Matthew was born in Caerphilly Miners’ Hospital in February 1985. He went to school in Caerphilly – Hendredenny Park Primary School, followed by St Cenydd School. Matthew graduated from Liverpool University last summer with a 2:1 in Marketing.

Before looking for permanent employment, Matthew decided to take a gap year. He planned to go to Costa Rica with a company called GapSports, to coach football to children for 5 weeks. In preparation Matthew went to Seville for 5 weeks language tuition – he may not have learnt much Spanish but he did have a good time!

Matthew started to send bloggs to his friends from Seville. The ones here begin from his flight to Costa Rica last November. Matthew was due to return in time to celebrate Christmas in Caerphilly with his family, but decided to stay and travel Central and South America until he runs out of money.