About

Welcome!

My name is Matt and I created this website to give all the information you need on Iberian America.

But first you may be wondering -- what do I know about Iberian America?

And why is this website called Iberian America and not Latin America?

Well, it's called Iberian America because the domain names for "LATAM," "LAC," "Latin America," "America Latina" etc....

Were all taken. 

So Iberian America it was!

Which is good enough -- it covers the same area this website is about anyway.

And it's just a term for the Spanish and Portuguese speaking areas of the Americas (excluding then the French and English parts).

But regarding who I am...

Well, I am a young guy who is not older than 35 years old.

I am originally from a small town in the Midwest.

Born and raised in a small town.

And I eventually made my way to Iberian America.

My very first trip was to Chiapas, Mexico for academic work reasons.

That was way back.

Then I ran around Guatemala for two months doing some work there.

Then off to Nicaragua for some work there also.

Finally, I decided to get some work established to travel around South America for a while since I was enjoying my time down in this region quite a bit.

And basically spent a year running around the region covering countries like Bolivia, Colombia, Argentina, etc.

After that, I went back home for a tiny bit and took a small trip to the Dominican Republic.

Right before making the actual move to Iberian America by settling down in Mexico City.

Where I have been for the last 4.5 years.

With no intention anyway of going back to the US.

Though I might end up leaving Mexico City in the future for another destination in Iberian America.

But that trip won't be done for at least a few years into the future.

So to sum it up...

I basically got started in Iberian America through academic work that got me the funding to go down here.

And I liked it so much that I established a way to support myself and be location independent so that I can live down here long term.

And things have gotten better ever since.

Finally, one last thing I want to clear up....

Is where specifically and how much time I have spent in each Latin American country. 

The reason for that is because sometimes people claim to be experts on "Latin America" without actually laying out where they have been and for how much time.

I feel this is important to clarify because Latin America is such a diverse place and not any one place represents well this entire region.

A person who has spent decades in a regular home in a small town in Guatemala probably has a very different experience from someone who lives in some expensive apartment in front of a beach in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 

So here's the numbers from greatest to least amount of time spent:

Mexico: 4.5 years and counting (Mexico City, the State of Mexico, Pachuca de Soto in Hidalgo and a small town in Hidalgo as well, San Cris and Zapatista territory in Chiapas, Oaxaca and Villahermosa in Tabasco)

Colombia: 7 months (Barranquilla, Santa Marta, Cartagena, a small village outside of Barranquilla, Pereira, Manizales and Bogota)

Argentina: 4 months (Buenos Aires, Misiones, Corrientes, Ushuaia, El Chalten, El Calafate and maybe a few other areas in Patagonian Argentina plus the area surrounding the city of Buenos Aires)

Bolivia: 3 months (Cochabamba,Rurrenabaque, La Paz, Sucre, Potosi, Santa Cruz, Oruro, El Alto, Uyuni, Copacabana and maybe a few other areas -- I was all around this country in a short time)

Guatemala: 2 months (Guatemala City, Antigua, Xela and a handful of rural areas mostly due to me hiking so many mountains in this country. I'd have to dig through my notes to find out where else but those were my main visits)

Venezuela: 2 months (Maracaib0)

Chile: 1 Month (Santiago, Punta Arenas, Puerto Natales and probably a few other areas in Chilean Patagonia. I was running around the area for a bit once)

Panama: 1 month (Panama City)

Peru: 1 month (Cusco)

Dominican Republic: 2 weeks (Santo Domingo)

Uruguay: 1 week (Montevideo)

Brazil: 1 week (Sao Paulo and some of the rural areas around that city)

Paraguay: 1 week (Asuncion and some village outside of Asuncion)

Nicaragua: 1 week (Managua and Masaya).

Note: These are all rough estimates of my time in each country on top of my head if my memory serves me well (it doesn't always haha jaja haha). 

And as you can see, my time in Latin America varies by quite a bit.

It has, as you can see, a very strong Mexico focus and an OK amount of time in Argentina and Colombia. 

In the future, I plan on spending about another year and a half to two years. I will be done with Mexico by either June 2022 or December 2022.

After that, the countries that interest me the most to spend more time in when I'm done with Mexico are the following: Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Venezuela and Panama.

OK, that's a good deal of Latin America. I guess there's not too many countries down here that I don't like. 

Anyhow, if you want to reach out to me...

Just send an email through my contact form or just message me on Twitter.

I will try to respond whenever I check my messages.

Hope all that helps!

Best regards,

Matt