Shelley Seale was born in Dallas, Texas, grew up in a neighboring suburb, and got to the cool, irreverent city of Austin as fast as she could. She has written for National Geographic, Andrew Harper Traveler, Go Nomad, BootsnAll Travel, Just Cause magazine and many others. She has written several books, including The Weight of Silence: Invisible Children of India and the Insiders Guide to Seattle.
Although she is a freelance writer by trade, Shelley is really a vagabond by nature. Her absolute favorite thing to do is travel, and she loves exploring - and even getting lost in - new and foreign places. She is passionate about sustainable travel and traveling with a purpose, attempting as much as possible to immerse in the cultural identities of the places we visit and support local businesses there, as opposed to outside corporations. In other words, trying to travel in a way that's not simply a consumerist mentality.
Some of the odder things Shelley has done include singing karaoke in a Qingdao, China KTV bar, night snorkeling with manta rays in Hawaii, performing a catch on the flying trapeze, and getting robbed by a monkey in Nepal. The irony of writing her own bio in the third person, knowing full well that you astute readers are not fooled for one second, is not lost on Shelley.
Alexandra is currently finishing her degree in Journalism, Public Relations, and Spanish at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo after studying in Madrid, Spain. Now back in the USA, she is plotting her next adventure.
Favorite Travel Moments:
1. Dancing salsa every week in Spain
2. Doing the limbo in a tiny bar in Sevilla
3. Watching the sunset in Santorini
4. Bungy jumping off the Corinth Canal in Greece
5. Feeling like a princess at afternoon tea in London
6. Beach-hopping in an ATV across Naxos, Greece
7. Herding (i.e. chasing) sheep on the hills of Donegal, Ireland
8. Eating pastries in Portugal
9. Laying on the beach in San Sebastian with chorizo bocadillos
10. Staying out until the sun comes up because "that's the way it is"
11. Going to the Vienna Zoo and watching the sea lions be fed...only to find out we were in a "splash zone" and couldn't get out
12. Good conversations with new friends
