Xavi has been traveling since first bicycling and hitchhiking through Europe and northern Africa for 6 months in 1971. He has tramped through Central America extensively since 1976 when he spent an entire winter in the Guatemalan jungles and villages on just $300. He has lived in hand-crafted homes ranging from a shack at the base of a waterfall in the Chiapas region of Mexico to log cabins in the hills of southeastern Ohio.

He has been in and out of Central America and the Caribbean Islands 10 times since 1976. Each time spending significant amounts of time taking in the subtle changes of road improvements and not so subtle changes of villages turning into hot-spots for tourists over the years.

Through the mid-80′s and early 90′s he raised a family in Ohio with his wife Cristi. Together they infected their children with the travel bug by backpacking through the Yucatan during the summer of 1997.