Roots: meet the team

RITA, THE GUIDE

Born and raised in Lisbon, Rita fell in the rabbit hole of Portuguese history and never got out.

She was an actress for over ten years in the Portuguese theatre and television before she sold all her stuff to travel the world in a blink of an eye. After almost two years, the world was still too big and tiny Lisbon called her back to real life.

When she got back, with her eyes open from the distance, she realized Portugal was an old, beautiful tale, still waiting to be sung to the world. She started studying Portuguese history and became a guide, working for different companies in Lisbon since 2015.

In 2021, with the pandemic the world cannot forget, she co-founded Honest Routes because it was time to share the story of Portugal. The story behind the scenes. Rita wants to become the storyteller of Portugal.

GONÇALO

Music addict with over 30 years of experience, has also been a bar manager and a business owner and creator.

An expert in team-building, it’s the planning of cultural and musical venues that makes him thrive. After years working as a management consultant, he became a traveller to discover the wonderful world hidden around our European walls.

After almost two years, amazed and heart-filled, he came back to the vibrant city of Lisbon to develop an ambitious cultural and musical program in one of the most popular bars in town.

This chapter closed, he co-founded and developed a new project in the tourism industry to share the best of Portugal with the world: Honest Routes.

CARLOS

A lover of Nature, History and Folklore, and these passions define a lot of his character.

His life has been mostly dedicated to academic research, leading him to obtain a PhD which was far from being the product solely of hours spent in the library, but also from many intense travels. His areas of interest range from literature, culture and archaeology to anthropology and ethnography, and these lines of research have led him to discover and visit the most fascinating places.

Many of those places are located in Portugal, which has a rich traditional culture and history hidden throughout its regions. As Carlos has learned profoundly, the soul of a country and its people is only truly understood when you gain knowledge of its traditions, myths and legends, its cultural treasures, hidden in its several regions, and its history.

But this knowledge can only be truly attained by visiting the villages of the country and meeting and talking to the people about their culture and traditions, by engaging in experiences such as tasting the local foods or walking through the historical sites, and by getting to participate in activities which allow one to appreciate the natural wonders which materialize into the beautiful scenery of the country.

It is this experience which Carlos would like to invite everyone to enjoy with him.

JAIME

He is a lawyer, a political scientist, and a language enthusiast. Jaime has been wandering the world in a long journey that has driven him to Lisbon over and over again.
A city that has to be discovered step by step, following a river of intoxicating beauty, and listening to the voice of its inhabitants, sometimes wild and fierce, some others, mild and smooth.

JOÃO

João spent most of his childhood and adolescence playing chess. He also spent most of his adulthood trying to escape from it while searching for something that gave him the same adrenaline he felt at the chess board. He was in for the long haul. The melting pot of his somewhat curious, geeky side and his sociable side was found in showing around his native city of Porto and engaging people into its stories, geography and history. It was also the way to put his territorial planner eye into practice.

And the next step? Well, that’s why I’m here!

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