Bio
My first solo trip was in 1996, when I was fifteen years old. I went from Llagostera to Andorra in a Derbi Variant with two friends. If you’ve never ridden a moped on mountain roads, you’ll have a hard time understanding just how epic that ride was.
I came to India accidentally. I wanted to dedicate my career to China and a teacher told me that if I couldn’t go to Beijing at that moment, I should go to Delhi, which was more or less the same (I know, you were in shock).
Due to these fate coincidences, I joined an academic cooperation program of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra with the Delhi University in 2002. I will only say that I lost 13 kilos in two months. Let’s agree that my first trip to India was definitely a detox. At that time, I couldn’t imagine I would become a tour leader in India.
Yet here I am 20 years later, having built a love-hate affair with India (obviously more love). Eight years living in Delhi and many years sharing it in trips, articles, courses and talks. With India as a base, I have discovered many countries in Asia, such as Taiwan or South Korea.
Now I live in Paraguay, so my new space for discovery is Latin America, a continent so diverse that I never tire of traveling through South America.
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Academic résumé
I hold a degree in Humanities, a Master’s in History from Pompeu Fabra University and a specialist in Indian and Iranian cultures from the University of Salamanca.
I have conducted research on the relations between Spain and India and have published articles on Spanish travelers on the subcontinent. I speak Hindi among seven other languages.
Professional CV: tour leader in India and more
I have lived for more than eight years in India. I worked at two universities in Delhi and was the first university professor of Catalan in India. Furthermore, I have also collaborated in university teaching programs on India in various Spanish cities.
My last collaboration to disseminate India in Spain has been a course at the Permanent University of the University of Alicante aimed at learning about different aspects of India from literature, art and cinema and talks in the network of Aulas de Extensión Universitaria attached to the Autonomous University of Barcelona.
Currently, I am a freelance tour leader or tour director at various travel agencies, leading tours throughout India and Europe for adult travelers and school groups. I can only say that I love my job.
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My travelling philosophy
After so many years of traveling, I’ve noticed that I follow certain repeating patterns. I guess everyone has their way of traveling and this is mine:
- I do not add countries. I like to repeat the same destinations, so when I start to count the countries visited I get about thirty, although I have been traveling for more than twenty years on my own and for work. It does not cause me any anxiety and I would visit Taiwan again even though I have already been there seven times.
- There is something wonderful in every place. I don’t choose destinations based on trends or where my friends have been. The most authentic experiences are precisely where fewer tourists have gone. Having tea with a Kashmiri herdsman in his mud and thatch house in the Aru Valley is out of the Lonely Planet.
- I never carry a backpack. I don’t like wrinkled clothes or carrying weight on my back. Sometimes I have not been able to drag the suitcase, but in general, I manage well and I travel light.
- I like having a base camp. I usually plan trips with more or less long stays in a city or a point of interest and move from there to see the surroundings. It seems to me a great way to turn each destination into a home for a few days. Last two weeks were in Taipei, Taiwan.
- I love road trips. Although I practice it less than I would like, I love driving and getting lost on roads and villages in remote countries. Road trips seem ideal to me as a couple or, at least, in company and, if possible, with a paper map. The last one was a car route through Oman. 100% recommended.
Where to find my stories
Apart from all of the above, I consider myself a travel blogger. In addition, I have written about travel and gastronomy in various media in English, Spanish and Catalan. I am co-author of El Español en la Maleta.
I created a travel blog called Delhicatessen in 2008 that has since become INDIAutentica. Here I share information about destinations in India and also about Indian culture and religions, as well as my personal trips to other destinations.
When I was a beginning travel blogger, I was chosen to appear on the well-known show Callejeros Viajeros. At that time, I was living in Delhi and I showed one of my favorite corners of the city: the Sufi neighborhood of Nizamuddin.
I have also worked in content creation, translation and editing of travel and gastronomy materials. They stand out among them:
- Eating with Your Five Senses cookbooks to promote Spanish cuisine in India.
- The Vinologue wine tourism guides
- Petit Futé travel guides
- The Olives from Spain campaign to promote the consumption of olives in India.
Let’s talk about travel
If you want to know more about organized trips to India in 2024 with the best tour leader in India or you have any question about India, email me, write me on social networks or complete the following form.
