The first thing to say about Gil is that he is probably an undetected claustrophobic. His need to come out to the open air and watch the sea every day is one of his main characteristics.
Gil was the first to think about creating Around Lisbon. With a twelve-year career working in financial markets, he decided that it was time to dedicate himself to what he really loves in life. And that’s all about the great outdoors, the ocean, the sun and the sand below his feet.
His greatest pleasure in life is to walk out the door with his backpack and camera and travel to distant lands. His latest travels were to India, S. Tomé e Príncipe, Morocco and Kenya. And he’s in a hurry to go out the world again.
Sharing is love to his country with you is what made him embrace this project.
He is a people lover and travelling with you trough Portugal just makes him happy.
Photo: Gil leaving Rishikesh, India
Gil and Tiago have been friends for more than 20 years now.
Tiago has been a tour guide all his life, even if he didn’t realise it. He’s always been keen to showing his friends and family around Lisbon when they came to visit.
He’s been working in the Tourism Industry for all his adult life, and he was the first to jump on board the project, when Around Lisbon was created. He saw the opportunity of doing something different from the usual mass tourism, something that would allow travellers to get the real taste of our country.
Tiago has travelled for many parts of Europe, Brazil and some parts of Africa. He’s crazy about music, cinema and geography, as well as history. That makes him the perfect companion for travelling around.
He is a surfer and a snowboarder, which makes him both a sea and mountain person.
Photo: Tiago at Chamonix, Mont Blanc, France
Rui is a friend of Gil and Tiago for 20 years too.
He’s been doing every kind of work, never staying too long in one place. He refuses to let himself be locked inside an office, doing a job he doesn’t like.
Being a tour driver is the perfect job for him. He loves to drive around and to meet different people. He is also passionate about Portugal and its history.
Rui is probably the person you know that saw more documentaries in the world, making him the kind of person who knows a little about every subject you can imagine, from science and botanic to philosophy.
He is also a football fanatic lover. He is crazy about his Benfica, one of Lisbon’s bigger football clubs. Besides, he just loves every kind of sports, being the perfect mate to talk about whatever sport you’re in to.
Photo: Rui on the Ferry Boat to Makarska, Croatia
Nuno met Tiago and Gil in the summer of 2011, in an open air music festival, in the utterly beautiful Meco region, to where Around Lisbon also travels.
Nuno loves Portugal and to explore it. Even nowadays he discovers new and hidden beaches, in the vicinities of Lisbon, where he loves to go, being always mesmerized by the beauty, quietness and diversity of them.
As an architect, he enjoys in a special way the urban landscape, the scenarios, the buildings, the countryside and the relations they all establish with people, and vice versa. To show Lisbon and surroundings in a friendly, unpretentious and funny way is something he has done quite a few times with foreign friends, and it´s an activity that pleasures him a lot.
Drinking an espresso in a esplanade in front of the Atlantic, 10 minutes away, walking, from his house, and reading, while listening to the waves breaking on shore, is one of the best pleasures he can have. And yes, there are, for sure, huger fans of Seinfeld than Nuno, yet we never met one.
Photo: Nuno in the Cathedral of Salamanca, Spain
