I am the experienced, educated, and adventurous travel writer you are looking for. I love travel, experiencing new places and telling people about them. My wife and I launched this blog more than five years ago as a way to share our experiences with everyone.

I have a simple philosophy on travel: Even when visiting a sun-soaked paradise for a quick stay during a long northeastern winter, don’t spend your time at a resort. You will never get an accurate sense of a place if you don’t visit the places where local life happens.

I penned my first travel journal on a cross-country trip with my family. I’ll admit it wasn’t the greatest prose and at times I was reluctant to write. My second great journal detailed my pilgrimage to Greece to walk in the steps of my parents and grandparents and form a deeper bond with my heritage. I find the journals are a great way to keep my memory honest and not let me gloss over the details — like shivering all night long on a ferry to Crete.

That trip to Greece was more than 20 years ago and I’m pleased to report my writing and I have both matured. I spent most of my professional life as a journalist, starting at a community newspaper, working in college radio, then in small-market and large-market television as a photojournalist. I even published a novel. I became an investor in a vineyard and a sailboat and am working toward earning my amateur sailing certification. I’m also living out a childhood dream: Getting paid to watch cartoons. I’m working for a Japan-based anime blog reviewing shows. And that’s all on the side; the main focus of my professional life is creating educational videos for healthcare staff at a hospital system in western Pennsylvania.

Zeke takes a moment to write about some of his adventures in Tanzania

The need to explore our world has always been a constant calling over these years, leading me to Egypt where I stood under the pyramids and piloted a ferry across the Nile, to Italy where I fell in love with Florence and my wife, to Greece where I strengthened the connections with my roots, to Mexico where I went scuba diving in a cenote and swam among the mangroves, to Canada where I watched hockey and ate poutine, to Tanzania where I slept out on the savannah and listened to the leopards in the trees and the hyenas sniff around our tents at night, to the Bahamas where I ate conch and talked to a cab driver about his journey through addiction and into recovery, and to the US and British Virgin Islands where we explored the little-known beaches and out-of-the-way restaurants and cafés.

The daily grind of a deadline-driven life won’t be new to me. I can visit a place and quickly get a sense of it beyond what’s often seen by tourists. I’m a storyteller and an observer by nature, skills that every photojournalist should have, and can combine engaging prose with photos and videos to deliver a compelling story.

I use social media as a tool for work and even completed a year-long certificate course in social media management. I have wanderlust in my soul and I’m ready to take a year to explore the world and share the experience with your readers on all of your platforms.

Sincerely,

Zeke Changuris