El Cafecito Travel Talks

What happens when a place you imagined as a child begins to call you back as an adult? In this episode, I sit down with Laura from Austria to talk about solo travel, life changes, and the dream that stayed with her from the age of 11. Laura shares how she began travelling independently at a young age, how adult responsibilities put those dreams on pause, and how, years later, she found herself on...

What can travelling teach us that years of university education cannot? In this episode of El Cafecito Travel Talks , Tony sits down for tea with Mia Edwards, a young British traveller from Manchester who has recently submitted her PhD. Her academic journey took her into the often-overlooked history of enslaved African American men with physical disabilities. But now, she’s exploring a different k...

What happens when a young Black man decides to buy a one-way ticket, leave his comfort zone, and figure things out along the way? Meet Elijah, a young Afro-American traveller whose first major international adventure brings him through Peru and Ecuador. From unexpected challenges to unforgettable experiences, Elijah shares what he’s discovering about travel, independence, and the expectations we s...

What happens when the life you’ve built comes face-to-face with the life you imagine? Del, a railway worker from the UK, joins Tony over tea to share his love of travelling, the unexpected connections he’s made along the way, and a decision that could change everything. From solo adventures to relationships across cultures, our conversation explores what travelling teaches us about ourselves, the...

What happens when a journey to help others takes a turn you never expected? In this episode of El Cafecito Travel Talks , Tony Lloyd sits down for tea with SaQuane, an Afro American military veteran and nomadic traveller whose adventures have taken him across the Caribbean, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. From finding a sense of belonging in Barbados to navigating life abroad as...

Cuenca, Ecuador, has become an increasingly popular destination for people looking to retire, relocate, or begin a new chapter abroad. But what does this growing international interest look like through the eyes of someone who calls Cuenca home? In this episode of El Cafecito Travel Talks , Tony Lloyd sits down over tea with Andres, a Cuenca-born architect who moved to Chicago and is now exploring...

Andrii left Ukraine years ago, lived in Belgium and Canada, and eventually decided to take on a journey he had dreamed about for a long time. Now he is travelling through South America by bicycle, carrying everything he needs with him and moving one day at a time toward Ushuaia. In this episode, we talk about what pushed him to begin, what it feels like to travel through fear instead of waiting fo...

What happens when a trip you never planned changes the direction of your life? Hannah, a nurse from Wales, never imagined herself becoming a long-term traveller. A friend invited her on a trip through Southeast Asia, where a series of unexpected encounters eventually brought her into Sean’s orbit, a Canadian solo traveller who had already left his job to spend months on the road. They went their s...

What does “enough” really mean? Dave spent around 20 years working in accounting and finance before eventually realising that the life he had built was no longer the life he wanted. At 45, he stepped away from that career, became a bartender, and later began building a life centred around long-term travel. In this episode, Dave talks about travelling for months at a time, balancing expensive desti...

What does it mean for a woman to enter the world of plant medicine — especially in another country, placing her trust in people she may barely know? Phoenix grew up between two worlds: New York and Ecuador. Those experiences eventually brought her back to Cuenca, where spirituality, Reiki, women’s circles and San Pedro became an important part of her life. In this episode of El Cafecito Travel Tal...

How do you travel for six months without spending like a tourist every day? In this episode, I speak with Mirella, a young traveller of Cameroonian heritage who grew up in Germany and France and has spent several months travelling through Latin America. Along the way, she volunteered in Colombia and Ecuador, including as an English teaching assistant, at a refugee shelter, and with an Afro-Ecuador...

What happens when the life you planned abroad suddenly changes? In this episode of El Cafecito Travel Talks , Tony heads into the countryside outside Cuenca, Ecuador, with Mary and three dogs  for a conversation about travel, relocation, community, loss and starting over. Mary had already lived around the world before eventually settling in Colorado, where she spent decades working in real estate...

What happens when rising rent makes you rethink not just where you live — but how you live? Chris worked in construction in the United States before deciding he’d had enough of paying rent. That decision led to four years of van life and, eventually, a journey through Latin America. Over tea at El Cafecito in Cuenca, Ecuador, we talk about how an unexpected trip to Colombia for affordable dental w...

Someone listening to this series may inevitably be wondering:  Is ayahuasca for me? That’s where we begin the final part of my conversation with Daniel Hannah. Daniel talks about mental preparation, intention and respect for the traditions surrounding ayahuasca. We discuss what someone should look for when choosing a retreat, whether doing ayahuasca in its traditional South American setting matter...

What happens when you remove almost everything we normally depend on, food, water, phones, entertainment and even our sense of time? In Part 2 of my conversation with Daniel Hannah, we move beyond ayahuasca itself and into one of the more extreme experiences on his journey: a four-day, four-night vision quest in Peru’s Sacred Valley. Daniel describes entering isolation at roughly 3,500 metres, wit...

What leads someone from ordinary travel into the world of plant medicine? In Part 1 of this three-part conversation, Tony sits down with Australian traveller Daniel Hannah to talk about the journey that eventually led him to ayahuasca and a very different way of looking at healing, spirituality and personal growth. Daniel shares his story of travelling since 2016, his early experiences with psyche...

Douglas Chang was born in Ecuador, but his family story began thousands of kilometres away in China. Three of his grandparents came from China to Ecuador with very little, eventually settling in small communities near Guayaquil. Douglas remembers stories of his grandmother, his father leaving school at 12 to work, the family running small businesses, and the importance of cacao at a time when it r...

When Hannah O’Hare Bennett arrived in Ecuador as a Peace Corps agriculture volunteer, she wanted more than travel...she wanted to build relationships and truly understand a place. Placed in a small rural community near Saraguro, Hannah initially struggled with isolation, limited Spanish and the thought of spending two full years away from home. But through the patience, humour and warmth of her ho...

“Home is where the backpack is.” Ken has spent 40 years travelling the world and 36 years working internationally as a United Nations peacekeeper and diplomat. Born in what is now Zimbabwe, he was given 48 hours to leave the country at the age of 18 and began building a life without a permanent home. In this episode, Ken remembers travelling before smartphones, GPS, online reservations and ATMs......

Dan left London with a plan to travel through eight or nine countries across Latin America. Almost a year later, that plan looks very different. Three months in Panama became six months in Colombia. In Salento, an unexpected relationship pulled him into a local family and changed the direction of his journey. When the relationship ended, Dan had to move forward — but he doesn’t regret the experien...

What if your travel companion had been to 117 countries, needed his own luggage, had his own Instagram account—and happened to be a lion? Meet Montgomery J. Lion, better known as Monty, Ken’s rather unusual travel companion. Monty’s story began in Tanzania, when Ken brought him home for his son. Years later, when his son left for university, Monty joined Ken on the road—and never really stopped tr...

What will you remember from your travels a year from now?  Carina, a traveller from Germany, has taken a sabbatical to spend more than a year exploring the world. But she isn’t just travelling; she’s documenting the journey. Through a private written journal, photography, and printed photo albums for each country she visits, Carina is creating a personal record of the places she sees, the food she...

At 73, a traveler shares a very personal story about looking for companionship abroad, using an international matrimonial agency, and eventually marrying a woman in Colombia. He talks openly about spending thousands of dollars through the agency, the excitement of arriving in Medellín, falling in love, getting married and the red flags he admits he ignored along the way. At his request, we have ch...

What is it like to travel the world as a Black queer couple? In this episode of El Cafecito Travel Talks , Tony sits down with Ash and Phae, two slow travellers from the United States who share their experiences navigating the world while embracing multiple identities. From defining what “non-binary” and “queer” mean in their own words to discussing safety, community, and the realities of long-ter...

What does it take to visit all Seven Wonders of the World before turning 26? In this episode of El Cafecito Travel Talks, I sit down with Austin from the Netherlands, who set himself an ambitious goal: visit all seven of the New Seven Wonders before his 26th birthday. From watching the sunrise over Machu Picchu to seeing the Taj Mahal at dawn, Austin shares the unforgettable moments, unexpected tr...