Who is Tonito?

Born in a small town in South Africa to Portuguese parents, my life has never been ordinary, as any immigrant’s child will know,  you are stuck between what you are told are “odd” ways of the your host nation and the forced imprint of your ancestral one. However after 18 years of living in pre-and post-apartheid, I was given the opportunity to continue my education in Jolly Old London.

I did what I was sent to London to do: Obtain a degree. I did so in Engineering and then went on to do a Masters degree in Building and Urban Design in Development, as way of doing something different. This Masters program changed everything and breathed some fire into what had been a rather mundane life until that point. I had only seen South Africa, Portugal, UK, France, Mauritius, Seychelles and Greece.

A fieldtrip to Istanbul; a doomed neighbourhood and Gypsy children, that’s what it took to change me and what had been a very boring life. I took out my new found lust for life on travel and started taking more risks. These travels and risks lead to a job opportunity in Abu Dhabi, where I continued to be infected by the travel bug.

It was when I got offered a job in Libya that I decided I need a blog to document this exciting new adventure and share it with my family and friends. What turned out to be a blog about my life in Libya morphed into a blog about my expat life, past and present travels and anything else I care to ramble about.

Enjoy