 00:15:08.191
Because people will actually like, man, you just came back from there. Why are you going back?
00:15:08.516 --> 00:15:11.162
This is what I ask people who go to resorts. I'm going to Cancun,
00:15:11.162 --> 00:15:13.372
but it's a different resort. Okay, that makes sense. You're going back,
00:15:13.372 --> 00:15:14.952
but you're going to a different place for a different experience.
00:15:15.353 --> 00:15:17.792
People like when you go back to the same resort over and over again.
00:15:17.792 --> 00:15:21.038
And when you think about it, it's, man, they nailed it the first time.
00:15:21.433 --> 00:15:23.202
And the second time, I want to see if they can nail it again.
00:15:23.202 --> 00:15:26.322
If they keep nailing it. If it's a great experience each time,
00:15:26.322 --> 00:15:30.082
man, why would I stop? I don't have to go every time, but if I can go once a
00:15:30.082 --> 00:15:34.796
year and then go to other places at the same time, why not do that? And why not do that?
00:15:35.260 --> 00:15:38.192
Why not really fall in love with the place and go back? And then you bring your
00:15:38.192 --> 00:15:39.544
friends and you introduce it to them.
00:15:40.257 --> 00:15:42.207
And then you keep going. It's like, okay, this place is cool.
00:15:42.207 --> 00:15:45.847
Now I want to go somewhere else in the world. Like where else can the world
00:15:45.847 --> 00:15:48.599
take me? Because a woman that was on this trip is from Belgium.
00:15:49.265 --> 00:15:51.366
And the way she spoke about it, I'm like, man, I really want to go to Belgium.
00:15:52.307 --> 00:15:56.037
As a man on the trip that's from Russia. And I don't know if I necessarily want
00:15:56.037 --> 00:15:58.757
to go to Russia, but I can't. To me, it's just foreign. It's cold.
00:15:58.757 --> 00:16:02.393
I don't really do the cold. But I know they have warmer weather places as well.
00:16:02.753 --> 00:16:06.177
So I mean, it's just so many things that you learn and see from doing.
00:16:06.177 --> 00:16:09.577
And one of the things I'm very thankful for is that the trips that I do go on
00:16:09.577 --> 00:16:11.617
is always with people from different places around the world,
00:16:12.115 --> 00:16:16.115
right? So again, this trip, Mexico, someone from New York, who's just super cool.
00:16:16.452 --> 00:16:19.789
Someone from Belgium, from Russia, and then someone, a native from Brazil.
00:16:20.457 --> 00:16:26.107
So, and then me from Chicago. So it's just, and when I went to Africa,
00:16:26.107 --> 00:16:28.867
people were from Greece and I was in Japan.
00:16:28.867 --> 00:16:32.357
Someone was from Germany and someone was from Switzerland. So these people that
00:16:32.357 --> 00:16:35.087
I know, I can pick up the phone or pick up a WhatsApp and text them and ask
00:16:35.087 --> 00:16:37.627
them questions or call on LinkedIn and really connect with.
00:16:37.627 --> 00:16:42.847
So man, connection is everything. And the world is huge and we're all so similar,
00:16:42.847 --> 00:16:46.277
but man, we're so different and there's so much beauty in that.
00:16:46.277 --> 00:16:48.379
There's so much beauty in that exploration.
00:16:48.780 --> 00:16:53.967
And that is why I go back to a place to really uncover all of the beauty that
00:16:53.967 --> 00:16:58.317
I can and go to different areas. Like Brazil is massive. I've only gone to three cities.
00:16:58.799 --> 00:17:00.997
And I'm talking to the local person that we're traveling with,
00:17:00.997 --> 00:17:04.137
Gabby. It's like, man, there's so many more places. She just starts naming them
00:17:04.137 --> 00:17:06.369
off the top of her head. And I'm like, I've never even heard of these,
00:17:07.025 --> 00:17:08.639
but man, it would be amazing to go.
00:17:09.051 --> 00:17:14.762
And to show and to showcase, you know, the hidden beauty, if you will, places that we don't get.
00:17:15.470 --> 00:17:19.136
You know, access to or knowledge about. Because, you know, even in schools,
00:17:19.136 --> 00:17:22.243
you can only focus on the topics, the headliners, the main thing.
00:17:22.545 --> 00:17:24.676
Why people say, keep the main thing, the main thing.
00:17:25.031 --> 00:17:27.684
No, I want to dig beyond that. I want to go deeper than that.
00:17:28.200 --> 00:17:30.576
And that is why it's important, or I don't say it's important,
00:17:30.576 --> 00:17:34.336
but that is why you go back. That is why you visit the place for the second time.
00:17:34.678 --> 00:17:38.066
And that is why, y'all, I had a great time in Brazil. Looking forward to bringing
00:17:38.066 --> 00:17:40.536
family back, bringing crews on the beach.
00:17:40.942 --> 00:17:44.356
You know, it's not a place for my mom, but like, Like, it's a little bit too
00:17:44.356 --> 00:17:49.046
active for her. But yeah, I'm just really excited. So thank you guys for rocking with me.
00:17:49.371 --> 00:17:51.736
I know I promised you guys a South African Zimbabwe episode.
00:17:51.736 --> 00:17:53.649
It is coming. Please believe it is coming.
00:17:54.003 --> 00:17:56.819
I'm excited to talk about it before I head out to these other places too.
00:17:57.248 --> 00:18:01.540
But yeah, thank you all. Thank you guys as always for rocking with me.
00:18:02.138 --> 00:18:05.331
My name is Carl, the Black Expat. We out you.