Our traveler of the month is Mr. Michael Angelo Maleriado, also known as Angelo the Explorer. He is a teacher, an innovator who was featured in Rappler last June 2018 when he came up with an idea of using QR to track his students’ attendance and also one of my favorite travel bloggers.
Traveler of the Month Questions:
1. How do you spend your day offs?
During my days off, I normally just stay in the house and go to the gym doing my circuit training. However, there are instances where I get invites from different events. And, as long as I don’t have any errands, then that’s the time where I spend my days off whether on staycations, mountains, or at the beach.
2. What do you do in life?
Aside from being a travel blogger, I am a Public School Teacher in one of the biggest school in Imus, City. I teach TLE subject to Junior HS (Grade 9) since 2016.
3. How have you developed your career?
I really grew as a person especially when I started my job in the Public School. I was able to share experiences with my students especially when we talk about traveling. You can actually feel the thirst for knowledge not just in books but also when I share my experience in one of my travels. And it somehow serves as an inspiration that they too have the ability to do it themselves. And one of the first steps of making it happen is by knowing the importance of education.
4. Who are your biggest influences?
Oh wow! Throughout my entire life, I am surrounded by wonderful and unique people. It’s difficult to specify each one but to name a few, my parents really is a big influence in my life. I was thought that with whatever is going through my life, I must stay humble and always be thankful to God. Another one is my partner who can make dreams possible. I never thought I would be able to go places beyond imaginable without him. And of course my personal and my travel blogger friends who are always there to travel and make it something to remember.
5. How long have you been traveling?
I started out young since my Mom is from Antique and my Father is from Bukidnon. I remember traveling with my brother by airplane to Cagayan De Oro just the two of us while we’re in our elementary days. Also remembered that we took the ferry from Manila to Antique back in High School and stayed there for a few weeks. And from Antique, we would take another ferry again to Cagayan De Oro where we spent another few weeks with our Grand Parents. And we were in high school! So how long I’ve been traveling since I was a kid! 🙂
6. what made you pursue this?
I started travel blogging back in 2010, but I became more active with it back in 2013. At first, my main purpose really was to just write about our holidays more of like an online diary. But as years go by, I started receiving messages from people being thankful how it (my blog) inspired them to travel and visit the places we visited. That is when I realized that what I am doing is not just an online diary but something that is helping other people who also want to travel. So I decided to really focus on improving my content slowly, started writing more travel stories, and as long as people are supporting me and I keep to inspire them, I am no way of stopping.
7. How has traveling changed you?
Traveling to so many places already both local and international, I’ve learned so many things. More than the accents and building that confidence to meet people from all over the world, I became more humbled as a person and just to enjoy and always be thankful for all the blessings coming to you.
It also made me understand more and accept the different cultures and tradition of each place I visited. Traveling also changed my perspective as a person. We may all be living in different countries or places, our languages may also be different, our skin color may be different, but in the end, we are all the same. Respect is very important!
8. What’s your dream destination?
St. Petersburg, Russia! It’s a place where the history of the Communist Revolution of Russia is combined with the beauty of the architecture.
9. What’s your most memorable travel (so far) and why?
Our trip to LONDON back in 2013! It was my first European destination ever! But since then, I’ve also experience Florence where I got to meet David of Michael Angelo and get to cruise and walk around the Italian Riviera specifically Cirque Terre back in 2016.
It was amazing to experience something different. For a Filipino traveler to experience the culture, food, weather, people and many more in Europe, It was an overwhelming experience!
Also remembered, when I used to teach history to my students, I could only see these places in the textbooks. Show photos and videos I got online. But this time, I can show them photos of these places with me in them. It’s a dream come true and I am forever grateful for this opportunity.
10. Any travel tips that you’d like to impart to our fellow travelers?
We only live once! If you are not going to do it now, it may be too late!
Give yourself a chance and see the beauty of the world! You deserve it! I may write how fun traveling is about places I visited, but in the end, the decision is still yours. Travelling is also a learning experience, you may not realize but it teaches you something. My advice is to pause and slow down. For me, traveling is not a competition on how many places or countries you’ve visited. It’s more about how travel made an impact on your life and that’s what makes traveling worthwhile!
Traveler of the Month Pictures
Traveler of the Month Social Sites
FOLLOW ANGELO THE EXPLORER
INSTAGRAM | BLOG
Previous Traveler of the Month
- Traveler Spotlight: Mia Pascual, Nurse, Mom, and Overall Badass Woman
- Traveler Spotlight: Ellah Abad – Fearless, Independent, and Driven
- Traveler Spotlight – Irish Dunca, Nurse, Discover How To Travel in Style
- Traveler Spotlight – Neil Alvin Nicerio, Discover His Adventures in Japan
- Traveler Spotlight: Laura Childers-Maistros, Sales Engineer , Discover How this Metalhead travels from One State to Another
