Hi, I’m Dan and this is my story!

This is not my About Page but instead, a launchpad telling the story of how my life changed forever, and some key lessons I learned along the way.

After two of my best friends passed away, literally one after the other back in year 2010. Life forced me to look at myself in a different light.

The Travel Lifesyle / Mindset

I knew life was short. But losing my friends made me realize how even going to sleep at night was a risk. The risk being that, I may never wake up.

👼🏿 R.I.P Kola / 👼🏻 R.I.P John

Shortly after, and without hesitation, I quit my previous life plan. From that day on, I decided to live a life of perpetual travel and uncertainty.

One of the major things I did that led me to create this project called Layer Culture was this idea of me traveling to new and different cultures.

By 2013 I realized that I’d been doing life all wrong. This is the funny part. However, it still took me another 2 years to fully awaken from that state.

This was only the beginning of my quest.

Eject Mode

Many things happened in a short period of time. First, it was John, then Kola. I was studying for a degree, in a long-term relationship, and away from home. Something wasn’t right, but I couldn’t put my finger on it.

I remember been sat down at 24 years old in front of my girlfriend’s parents’ television, knowing there was more to my life that what was in front of me. In hindsight, I was oblivious to what I had to do to change.

I had to make changes nobody else wanted to see! It was a terrifying moment. No one I knew wanted me to change into who I was becoming.

A Call to Action

After reading the book called King, Warrior, Magician, Lover I ended up learning something which turned out to be quite significant for me.

The message was this: In order to reach manhood, every young boy must undertake some type of ritual process as part of cultural tradition.

Apparently, we do this to transform our boy energies into man energies. The book stressed that, unlike tribal cultures, we as a society lack modern ritual processes for making men out of boys, creating a huge gap in growth.

I believe that Solo travel as a self-exploration tool can lead to transformation, especially in your early 20s, shaping dreams, identity and perspective.

After my initial trip to Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, I began to create personal ecosystems via finding mentors. These mentors showed me new ways to apply my thoughts. I did this as a way to improve my quality of life.

I quickly realized that having mentors gives me the power and confidence to contribute more to the human experience via my own experiments.

My first trip to Brazil

After the intense feeling of intense culture shock from my first trip to Brazil in South America, I began to connect with my truth on a deeper level.

I felt stuck in-between two worlds and there was no turning back.

I embraced uncertainty and had the realization that the patterns of my day-to-day life were no longer exciting me, I craved something different.

I always liked the idea of learning Spanish when I was younger and had talked about learning a language as a teenager. It all made sense.

Now was the time to make a decision to learn Spanish as an adult. I just needed some inspiration to get started and finally take action.

Travel made it possible to learn with speed, thanks to immersion 😎

Solo Travel for the first time

The idea of solo travel had never occurred to me. But was something that I’d been doing for most my life, through small everyday adventures.

For some people the word solo implies negative connotations. Especially for those who can’t stand being alone. I turned solitude into an adventure.

Not to mention the issue of safety in South America for travelers, which honestly, is always in the back of our minds, but it shouldn’t hold you back.

If that is you, know that those negative connotations can be alleviated. It all depends on how creative you’re prepared to be while traveling alone.

What Solo Travel Taught Me

Spending too long traveling solo can feel insular, but I found it fairly easy to meet new people along the way and build lasting friendships.

It can also be difficult for many new travelers to gain authentic local experiences. Especially if they don’t speak the language. Learning a local language is a great way to gain these authentic local experiences.

When you’re in a foreign place and you travel solo, you can immerse yourself in the culture much easier making travel more meaningful.

Being alone can and will give you the space and time to intermingle with locals in a more meaningful way while spending true quality time.

One thing learning Spanish in South America has taught me, though, is that I can’t do everything alone. This is part of the reason why I began to share my learning experiences online, turning mistakes into valuable lessons.

Over the years one of the most important aspects of solo travel and learning languages is building a support group both local and online.

Whether online or in person, I have both available at any one time. Having an inner circle has made a huge difference in my quality of travel.

Cultural Immersion

I had immersed myself in the culture before deciding to learn Spanish, so I quickly realized there was more to learning a language than just talking.

This gave me a desire to learn more about myself.

Layer Culture then became a personal development project. In fact, it was the beginning of a spiritual quest and realization.

By creating this project, I’ve made monumental changes in my life.

I went from being shy, wrestling with life, and with almost zero interest in other cultures, to being fluent in Spanish and living in 5+ new countries.

To date, I’ve spoken with over 3000 people throughout Latin America.

Cultural Travel

On my Spanish journey, I had to learn how to trust locality. I had to open up to people I’d never met before, building connections I’ll never forget.

Backpacking South America and opening up to others about who I am helped me to leave parts of my past behind.

From experience, I can say that solo travel is a journey like no other. However, it can be a tough journey for extended periods of time.

Solo Travel allows you to be in new places living on your own accord – with no distractions if you choose and, not having to rely on others.

At one point, I aimed to ask every person I met if they’d traveled solo before and I’ll continue to wish for everybody to try solo travel at least once.

A Digital Nomad in South America

By visiting South America, I cultivated ideas about working as a digital nomad and being self-sufficient while speaking Spanish along the way.

It seems impossible to go back to my old way of thinking now. Back to the days when I was a graduate looking for entry-level jobs with no direction.

I’ve used solo travel as a tool since it was a style of traveling that offered me an effective way to grow as a person. Solo travel helped me to break away from enclosed civilized living and re-connect with the meaning of life.

Learning Spanish on the other hand, was an ambitious goal I created to facilitate my travel! My goal was to speak with two thousand natives.

Many people I’d spoken to in the beginning of this journey had told me it was too late to learn a language. I wanted to prove to myself that I could.

Trips of Growth

If I can inspire you with my journey to become fluent in Spanish and show you how to travel – you’ll quickly start to see how rewarding it can be.

Not everyone wants to learn Spanish while traveling. That is one reason I started to document other related topics that interest me on this blog.

Before that, I was writing in my travel journal which was basically conversations with myself (about myself), reflecting on everything I did.

I’ve recently dug out my travel journals and started to re-read them; which on many trips becomes part of my daily ritual when on the road.

Looking back, I’m proud to say that I innovated my life via solo travel.

I go into more detail about this in my guide that talks all about traveling alone in South America and the comfort zone challenge I ultimately did.

These trips of growth as I call them, were for my self-exploration. They started with my decision to learn Spanish and embrace new experiences.

My Lifestyle Disclaimer

This lifestyle is not for everyone. Friends and family saw me you as a bit of a maverick since my choice of indefinite travel seemed rebellious.

However, traveling helped me significantly. I liked living minimally and I believe living with less is a decision we all have to make, eventually.

Do you imagine living peacefully in a world that keeps giving us more?

My friend Obinna and I were discussing material objects:

Here are some of my achievements since going location independent:

• Learning Latin American Spanish
• Living with less material items
• Making new friends for life
• Creating a physical business in Latin America
• Changing my diet
• Building an online Business

Aside from traveling, one of the best things I’ve done for my personal development is to learn about myself. I’ve noticed that studying and practicing new skills improves my memory and mental sharpness.

If it wasn’t for the freedom to travel, I might not have realised all this.

Location Independence

Every time I travel, I improve in some way. I observe how I travel and aim to improve in some way or another, reflecting on lessons along the journey.

Sometimes I like to document the journey. I shoot videos and take photographs of the people, places, and objects that inspire me.

By living in 5+ new countries I built a location independent lifestyle that allowed me to travel more. I lived life in a way that was unique to me.

In November 2015 I moved to Buenos Aires, see the video I made:

This video was one of the first examples of me having fun with the camera by documenting experiences as I traveled around the continent.

Here are links to five popular articles on this blog:

• How I learned Spanish
• Solo Travel South America Tips
• Colombia Travel Guide
• Jamaica Safety Guide
• Places to Visit in Brazil

Thanks for reading…

Traveling to Latin America has taken me to new levels in my life.

After the cultural immersion, learning Spanish, living with families and all the enriching moments that that I’ve experienced, there is no turning back.

My wish is to continue learning more about Latin culture. I’ll do this for as long as I can add value to my life and to the lives of the people I meet.

I meet, I greet and I continue to speak Spanish and share my native language with those people who want to learn.

Stay Sharp,