Maria Tamara is a freelance blogger with an everlasting love for travel she covers a wide range of topics ranging from wellness to lifestyle, beauty reviews to thought pieces.
“I often find myself writing poetry over a cup of bitter coffee. The mission of my blog is to spread love and encourage a thoughtful life”.
Maria caught the travel bug right after her first flight experience back in 2016, that has enabled her to take a journey of self-discovery.
“I love being exposed to new people, cultures, languages and voila you realize there’s no one way to live life”.
Maria comes from a tiny paradise island, Mauritius. most people don’t exactly know where it is located.
“So I turn to travel writing to help people understand our multicultural society from an insider point of view. I would also like to document my new ex-pat life in the Middle East – sharing is caring, isn’t it?”.
Maria set up “Cherry Living” as a creative outlet to not only share her slice of life but to also inspire people to live their best lives. To show them the other side of pain; that pain can be beautiful too. “We should live life like a cherry on top”.
For the COVID pandemic, Maria has been in her home country, she dedicated most of her time working on the blog, growing social media accounts, took some blogging courses and learnt some yoga poses.
“Oh, and did I mention I was living in leggings and sweatpants?”.
As someone with a travel bug and itchy feet, it was difficult for Maria to adjust with the idea of being confined at home.
“I was hurting to see aeroplanes being stranded on the tarmac and people losing their jobs. It was hard to keep my travel spirit alive and bring myself to have a productive day was a challenge with travel constantly on my mind. I had only one question in mind, when borders will open?”
Maria believes there will be fewer crowds at iconic landmarks with more safety measures coming in place. It might make other parts of international travel more expensive due to COVID impact on airlines – therefore resulting in fewer travellers flying abroad.
“Domestic travel might take months to recover but international travel is going to take a few years”.
All is not lost for the digital nomad’s community, however. Maria thinks that Countries whose economies are heavily dependent on tourism will compete for remote workers to make up for lost visitors.
As we know, the importance of eco-tourism grows more and more each year and Maria can see that much attention has been given to it and NGO’s are doing their best part in raising awareness to preserve flora and fauna.
“Much could have been done by educating more people to show respect to mother nature”
“Those who contemplate the beauty of the earth find reserves of strength that will endure as long as life lasts.” ~ Rachel Carson
Maria practises this by disposing of waste correctly instead of dumping it everywhere, she tries to use reusable bags or if she sees litter on a beach, will definitely pick it up.
“I also tend to choose souvenirs wisely as I find it a good idea buying items that are locally made.
As a traveller, we should become more aware of the impact our travels have on the environment and the local communities we interact with”.
Her advice to others would be to “Always believe in yourself”.
As long as you are breathing, never give up on your dreams because everything comes to you at the right time.
“It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get up”. ~Vince Lambordi
The Maldives would be her top recommendation for its turquoise lagoon and tiny coral islands.
“There are many water sports activities to do such as snorkelling and scuba diving is the most popular ones. But my all-time favourite remains swimming with dolphins”.
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