Bandlands National Park, USA
Luisa was born in Dulag, Leyte, to a middle-class, Chinese-Filipino family. After completing her Bachelor’s degree in Science from the University of Santo Tomas, she migrated to the United States in 1967 through an exchange student program in St. Louis, Missouri, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Medical Technology.
Subsequently, she was granted a license to practice as a certified supervisor in Laboratory Medical Technology by the American Association of Clinical Pathology. As she could not go outside the United States because of her immigrant restrictions at the time, she started traveling via Greyhound bus services and visited most of the states as a backpacker. By 2020, she was able to visit 45 out of 50 states in the United States.
After her formal schooling, she moved to Miami and spent the next thirty years working as a healthcare professional in various roles (i.e., laboratory night supervisor, blood bank administrator, operating staff, etc.) for such renowned health institutions as the Jackson Memorial Hospital, University of Miami, Hialeah Hospital, and Mt. Sinai Hospital Medical Center. She later received her real estate license in the state of Florida and became a practicing realtor on the side.
Always been financially self-supporting since she came to the United States, she considers herself fortunate that her jobs allowed her to travel to other parts of the world and become a freelance travel consultant. For eleven years, she worked as a travel consultant at All Ways Travel in Miami and even set up Florida International Travel, Inc. as an owner and manager before she sold the business.
Since 1996, she has been working for Westchester Travel and has had the opportunity to attend several international meetings, trade shows, conferences, workshops in different countries worldwide. She had the unique opportunity of traveling with the late Klaus Billep, former Travelers’ Century Club Chairman, who personally extended the invitation for her to join the club as a member. In 1982, she successfully circumnavigated the world for three months and became an official member of the Circumnavigators Club in 2014.
Luisa is a member of a number of renowned global travel organizations, such as the American Society of Travel Advisors (ASTA), Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA), and Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA). She also served as a member of the Miami International Folk Festival Board of Directors from 1978 to 1981. For the last 20 years, Luisa has been a member of the Travel Industry Association of Florida, having assumed the role of Vice-President for seven consecutive terms and, later, President for one term. In appreciation of her nineteen-year service as Programs Chairperson of the association from 1999 to 2018, Luisa was honored with a complimentary lifetime membership.
Her main interests include travel, photography, music, dancing, and volunteer work. For her, to live a life well-lived is to explore the world and experience humanity in all its aspects. She earnestly believes that traveling is discovering what real life is all about. A fascinating journey, therefore, makes one a happier person.
Luisa is a clear manifestation that age is never a hindrance to being a world traveler. Despite being a septuagenarian, she has demonstrated extraordinary vim, vigor, and vivacity that outshine contemporaries half her age. She is, indeed, a hodophile personified.
