By Carlos Henrique Fernandes, MD

Traveling is my therapy to relax

I was born in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Raised near Copacabana beach, I spent my leisure time in childhood and adolescence in the beach, engaging in activities such as bodysurfing and beach soccer. It was during medical school and the orthopedics residency that traveling became my way to de-stress. I moved for my Hand Surgery Felowship to São Paulo, where I currently live. In this metropolis of steel, concrete, and chaotic traffic that I met my wife and raised my only son. To escape the tense atmosphere of São Paulo, nothing was better than the trips to visit my mother and friends in Rio de Janeiro. Meanwhile, my job at the University Hospital of the Federal University of Sao Paulo has always required constant studying. Meetings and courses became not only a necessity, but also a pleasure. Because of my academic activities, I had the opportunity to visit many cities in Brazil (Belém, Fortaleza, Natal, Recife, Maceió, Aracaju, Salvador, Vitoria, Cuiabá, Goiania, Brasília, Belo Horizonte, Ribeirão Preto, Curitiba,  Foz do Iguaçu City, Joinville, Porto Alegre, and Gramado), in South America (Buenos Aires, Santiago, Quito, La Paz, and Cartagena de las Indias), in Europe (Lisbon, Porto, Madrid, Barcelona, Zaragoza, Paris, Grenoble, Rome, Naples, and Basel) and North America (Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Orlando, Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, Minneapolis, New Orleans, Austin, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Kawai, Oahu, Maui, Big Island, Nassau, and Cancun). Each trip brings an immense pleasure from getting to know places with their different geographical characteristics and cultural richness. I take each opportunity to learn from local people a little about their culture, history, and cuisine. Whenever possible, I traveled with my wife and my son to share these experiences with them. Since 2012, when our son moved to New York for college (we are proud Columbia parents!), Silvana and I started taking advantage of our trips to visit him. This year, we have already scheduled trips to Copenhagen and Boston, where my son lives nowadays.

“Travel is to change the clothes of the soul.” – Mario Quintana, Brazilian poet