Christopher Hurtado

From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas L. Friedman first got me interested in Beirut. More recently, I had lunch with a client who went to boarding school there who further piqued my interest.

I visited Cúcuta and Pamplona, Colombia, while touring Venezuela with my family one summer in the 80’s.

I attended the ATA 45th Annual Conference in Tornoto in October of ‘04.

I visited Madrid, Ávila, Toledo, Valencia and Algemesí on a five day tour in 1998 when my mother was living in Valencia and teaching ESL in Algemesí and I visited Madrid again on business in 2004.

I visited Mexico City once as a boy with my mother, my aunt Karen, and my mother’s high school Spanish students and again on business as an escort interpreter in the 90’s. My wife, Alysia, and I honeymooned in Cozumel and Play del Carmen in 2001.

My mother and sisters and I made port in San Juan while sailing from Venezuela back to the United States in 1986.

I grew up in Venezuela. I lived there from 1978 to 1986. I first lived in Caracas, then Maracaibo, then Caracas again, then Maracay.

I was born in Baltimore, Maryland and lived there for eight years. I spent the next eight years of my life in Caracas, Maracaibo and Maracay, Venezuela. I then returned to the United States to live in Houston, Texas. I’ve lived in Houston for twenty years.