I'm an irrecoverable daydreamer.
It is most probable that if you look at me at any time of the day you'll notice my attention is not fully there even when very focused doing my work. There's always a little part of my brain that is busy creating alternative realities in the background, and that's how it's been since I can remember.
As I was growing up I used to imagine travelling to all these exotic places I saw on National Geographic, speaking many strange languages and living the life of Jacques Costeau. I also imagined building and designing amazing intricate mysterious buildings that would unveil magical passages to other realities and breathtaking spaces.
These are the origins of my passions, travelling and breathing the sea, getting to know different cultures, their historical connections and actually designing/redesigning the buildings I visit.
I think this is also a result of my upbringing, the surroundings where I grew up have always provided me with many glimpses of different moments in the Portuguese history (very connected to the sea) and my parents have always pushed this creativity of mine.
I was born in Cascais, a coastal town in Portugal and lived most of the time until adulthood between this city and Sintra, a nearby village.
These two places could not be more different, on opposite sides of the Sintra mountain one lives from the sea while the other seems to embrace land while also bathing in the ocean.
Cascais, on the south side, seems to live exclusively out of the sea life energy of boats that depart and arrive from the unknown full of stories to tell, people that have crossed oceans and naturally smell of salt. The ocean seems to be in the veins of its people and I guess it's also in mine.
Sintra, on the north side, is a "magical" place, tucked between the mountain and the ocean, a longtime Royal sanctuary and source of inspiration to many artists throughout the ages. Time seems to stop when you're there and the weather just doesn't match any of the nearby towns. It's like you just passed a secret door to another side of the world.
Living divided in between both towns, exploring the many palaces of different historical periods and the exquisite landscapes seems to have fueled my imagination since those early days making my desire to explore the world grew bigger and bigger.
Time flew by, I grew up, finished architecture university and then a major family crisis pushed me to leave my life in Portugal to go live in Macau and help the family in what I could. What was supposed to be a short period of my life ended up prolonging to 7 years during which I built a career in the Casino integrated resorts construction industry. During those years I started putting into action some of those old ideas of exotic places to be explored (in Asia) and refuelled a lot of the old daydreaming.
Eventually I stumbled upon someone very special that not only stole my heart but also seemed to understand and share these ideas that some friends call crazy, one thing leads to another and we found that there was a big dream in common and that both of us would risk taking that giant step to make it come true.
And so we did it and we are now Sailing The Dream.