{"id":3489,"date":"2021-11-05T09:03:02","date_gmt":"2021-11-05T09:03:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/?p=3489"},"modified":"2025-02-11T12:53:42","modified_gmt":"2025-02-11T17:53:42","slug":"on-the-road-with-juan-pablo-bernal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/2021\/11\/05\/on-the-road-with-juan-pablo-bernal\/","title":{"rendered":"On the Road with  Juan-Pablo Bernal"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.kadence-column3489_67fa42-3f > .kt-inside-inner-col{padding-right:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);padding-bottom:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);padding-left:var(--global-kb-spacing-lg, 3rem);}.kadence-column3489_67fa42-3f > .kt-inside-inner-col,.kadence-column3489_67fa42-3f > .kt-inside-inner-col:before{border-top-left-radius:0px;border-top-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-right-radius:0px;border-bottom-left-radius:0px;}.kadence-column3489_67fa42-3f > .kt-inside-inner-col{column-gap:var(--global-kb-gap-sm, 1rem);}.kadence-column3489_67fa42-3f > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;}.kadence-column3489_67fa42-3f > .kt-inside-inner-col > .aligncenter{width:100%;}.kadence-column3489_67fa42-3f > .kt-inside-inner-col:before{opacity:0.3;}.kadence-column3489_67fa42-3f{position:relative;}@media all and (max-width: 1024px){.kadence-column3489_67fa42-3f > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;justify-content:center;}}@media all and (max-width: 991px){.kadence-column3489_67fa42-3f > .kt-inside-inner-col{flex-direction:column;justify-content:center;}}<\/style>\n<div class=\"wp-block-kadence-column kadence-column3489_67fa42-3f dynamic-main-col\"><div class=\"kt-inside-inner-col\"><style>.kb-image3489_f9c6da-f1 .kb-image-has-overlay:after{opacity:0.3;}<\/style>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-kadence-image kb-image3489_f9c6da-f1 alignwide size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"750\" height=\"465\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.test.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Juan-Pablo-Bernal-2364-750x465-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"kb-img wp-image-15981\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Juan-Pablo-Bernal-2364-750x465-1.jpg 750w, https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Juan-Pablo-Bernal-2364-750x465-1-250x155.jpg 250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 750px) 100vw, 750px\" \/><figcaption><strong>left to right:<br>Henric Karlsson, club director at Kramfors Alliansen, Sweden, shaking hands with Juan-Pablo Bernal. sealing Juan\u2019s first professional contract as a soccer player.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>For Juan-Pablo Bernal, soccer \u2014 \u201cthe global game\u201d \u2014 opened a door to the world.<\/strong>&nbsp;The urge to explore that followed led him most recently to spend nearly half a year in Central America, hiking, surfing, and trying to live like the people who live there. \u201cI like the idea of getting away from our idea of what life should be like in North America,\u201d he wrote in an email during his travels early this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cI like the idea of getting away from our idea of what life should be like in North America,\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>That idea originated, in part, on a playing field on WilmU\u2019s Route 40 playing field. \u201cMy entire life, ever since I was six years old, has been soccer,\u201d says Bernal, who grew up in Toronto, Canada. \u201cIt\u2019s a path that took me to Wilmington University. Coach Nick (Papanicolas) took a chance on me, and I\u2019m grateful that he did.\u201d<br>Bernal earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in Sports Management in 2016. In pursuit of professional athletic opportunities, he played three seasons with a Swedish soccer club, which gave him the opportunity to travel in Europe. At first, he was apprehensive about setting out on his own. \u201cBefore, everything had always been organized for me \u2014 where I\u2019d stay, what I\u2019d eat,\u201d he recalls. \u201cBut then I was bit by the traveling bug.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\" id=\"attachment_3493\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"720\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/28\/2021\/11\/Juan-Pablo-Bernal-2371.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3493\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Juan-Pablo-Bernal-2371.jpg 960w, https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Juan-Pablo-Bernal-2371-250x188.jpg 250w, https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Juan-Pablo-Bernal-2371-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Juan-Pablo-Bernal-2371-640x480.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">Juan-Pablo Bernal has been photo journaling his trip on Facebook.<br>Hiking the Fushimi Imari, a temple with 1000 torri gates.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>His conversations with fellow travelers inspired him to book a month in the Philippines to learn how to surf. He ended up roaming around Pacific Asia from September 2019 through February 2020, also visiting Saipan in the Northern Marianas Islands, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, and Vietnam.<br>\u201cI was already thinking about Central America even before I left Asia,\u201d says Bernal, who arrived in Costa Rica in November 2020. He\u2019d learned a lot about travel since his time in Sweden. \u201cI improvised. Wherever I could go, I went. I\u2019d make a plan, but I might not stick to it. It was better to be flexible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Carrying all of his belongings in a 70-liter backpack and riding local buses or hitchhiking from city to city, Bernal stayed with host families he\u2019d met through an app on his phone and camped in backyards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe only way I largely ever afford to travel,\u201d he wrote alongside one of the many photo collections he posted to social media, \u201cis like this: I volunteer or work, cook and eat in a hostel and avoid tourist traps like $100 zipline rides, taxis and American chain restaurants.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>By February of this year, he ventured into Panama. He spent two weeks with an indigenous community at their remote mountain-forest reservation. He tasted iguana, avoided scorpions, and washed his clothes in the river. \u201cSome of the houses had an electrical outlet,\u201d he says. \u201cIt would take an entire day to charge up one of my devices.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He also stayed with a Colombian-Danish couple building a bakery and restaurant. \u201cIn exchange for some of the best meals I\u2019ve ever had,\u201d Bernal wrote on social media, \u201cI help them out in the garden, or with some basic construction (I have no idea what I\u2019m doing).\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\" id=\"attachment_3491\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1536\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/28\/2021\/11\/Juan-Pablo-Bernal-2366.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3491\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Juan-Pablo-Bernal-2366.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Juan-Pablo-Bernal-2366-250x188.jpg 250w, https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Juan-Pablo-Bernal-2366-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Juan-Pablo-Bernal-2366-640x480.jpg 640w, https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/Juan-Pablo-Bernal-2366-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\">l-r Samuel litst\u00f6m and Juan-Pablo Bernal<br>Juan-Pablo has been photo journaling his trip on Facebook. The trip looks fascinating.<br>A picture of me and a friend on a hiking trip in Norway, where we had no where to bath except in the 8 degree Celsius sea water.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Guatemala followed in mid-March with \u201cMayan ruins, an island with flower-colored buildings, an active volcano and a black sand beach where all the surf is happening.\u201d His camera was out of commission by this point, so there are no pictures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI actually felt relieved that I was freed of the pressure to produce photos and obsessively check for reactions,\u201d says Bernal, who admits to developing mixed feelings about social media by the end of his journey. \u201cWhy are we constantly checking instead of living?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He surfed Mexico\u2019s Pacific coast for a few weeks in April and May before flying to Miami, then finally returned to Toronto in June. But the dry season in Colombia is coming up in December, and he\u2019s wanted for a long time to get to know the country of his birth, to meet the family members who live there, to see how other people are living.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cAnywhere I go, I come back with a different mentality,\u201d he says. \u201cI would encourage people to do their own versions of what I\u2019ve done.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>-David Bernard<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>For Juan-Pablo Bernal, soccer \u2014 \u201cthe global game\u201d \u2014 opened a door to the world.&nbsp;The urge to explore that followed led him most recently to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":3495,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[135,143],"tags":[626],"class_list":["post-3489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-magazine","category-sports","tag-magazine-fall-2021"],"acf":[],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":135,"label":"MAGAZINE"},{"value":143,"label":"SPORTS"}],"post_tag":[{"value":626,"label":"Magazine Fall 2021"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/On-the-Road-FI_-Juan-Pablo-Bernal_-480x480.jpg",480,480,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"Natalie Ridgeway","author_link":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/author\/natalie\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":135,"name":"MAGAZINE","slug":"magazine","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":692,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":431,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":135,"category_count":431,"category_description":"","cat_name":"MAGAZINE","category_nicename":"magazine","category_parent":0},{"term_id":143,"name":"SPORTS","slug":"sports","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":700,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":36,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":143,"category_count":36,"category_description":"","cat_name":"SPORTS","category_nicename":"sports","category_parent":0}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":626,"name":"Magazine Fall 2021","slug":"magazine-fall-2021","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":1183,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":23,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3489"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3489\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15985,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3489\/revisions\/15985"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wilmu.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}