🌍 Traveler Spotlight: Wagner Pereira

A story of comfort zones, pen pals abroad, and World Cups. How a shy kid from Brazil became an expert globetrotter.

Earlier this summer, my friend Wagner and I had a great conversation about his travel experiences.

He’s been a mail carrier for many years (our house is on his route). Over time we became friends. We learned we had something in common:

We both have a strong case of itchy feet.

Amazingly, Wagner has visited 52 countries and been to six World Cups! 

Buckle up for a fun interview. I learned a lot. Thank you Wagner for your time and for sharing your travel wisdom.

Reading time: 9 minutes

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Can you share a little bit about yourself?

Sure. My name is Wagner Pereira. I was born in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. And I lived there until I was 24. That's when I decided to come to the US. Back then in Brazil, there weren’t many jobs.

It was hard to make a living and I was a newlywed. I decided to venture to the US. I made a new life with my wife back then. I think it was the best decision I've ever made. 

When did you get interested in traveling?

When I was 12, I used to play soccer with my friends all afternoon. In Brazil, we call it football. 

One day my mom got fed up. She and my dad signed me up for English lessons at a school in my local neighborhood.

I was very upset. Football was way more fun. I studied at the English school for six or seven years. 

At this school, we were supposed to have pen pals from around the world. I made a pen pal in Argentina, South Africa, and the US. All this was to help you get exposed to a different language and have friends in different parts of the world. 

My interest in travel started and I started thinking: Maybe one day I can go visit my pen pals.

Back in the 1970s, we communicated through letters. I’d wait for the mailman to come every day to see if they had letters for me. 

The mailman would say, “I’m going to make your day. I have a letter for you from Germany.” 

Or on a different day, it would be a letter from South Africa. 

Penpals sparked my interest in traveling. I wanted to see how they lived. 

When was your first trip?

When I was 18, I finished my English course. As a reward for this big effort, my parents gifted me a trip. My parents were working class. We didn't have much money.

But my mom said, “We can make an effort and send you to visit one of your friends. Write to them, ask if you can come. If they say yes, we'll pay for you to go there.”

It had to be somewhere close because we didn't have money for airfare. The closest penpal was in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Her name was Claudia.

I asked if I could come. She said if I was willing to make the trip, she’d ask her parents. They said ok, so I rode a bus from Rio to Argentina. It was a three-day bus ride. 

The parents were really nice. They were glad to meet this Brazilian boy, maybe a future husband for their daughter! (jokes)

We were just kids. 

I kept the letters for a long time until I got a serious girlfriend and she got rid of them. (laughs)

When did you make traveling part of your lifestyle?

That happened after I came to the US. I started making a little bit of money and was saving up. I'm a soccer fan. In 1998 the World Cup was in France, so I decided to go there for the whole thing. This was my first trip. I stayed there for a month.

Was this a solo trip?

I went with my best friend. I saw Brazil play a couple of times and some other matches. This experience was why I fell in love with Paris so much. I will always say Paris is my favorite city. You never get bored. I've been back, many times after that and it always feels like the first time. 

Paris brings tears to my eyes. I’m always hungry for more. I’ve stayed all over the city. 

That's how my travels started. Until then, I was very focused on going back home to Brazil to see my parents and my friends.

But in 1998, when I had that experience, I realized there's so much to explore. 

Going back to Brazil was ok, you need to see your parents, but I had to go see other parts too.

I liked Europe. I liked the vibe, the old buildings, the architecture, the people, and everything. There’s so much to see.  

Can you speak French? 

I know very little. A big misconception people have is worrying that no one will understand them if they don’t speak the local language. There’s always someone who speaks English. 

Is France your favorite country?

I think Italy speaks to me more. It's because the culture in Italy is very similar to Brazil. We're part of the Latin family. Italians are more open to serendipity and open to meeting new people.

The Italians I met were very funny like with Brazilians. The cities are so well preserved. I don't have to talk about the food. It’s amazing, like the wine. Italy has all the things I like and it’s a little more affordable.

I also like Thailand, even though I have to explore more. But I really enjoyed the three weeks that I stayed there. 

What is usually the main focus of your trips? 

I think travel is more for you to put yourself out there, to be out of your comfort zone. I usually travel without a plan. I wait for stuff to happen and be open, and to what I'm going to experience that day. I don't try to force anything. Wait until things come to you. I think the best experiences are lived that way. 

How do you be open and let things happen when you travel?

With football (soccer), I usually go to Europe also to watch a match. I've been to many stadiums all over Europe to experience the matches. It doesn't matter who is playing.

Because if you’re with 50,000 people, there's no way you won't meet people. Root for the local team. You get into the group, you jump when there’s a goal, and all of a sudden you have ten friends. 

That's how I usually meet people. I go to local events. If there isn’t any soccer, I try to find community events. I try to be where locals are, even a local market. 

That's a good tip! Do you have an essential packing list? 

I'll travel very lightly. I bring a few things and usually like to buy stuff there. I bring my oldest shirts and pants. I usually leave them behind and come back with some new things. The shirt I’m wearing is from my last trip to Croatia.

Airlines always try to nickel and dime us, so the lighter you travel is better. I'm not very attached to material things.

I always make sure I bring my travel sleeping sack. It’'s not as thick as a sleeping bag, it’s more like a sheet. It’s very light. It goes over pillows. You can wash it.

Do you do a lot of research?

In the past, I used to do more planning. YouTube didn’t exist in the 1990s or early 2000s. There wasn’t much information unless you bought a guidebook or talked to a friend who’d been there.

Nowadays, because I want the place to come to me, I maybe will watch a 10-15-minute YouTube video about my destination. That's about it. I talk to many people who travel and they give me recommendations. 

There are Facebook traveler groups that are helpful too.

Do you have any tips to make traveling easier?

Lodging is a big travel expense. I like AirBnB, VRBO, and Booking.com. Whether I travel with my family or solo, I like having access to a kitchen and a fridge. My goal is to save money. My funds are limited. 

I usually try to eat out for lunch only because lunch is cheaper. It's a good way to meet locals too. With dinner, people are more into their own conversation. But they’re not very open to meeting new people during lunch. 

How do you find good deals for flights? 

Well, I try to do at least one or two trips a year with miles and points. I’ve found that the travel credit cards that give you cash or points back are better than the ones that give you miles.

With miles, usually, the options are with the worst months or a 30-hour flight. If you get a credit card with cash back or points, you can book whatever flight you want. You can pay with those points even if it doesn't cover the whole flight. 

I try to fly as cheaply as possible with a carry-on bag.

You have a full-time job with limited vacation time but travel a lot. How do you make it work?  

They say that time is the most precious thing that we have. We have to be very smart with our time. I’ve been lucky because the longer I’ve stayed at my job, they’ve given me more vacation time.

But I’ve never taken the time off to stay home. 

So, if you have a travel bug, save up those precious days only for traveling. 

What life lessons have you learned from traveling?

Travel changed this timid, shy, and antisocial guy into an extrovert. I’m now outgoing and talkative. My kids say I talk too much these days. 

Even though I come from a very friendly country (Brazil), I was very shy back then. 

Travel has been life-changing for me. It took me out of my comfort zone. It forced me to connect with people. 

I’m not afraid anymore, except for bungy jumping (laughs).

How do you respond when you feel out of your comfort zone?

We travel to be out there, to see different things. I try to not think about comfort zones anymore. 

As I said before, I try to let things happen to me. 

At the end of the day, when I look back, I can say I fulfilled whatever was in store for me. 

This is what I had to go through, this is what I had to see, and these were the people I had to talk to today because it was meant to be. 

What was a memorable travel experience? 

We remember the bad things first! (laughing)

Moments of deep happiness and sadness are rare. 

My most memorable moment was when I got food poisoning in Thailand. 

My wife was with me and she saved my life. It was so memorable because I was very close to death. 

A happy memory was whenever I got to travel with my granddaughter.

She’s a little traveler! She’s already been to ten countries at six years old. She’d grab a paper map and ask, “Where are we here?” and I’d teach her. 

Those moments I spent with her on the road together were special. 

What legacy do you want to leave your kids? 

It would be a love for the unknown for other cultures. I hope they respect different cultures and religions. Respect others as you expect others to respect you. 

My goal is to die with zero, so my kids aren’t getting any money from me! 

I’m a mailman and my wife is a nanny, so we live a modest life. But we raised good kids. 

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Once again, thank you to Wagner. 👏

You’re an absolute travel pro and a good friend. You inspire me to be a better traveler and person.

Thank you to everyone for reading this interview. I hope you learned something new about traveling and felt motivated to explore!

Stay tuned in a few weeks for another fun interview with my good friend Lieven. We had a fun conversation about hitchhiking around Europe.

Have a great day and thanks for supporting this reader-powered newsletter.

Much love,

Daniel

Instagram / X / YouTube / Travel Planning

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P.S. Traveling is fun. Knowing where to go can be even better.

Even though it’s exciting not to have a plan, sometimes it’s worth it.

If you have a trip coming up and feel stumped about what to see or do, drop me a message and we can talk.

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