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This is me... I was born in Central Illinois with wanderlust. When I was 6, I remember dreaming about the ocean, and mountains, and joining the Peace Corps to build houses in Kenya. Although I'm still waiting to visit Kenya, I have wandered the world quite a bit. At 20, I went to Guadalajara, Mexico for 3 years to study, work, and live. In Texas, I taught English as a Second Language and Spanish literacy courses to newly-arrived immigrants from Central America. I lived and worked for 2 years in Bangalore, India. I've traveled to over 30 countries and speak English, Spanish, Portuguese, and some Quechua. I think the way you really learn about a culture is through the local language. I value open-mindedness, honesty, integrity, trustworthiness, authenticity, kindness, empathy, and generosity. I like the National Geographic Channel and documentaries on wildlife, nature, and other countries, cultures, and civilizations. I do yoga. I love outdoor activities, particularly soccer, basketball, hiking, horseback riding, and paddle boarding with our 2 dogs.
This is Willy... He was born in Paramonga, a small town on the central coast of Peru, about 4 hours North of Lima. As a young man, he backpacked for 2 years from the highest reaches of the Peruvian, Ecuadorean, and Bolivian Andes to the sultry rainforests of the Amazon river basin in Peru, Colombia, and Brasil. He also traveled extensively around Latin America and Europe with his national university basketball team, fulfilling his own wanderlust. He likes basketball, soccer, paddle boarding, concerts, traveling, and dancing salsa.
This is our "Pack"... We travel with our furry friends whenever possible. Our dogs have had their various "doggie passports" stamped with Germany, India, Ecuador, México, and Peru. They've gone knee boarding in Illinois, chased rattlesnakes in Eastern Washington, taunted alligators in the Florida Everglades, dug up crawfish in the Texas bayous, played ball in glacier-fed lakes, sniffed seahorses on the beaches of Northern Peru, and paddle boarded with dolphins and manatees in the Florida Keys... but possibly their absolute favorite is hiking parts of the ancient Qapaq Ñan (a network of trails connecting the Incan empire) in the highlands of Cusco, where they've been known to occasionally herd llamas.
This is us...
Willy and I met while dancing salsa. He asked me to dance, I told him I would probably step on him, he said he didn't mind, and that was that! The following year on the Salkantay Trail (5 days, 26 miles, and 10,000 steps later), he proposed to me in the Inca's throne atop 9,000-foot (2,720 m)-high Wayna Picchu, where the Inca meditated overlooking his magnificent city of Machu Picchu. I asked him what he would have done if I hadn't finished the trek, and he said "I would have carried you." After descending Wayna Picchu, he suggested we climb to the Machu Picchu guard house. I told him I was not climbing another @#$%^&* step for the rest of my life. "But that's where the best view is", Willy insisted. He was right, it was worth it, and that photo has always been my favorite. We got married by a shaman in Cusco on a plateau overlooking Saqsaywaman.
We have been hiking together since 2008. We have a less common approach to vacation. We spend a long time in one place getting to know it really well and digging into the culture, the history, and the people. We fell in love with the indigenous cultures in particular, mainly because they're in harmony with the natural world. We love hiking because when you're alone in the mountains, it is quiet and all smells wonderfully natural. We mostly visit emerging markets where there are still indigenous people to learn about.
Both IT Professionals for multinational companies found that "unplugging" from all gadgets created more space for meditation, peace, and "being". For a while, we would escape the corporate world for a month each year, until we made the decision to plan for a permanent escape. With the founding of Native Tours, we get to do what we love full time, live in harmony with nature, and give back to the local communities that make Peru so special. We created Native Tours for ourselves because these are the types of tours that we'd take. We hope that you will find the same wonder and bliss that we have in this amazing country. If you're like us, join our tribe!
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