Welcome to Cultura IQ

A year ago, I started a website under my name, www.andreslau.com, to motivate others to travel more and maximize airline miles. I had all 2020 planned with a flexible remote job and steady income; my goal was to visit my 100th country, a different destination wedding per month, and get some traction and experience as a travel writer. 

Everything came to a stop when the pandemic started, and like the rest of the world, my plans changed. I was let go from my flexible job, and travel wasn’t an option anymore. Also, I decided not to write about travel since the virus was impacting my most recent destinations. Out of respect (and maybe lack of creativity), I decided to wait until the quarantine ended before my next piece, thinking the pandemic would be over by the end of the summer.

A year later, the world is still under strict travel regulations, many jobs have become permanently remote, and unfortunately, the human toll keeps rising. I have considered myself blessed that I was healthy, had a home and resources to go through the pandemic very comfortably. 

However, I also realized that I was sitting on a million airline miles and travel vouchers that suddenly had no value. What was the point of accumulating so many miles if I couldn’t see my family or travel to new destinations, try new cuisines, meet amazing people, or enjoy enriching events? 

Now, I understand that I don’t want to create another website that only writes about airline miles and points. There are plenty of those. I don’t want to ‘sell you’ a credit card to get a commission. I don’t want to fly ‘to be seen’ in first class. Don’t get me wrong, airline miles and points are relevant to my travel strategy, but they are just a resource to get to my destination. I don’t want to make you feel guilty about staying home for the weekend. I don’t want to post self-serving pictures and miss enjoying the moment that I’m living. I don’t want to write for a website where you can’t distinguish between an ad and honest content. 

I want to create something that inspires you to travel more (post-pandemic). I want to help you connect with exceptional individuals worldwide to motivate you to achieve your goals. I want to advise and recommend products that will help you reach your destinations and adventures. I only want to recommend products that I use myself. I want to feed your curiosity to try a new exotic dish or, even better, prepare it yourself. I want to help you find delightful foreign films to watch at home. I want to convince you that it’s never too late to learn a language. I want to write content that I’m proud of and not care if it sells or not. 

I know this might be ambitious, and I’m aware I’ll make mistakes; I hope you are patient with me as I learn. Still, I have to start somewhere if I want to deliver on my promises. For these reasons, I have decided to create Cultura IQ, a platform where we can leverage adventure, culture, technology, financial literacy, travel insights, linguistics, cuisine, and more to create a connected multicultural world. Welcome to Cultura IQ.