I grew up in Mérida, a city in the Venezuelan Andes ringed by mountains, snow-capped peaks, lagoons, and rivers. Nature wasn't scenery there. It was daily life, and it left me with a permanent pull toward it, and toward the people who travel to feel that same connection.
I finished a degree in Hotel Management in 2012, but by then I'd already discovered where my real interest was: not the front desk, but the adventures and experiences people have on vacation, the parts of a trip that actually stay with someone. In 2014 I left Venezuela, and two years later I arrived in Costa Rica. I fell for it almost immediately. It reminded me so much of home that I wanted to know everything about it.
So I bought a car. I drove for Uber to make it work while I built a tourism business of my own, region by region, route by route. Somewhere past 150,000 kilometers, COVID stopped all of it, and life pulled me toward something more deskbound for a while. But I never stopped missing the road, or showing this country to the people who came looking for it.
Eight years in now, the moment that still sums up why I do this happened in a butterfly garden. A guest stayed inside for four hours, completely lost in it, like a kid in a candy store, and told me afterward that she had no idea what an impact touring Costa Rica with me had had on her. That's when it clicked for me: everyone has the ability to affect someone else's trip, you just have to figure out how. That's what I try to do on every single one: share the country, my own experience, my stories, and get to know a little of each traveler's story too.
What I like showing people most isn't the postcard version of Costa Rica. It's the everyday one. The family-run business instead of the souvenir shop. The small coffee farm trying to share what makes their beans different. The artisan selling what they actually make with their hands. The sunset the way people who live here actually see it, not staged for a photo.
I still do this alone. No call center, no dispatcher, just me and whoever's riding along. Way & Welcome is growing to include other guides and drivers who share the same approach, but this is where it started, and "by Gerardo" still means exactly what it always has.