Adventure Travel with Mary Stange - Ponte Travels

Area/Topic
Worldwide, Transformational Travel, Sustainability

Mary Stange
Owner
Ponte Travels

My passion for world travel was first sparked through a study abroad semester in Limerick, Ireland when I was 19. Since then, I have traveled to numerous countries — many of those with my two kids by my side. A career serving in the U.S. Navy inspired me to seek an advanced degree in International Relations from American University with a focus in Development. My work since then has further instilled my characteristic global mindset and dedication to encourage others to experience the world first-hand and support local economies. After separating from the Navy in 2015, my family began a new life chapter traveling the world, allowing them the opportunity to live overseas in countries such as Armenia, Colombia, and Cyprus.

I believe in the transformative nature of travel; that experiencing the world with respect and humility develops our tolerance, empathy, and most of all understanding of the world and ourselves. I also believe in sustainable tourism; and that in order to be true global citizens, we must take care of the world around us including local communities, wildlife, and the environment. I am passionate about creating unforgettable trips for the constantly curious and allowing space for exploration and wonder.

https://www.pontetravels.com/

Summary
Mary Stange, owner of Ponte Travels, shares her travel experiences and how she got into the travel industry. Her love for travel began at a young age when her father, a merchant marine, would send trinkets and postcards from his travels. She later had the opportunity to study abroad in Ireland, which opened her eyes to living in a new country and experiencing different cultures. Mary then joined the Navy as an officer and had the chance to see the world during her deployments. After leaving the Navy, she and her husband decided to pursue a life of travel and adventure, joining the Foreign Service of the State Department. They lived in Armenia and Colombia, immersing themselves in the local cultures and exploring the countries. Despite the challenges of language barriers and mundane tasks like grocery shopping, Mary found joy in the adventure and the connections she made with people. The COVID-19 pandemic brought unexpected challenges, but they persevered and continued to embrace the travel lifestyle. Mary discusses her experiences living in different countries, including Colombia and Cyprus. She highlights the unique aspects of each place and the opportunities for exploration and growth. Mary also shares her journey of starting a travel business during the COVID-19 pandemic and the challenges and successes she has encountered. She emphasizes the importance of travel and encourages listeners to embrace new experiences and cultures. Mary expresses her passion for the North Andes region, particularly Colombia, and her desire to showcase its beauty and diversity.

Takeaways

• Travel experiences can shape a person's perspective and inspire them to explore the world.
• Living in a new country provides a deeper understanding of different cultures and everyday life.
• Challenges like language barriers and mundane tasks can be part of the adventure and create unique experiences.
• The COVID-19 pandemic brought unexpected challenges to travel, but it also provided opportunities for connection and resilience. Embrace new experiences and cultures through travel
• Start a travel business during challenging times by adapting and planning ahead
• Discover the beauty

Learn more about the Big World Made Small Podcast and join our private community to get episode updates, special access to our guests, and exclusive adventure travel offers at bigworldmadesmall.com.

Transcript

Jason Elkins (00:01.564)
Welcome back everybody to another episode of the Big World Made Small podcast for the adventure traveler. So happy to have each and every one of you back here today. And we've also got a new guest here. We've got Mary Stange, who is the owner of Ponte Travels. Mary, thank you so much for joining me here on the show. Welcome.

Mary (00:21.102)
Hey Jason, thanks so much.

Jason Elkins (00:24.476)
Yeah, it's a real pleasure. I look forward to kind of, you know, digging into your background a little bit. Let's see if we can bring out some childhood memories, hopefully not too traumatic. And, but I've noticed the crying is not, there's no crying in baseball, right? So, and, and hopefully this conversation will bring back some good memories for you. because I found that most of the folks that I've chatted with have kind of an interesting moment in their life or somebody in their life that.

Mary (00:31.342)
Oof, let's not do that.

Mary (00:39.406)
Jason Elkins (00:52.7)
kind of inspired them to go do something a little different than what the rest of the world seems to be doing. And so let's start with that. Let's go back as far as you wanna go back and what caused this all to happen for you and what's your story? How did you get from where you were to where you are?

Mary (01:09.07)
Yeah, you know, that's a great like origin story kind of a question, right? Like what made you who you are? What villain was the villain of your story kind of thing? There are no villains, of course, in my story. But no, I guess it started for me when I was a kid. My dad, well, he was a merchant marine. And so he traveled a lot. You know, he'd go for these three month jobs from place to place. And...

Jason Elkins (01:16.444)
Mm -hmm.

Mary (01:38.83)
He always sent back trinkets and postcards and the like. And so from an early age, I feel like that kind of made it, like my bubble was expanded from an early age, right? Like there are other places out there. There are all these amazing other worlds that is not my world. So that was kind of like the first little inception into travel for me.

Fast forward several years and I had the opportunity to travel abroad in college. So many of us do. And I, I chose to go to a program in Limerick, Ireland. And it seems like, okay, well, it's, you know, how, how different is that really from, from a lot of us education? But it was really eyeopening experience for me, you know, in, in, in the terms of living in a new country and operating in a new country, you know, more than just the.

more than just the tourism part of it. It was going grocery shopping. It was, you know, finding a hairdresser. It was the little things that made living, living in a place. And so that, that really opened my eyes, right? It kind of showed me that the world, yes, the world is so much bigger, but we all do the same things. You know, we all go to the dentist and we all bring our kids to daycare and we all.

We all do these mundane things that connects us through humanity, right? And so that was, that was, I think the first real big transformational moment in travel for me. You know, after that, fast forward a few more years, I got commissioned into the Navy as an officer and went on a couple of deployments and got to, you know, do that whole see the world thing that they promise you. And that was...

That was really cool too. You know, we got to, we have to pull into a lot of really cool places that I probably would never have visited otherwise. And then you just, you got to see these little pockets of, you had to see these little pockets of the world. And I feel like, you know, from there, I was just, I was just hooked. I couldn't, I couldn't stay in one place after that.

Jason Elkins (03:55.804)
I get that. I can relate to several of the things you shared there. And I'm curious, let's go back to when you were younger, before you went to Ireland, had you had the opportunity to travel with your father as well on some of these trips or were you pretty much in one place or what did that look like?

Mary (04:14.702)
Yeah, no, I, that trip to Ireland was my first trip out of the country. So we only did, you know, US travel up to that point, but that was my first time actually with my passport leaving. I did, yeah, we did US travel. You know, we did, we did kind of, you know, visit family and other things, but you know, it wasn't, it wasn't like the larger sense of international travel.

Jason Elkins (04:20.476)
Okay.

But, but you did us travel, but you did some us travel and okay.

Jason Elkins (04:37.052)
Right. And I suspect though, that that travel in the U S at an earlier age had an impact. Cause I, one of the things I heard you say was, you know, I went off to study abroad in college, like many of us do. And you know what popped into my head when you said that is there's many more of us that don't. Right. So it's like, yeah, many of us in the travel business, I have heard that in quite a few of the conversations that I have on a daily basis, but, but at the same time.

Mary (04:53.422)
What?

Mary (05:01.454)
Okay.

Jason Elkins (05:06.108)
That's not such a small deal. That's not like, yeah, I, you know, I got up and made a sandwich. I mean, you, you left the country, especially the fact that it was the first time you'd left the country. And a lot of, a lot of folks, especially, well, I shouldn't say especially in the U S but you know, it's, it's a big country. Sometimes we have a tendency to think, we've got plenty of things to see here in the U S why do I need to go to Ireland? Or, you know, I was interviewing someone today that did, you know, a year abroad in Tasmania.

Mary (05:11.726)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (05:35.548)
You know, in Australia and, but it takes something special for somebody to actually want to do that and do it because frankly, there's a lot of people that maybe they grow up in Vermont and it's like, and they go to a way to school in New York for a semester. You know, it's like a kind of big deal and I'm not knocking that. I mean, it's just, this business attracts a different mindset.

Mary (05:54.222)
it's about perspective, right? Like that's what you're talking about. Like it's about the perspective of how far things really are.

Jason Elkins (06:02.011)
Yeah. Yeah. And you might not have gone to Ireland had you not, you know, like you said, your father was traveling, opened you up to ideas. You went to places with the family. So that's pretty cool. And I also think this conversation is unique because I've had quite a few now and you've got a military background. I do as well. And someone I came, someone I was speaking with the other day, I mentioned my military background. I said, you know, I, I don't know. I, I know hardly anybody in the adventure travel business that has any sort of military background. And.

Mary (06:19.406)
I do.

Jason Elkins (06:31.964)
I was like, wow, you know, that's, it's interesting because it doesn't come up very much in these conversations. And I'm curious. Well, I know I joined the army because I thought I was going to get to go travel and see places and have amazing experiences. was that part of it with you in the Navy as well? Was it, was the drive to travel the thing or were you like a lot of people that just like, I want to get my college paid for, I want to pay off my school loans.

Mary (06:54.83)
I can't say that travel was the underlying motivation to do what I did. You know, from an early age, I think the opportunity to fly an airplane was the thing that was dragging me towards the Navy. And then, you know, the further along we got down the line, the paying for college thing was a pretty sweet deal. So I couldn't pass that up. And so it's, you know,

they paid for my college and let me fly in our plane. And so I really couldn't say no to that.

Jason Elkins (07:31.996)
Yeah, no, I get it. It's, it's super cool. There was the, that was the other part of the army was I wanted to be a, you know, helicopter pilot and my recruiter was really good. It's like, yeah, you should just enlist, drop out of school, go enlist. You're a smart guy. You've got good test scores and then you can, you just fill out some paperwork and they'll send you to flight school. Well, it didn't quite work that way.

Mary (07:52.27)
Yeah, they like they dangle you, they dangle that in front of you, you know? Come fly an airplane.

Jason Elkins (07:58.3)
huh, yeah, yeah, I get that. So let's discuss that because it's a unique opportunity. I'm fascinated by it. So you were commissioned, so did you do ROTC or what?

Mary (08:13.71)
Yeah. So I did an RSDC program through Jackson University. And then yeah, commissioned as an ensign in the Navy when I graduated, like the day I graduated. And then went off to flight school in Pensacola shortly thereafter. I spent 18 months in basic flight school, going through the different, you know, different schools that they have you go through there. Different selection processes of, you know, if you go to this, you go to that, and then that further splits. Do you go to this? Do you go to that?

Jason Elkins (08:14.652)
Okay.

Mary (08:43.438)
and eventually I got selected for the EA -6B Prowler, which the Navy does not even fly anymore. So that's, that's kind of cool. so I then, EA -6B Prowler, EA -6B Prowler.

Jason Elkins (08:54.588)
The eight you said the eight you said the eight six.

Yes. Okay, so what kind of air, so for those of us that have no clue what that means, what kind of airplane is that?

Mary (09:05.294)
Hahaha.

It's the follow -on to the A6. I feel like everybody's really familiar with the A6 intruder. It's the follow -on to that. So it's the electronic attack platform with the jammers on the bottom, and it's meant to do radar and comms jamming and that kind of stuff. And so instead of a two -seater, it's actually four. So you may have two in the front and two in the back.

Jason Elkins (09:16.7)
That's what I thought. Yep.

Mary (09:34.446)
And it's a shipboard jet. So we did a lot of carrier ops and like I said, my two deployments were carrier based. Yeah, so after Pensacola, I went up to Whitney Island in Washington. And that's where most of the, well, that's where all the prowlers were based when they were active. And I did the rest of my training up there on the jet. And then my three years of squadron time was up there as well.

Jason Elkins (10:03.356)
So you've landed an airplane on an aircraft carrier.

Mary (10:07.566)
To be fair, I wasn't the pilot, the stick and rudder. I was the navigator, weapons systems officer, talking on the radios and managing all the systems and doing all the actual purpose that the jet is there to do. So they were just getting us from point A to point B. I was going actually doing the job. Yeah. Yeah.

Jason Elkins (10:20.956)
Yeah. So you were doing all the work they did. Yeah, they just.

That is, Mary, that is super cool. That's kind of a big deal. What did your parents think of all this?

Mary (10:32.238)
Thanks. my goodness, I don't even want to ask my mom what she thought about all this. I feel like it's just like, just, just be supportive and don't tell me what you really think.

Jason Elkins (10:37.82)
you did that. Mom, I don't want to hear it.

Jason Elkins (10:44.764)
Yeah. My mom, I remember my mom cried the day the conversation I had with her mom, I just got back from the recruiter. I joined the army. I'm going to go be an army ranger and then I'm going to be a helicopter pilot because they told me I could do that. Yeah. It wasn't quite what she had in mind. You know, she was a research scientist and she had other, other plans for me, but yeah. So, all right. That's cool. And, wow. That's, I think.

Mary (10:56.782)
Mary (11:03.566)
So funny.

Jason Elkins (11:10.908)
I could ask you so many questions about that. I'm just fascinated by that. But it's your story, so I'll let you continue. So you spent three years, you said, in Washington? In the squadron? OK. And you did some travel. You mentioned that. So what was the next step that got you, I think I'm going to be a tour operator and work in the travel business and do all this stuff. So what happened then?

Mary (11:18.83)
Yeah, yeah, three years in Washington state.

Mary (11:33.81)
Yeah, there are definitely a few steps between the two, the two moments, the two milestones in my life. so, let's back up. So yeah, when at that point, you know, my, my new husband at the time, who was also in the Navy, he was a submarine officer and, you know, that's like a whole different podcast story. We can go into the background of that.

Jason Elkins (12:01.328)
You

Mary (12:01.55)
But we got to talking, we were like, you know, the way that our career trajectories were going, there wasn't ever going to be a time in our careers. If we both stayed in, if we both kept doing what we were going to be doing, there was never going to be a time we were going to overlap. And that just wasn't acceptable for us.

Jason Elkins (12:18.14)
What? Wait, wait, you mean, you mean the submarine guy and the airplane gal that doesn't match very well?

Mary (12:26.958)
No, no, we just like, you know, crossed. We were never going to end up in the same spot, right? And that just wasn't going to fly for us. You know, we were really prioritizing us over our career. And so we devised this awesome, super awesome high speed plan where he would separate from the Navy and pursue the Foreign Service of the State Department.

Jason Elkins (12:32.54)
Mm -hmm.

Mary (12:56.27)
And I remember that conversation quite well because he is a little hesitant. He brought this idea to the table. Like, what do you feel? How do you feel about like maybe like living overseas? How do you want to, would you be okay with that? I don't even think I let him end the sentence. I was like, yes, yes, a hundred percent. Yes. Let's go. Let's do it. Let's pick up everything. Like we'll sell it all. Let's go. Yeah.

Jason Elkins (13:21.628)
Were you, Mary, were you, were you willing to like, just because I don't know how it works with foreign service and state department, but were you going into it with the attitude of like, wherever they send us is fine or yes, I'll do it if it's Europe or if it's this or if it's that, but I won't go to, you know, or were you just completely open?

Mary (13:41.998)
Wherever they send me is fine. Everywhere, anywhere that they decide to put us is going to be an adventure. I'm going to find happiness no matter where we are on the globe. And there's going to be something fascinating about anywhere we go. I mean, will there be cons to place? Yeah, there will be. But you know, we kind of had this really wide -eyed view of the world that, you know,

Jason Elkins (13:51.772)
Yeah.

Mary (14:10.51)
We haven't heard of half of these places on this list, but there are possibilities. And how exciting is that when you can just literally be like dropped in the middle of any country. I mean, obviously, you know where you're going beforehand, but where they can just tell you where you're going to go and like, and that's it. You're just going to live there for a couple of years. You know, that happened to us essentially. Well, we, again, we knew where we were going before we got there. It wasn't a total surprise, but, you know, he goes through his first initial training.

And we get the list of possibilities of, you know, there's like 50 different places on the list. And, you know, the first tour is often a consular tour, right? Like working in the visa office and processing visas and do the American citizen services and all that. So there are a lot of Mexico on there, a lot of China, you know, a lot of these ones that generate a lot of consular traffic. But there was also a few on there that I've never heard of.

Yerevan, Armenia being one of them. And so, you know, we do it, we did our research, we did our due diligence. I, I did enough, you know, flight and logistics planning in the Navy that I was like, all right, no, I gotta, I gotta do everything I gotta know about this place. and the more we looked into it, the more like, yes, this is, this is cool. This is, it's unheard of it's, you know, in the middle of the caucuses. It has this really fascinating history and culture and, you know, it's why not?

Why not us? Why not now? Why not there? And so we got lucky enough to get that for, you know, for his first pick. And, you know, I guess it was November of 2015. We find ourselves, you know, it's cold, it's winter, it's the middle of the night, you know, landing in Yerevan with, you know, my, then I had a one and a half year old son, like, okay, we're here now. This is life in post -Soviet Armenia.

Jason Elkins (16:08.444)
That is so cool. That is so cool.

Mary (16:10.35)
Yeah, yeah, it's definitely an adventure.

Jason Elkins (16:15.612)
What was the biggest shock and surprise? What was the hardest thing for you to, to deal with on that first trip?

I say first trip, but it's more than just a trip. So just curious what came up for you.

Mary (16:28.686)
Right, yeah, I feel like even through the, we were there for two years, and I feel like even for those full two years, there was always that like little sense of mysticism about the place. Like there's always so much that I'm not gonna know about this place, that I'm not gonna know about the culture, these little microcultures that you find everywhere, right? From little coffee houses to you go out to a different town and you find a restaurant out there and that hits a little microculture. And,

everything was just so new and so fascinating. And I think, I think if there was anything I really struggled with, because right, I could talk all day about how wonderful travel is and how, how great it was, but I felt if there's anything I was really struggling with, it was the kind of constant barrier that there is to pretty mundane things. Grocery shopping, for example.

You know, you feel like it's something that we all take for granted. You just go, you buy a rotisserie chicken and a can of beans, and then you go home and you make dinner. I found that, you know, going to the grocery store, not only was nothing, nothing in English, you know, not even like the signs that were in, you know, written Armenian, which is not even the, doesn't even use the same alphabet. So you're trying to interpret like, okay, is this tomato paste? Is it tomato sauce? Is it tomato?

What is this? Like what is in this can right now? Or is it even tomato, right? There could be something else completely. Or you know, you go to the butcher's counter and it's just literally just a big counter of stuff I can't decipher. And there was always, does this make sense? Like there was always that little bit of a barrier with everything that every mundane thing that needed to do. Getting an oil change, for example, in our car, like going and doing that was its own set of challenges.

Jason Elkins (17:53.82)
Or is it even tomato? Yeah.

Mary (18:22.286)
But I feel like it is those mundane things that kind of makes it a complete experience. Yeah, in a lot of ways. I bet, yeah.

Jason Elkins (18:30.652)
Yeah, it's constant stimulation, even if it's just trying to figure things out. I've been traveling the last two and a half years and just yesterday it was like, it was a half day or a deal trying to figure out how to get my laundry done. You know, because I'm at, you know, and ironically I'm in Armenia, Colombia right now. So yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mary (18:46.094)
Right! Exactly!

Mary (18:53.902)
No, you are!

Jason Elkins (18:57.18)
So, and I knew our media was going to come up in this conversation and I was like, but it's, it was the same thing. I spent half a day trying to figure out which bus do I get on, you know, and my Spanish is getting better, but, and then I get to the first place that I found on Google and they only really do dry cleaning. So she started counting my socks to try and, you know, I asked her how much it was going to be, and she started pulling everything out, counting it. And she, you know, and she got to where it was.

$25 and only half the bag had been empty and I was like, this isn't gonna, you know, so, so anyway, so yeah, I get the mundane things.

Mary (19:32.026)
my gosh, that's so funny. Yeah, my gosh. Yeah, it's the mundane thing. It's like those little interactions that everything's just a little bit, a little bit more difficult, but you run into these really, really funny scenarios. my gosh, you're in Armenia, Colombia.

Jason Elkins (19:51.836)
Have you been?

Mary (19:53.902)
Columbia was our second post after Armenia.

Jason Elkins (19:57.116)
Well, I thought I'd saw that in your bio. So I actually, when I read your bio, I saw Armenia comma Columbia. And then I had, wait a minute. So yeah, okay. So tell us, tell us whatever else you want to tell us about Armenia, Armenia, and then we'll chat about Columbia.

Mary (20:06.318)
Yeah.

Mary (20:13.166)
Yeah, you know, I feel like Armenia, Armenia, Yerevan, Armenia was a really great introduction to this life, right? And I feel like we were also at this position where, you know, we had a young family, we had young kids. We were at this point, it's like, we threw ourselves into the deep end of the swimming pool with choosing Yerevan, Armenia as our very first place to go to live.

to truly live outside of the US. And it was kind of this question of, would we do it again? Where else do we want to go? Like, is this something that's for us or we can go back home or we can keep going? And there was no way in hell we were gonna go back home. We're like, no, give us another, let's do it again. Let's rev up and do it again. And yeah, so again, he got another list and.

Jason Elkins (20:57.18)
Mm -hmm.

Mary (21:11.054)
Bogota, Colombia came up on that list and we were like, how fascinating would that be to go live in Colombia for two years? And we did. That was our second place we went. Again, we were in Bogota, which is a much bigger city than Armenia, Colombia, but that was another, yeah, completely different world. Big city, just whole different vibe than obviously than the Caucasus.

Jason Elkins (21:18.812)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (21:27.388)
Yeah.

Mary (21:39.054)
but no less fascinating, that's for sure.

Jason Elkins (21:42.812)
So we're both your family, his family, everybody is still supportive when you said we're going to Bogota.

Mary (21:50.798)
Yeah, I think so. Not that they would tell us to our face at least.

Jason Elkins (21:53.02)
Yeah!

Jason Elkins (22:00.028)
But we've already determined you don't ask your mom what she thinks. Who knows?

Mary (22:03.31)
I don't, I don't. I've stopped asking about opinions.

Jason Elkins (22:08.188)
Well, I know my parents were not so happy. Again, I think my mom cried again when I said, I'm selling all my stuff and I bought a one -way ticket to Columbia. So yeah, and so you were in Bogota for two years.

Mary (22:23.502)
Mm -hmm. Yes, we're going to talk for another two years. Yeah.

Jason Elkins (22:28.572)
Were you able to travel around either, you know, both Armenia and Columbia? Did you have the time and the ability to go travel around or like, cause I've got my head sometimes maybe, okay, your government, your U S government employee. I mean, I've read the state department warnings about Columbia and it's like, you shouldn't go anywhere. Shouldn't do anything. So I'm imagining, and I remember when I was in the army, like before the weekend, they give you, you know, don't go to.

the such and such club because you're going to get in trouble. And so I'm imagining like they don't even want you to leave town. Was that your experience?

Mary (23:05.87)
Well, in Armenia, it wasn't necessarily the safety. Yeah, yeah, right. In Armenia, it wasn't necessarily the safety issue, right? As a country, it was extremely safe. And I think the biggest barrier to travel in Armenia was probably just infrastructure and language. It wasn't really easy to drive around the rest of the country without a four by four vehicle and without a sat phone.

Jason Elkins (23:06.524)
If you can talk about it.

Mary (23:35.278)
and so it, it did make travel inside of Armenia kind of hard. You know, we did, I think we did a pretty good job of, of getting around the sea, see a lot of the other smaller places. and we, you know, we drove up to Deblecie a couple of times and that was a couple, that was a really fun trip, you know, up in Georgia. so that was fun. but I thought that we actually, we did a much better job in Columbia doing regional travel.

But the funny thing about Columbia was that, again, we were there for two years. I think we were traveling pretty regularly, at least once a month, we were going to do a weekend trip somewhere. And we never left the country. We spent two years of traveling just inside of Columbia because it's so huge. And there's so many different little towns to see. And then, okay, we go to Medellin, but then what about all the little towns that shoot off in Medellin?

You know, and so it was, you know, you feel, I had these grand ideas like, we're going to South America. I'm going to get to see Rio and I'm going to get to see Machu Picchu. No, I didn't even leave. I didn't even leave the country.

Jason Elkins (24:47.132)
You're right though. There's, I mean, it is one of the most biologically diverse or ecologically diverse countries in the world. And, and along with that, the diversity of ecology and climactic zones and all this, it gives you a diversity of culture. So yeah, you're in Columbia, but if you're in Columbia and Santa Marta or Cartagena is a different, totally different experience than if you're in the coffee region where I'm at right now, or even the differences between Medellin and.

Mary (24:52.878)
It is.

Mary (25:03.694)
Absolutely.

Mary (25:12.27)
Thank you.

Jason Elkins (25:14.46)
Bogota, you know, they're the two largest cities in the country. They're not geographically that far from each other. I mean, it takes a long time to get there. If you're in a bus or, you know, because of the mountains and stuff, but it's, it's just so interesting how each. Yeah. Yeah. You look at it on the map and I'm sure like, if you're getting ready to go there, you've never been there and you're like, look how close we can go from Bogota to Quito or Peru or all these things, but there's so many things to see in Columbia and.

Mary (25:25.998)
But it's only like a 30 or 40 minute flight. It's really close.

Jason Elkins (25:43.644)
I don't know if it's like me, I just, I mean, I bought the one way ticket here, but I was, I thought I'd spend a month in Columbia and then I'd go to Ecuador, probably Peru. I'd been to several of the other countries in South America. And I just underestimated how much I was going to fall in love with the Colombian people and the culture. And it's like, okay, I still want to go to, I still haven't been to Ecuador two and a half years later. I haven't even made it to Ecuador. I've left a few times. Yeah, I get it.

Mary (26:07.95)
See? See?

Jason Elkins (26:11.068)
You know, I've left a few times because I had to, because I was on a tourist, you know, I could only stay for six months. So I, you know, took a break and went to Southeast Asia, took a break and went to Mexico. And I've been back to the States a couple of times, but I just keep coming back because it feels like home and, and there's still so many, I mean, it's, it actually is down to the neighborhood. I mean, cause even if you look at Medellin or Bogota, you know, like the neighborhoods are different. You can, you know, hop on a city.

Mary (26:16.91)
Mm -hmm.

Mary (26:37.486)
It is, just by a couple of streets.

Jason Elkins (26:40.156)
Yeah. Hop on a city bus or walk. You know, you can walk into a totally different neighborhood that, man, I think I should, I have, you know, I do the Airbnb thing and I've stayed in seven or eight of the distinct barrios in Medellin. And it's like, if I don't get bored with one, but I'm like, I should go travel. And I ended up on the other side of town and I feel like I'm in a totally different world, but you know, so I, I get that completely.

Mary (27:06.318)
So funny.

Jason Elkins (27:08.38)
And then, okay, so you were in Columbia and then did you say to stay on and do another one or what happened after that?

Mary (27:14.574)
Yeah, actually we did. So we were, we were, let's see, we were scheduled to leave Columbia the summer of 2020. and let's see, at the time my, my son, my oldest was in kindergarten. And then, you know, we had a daughter by then as well. So she was in pre -K or pre four, whatever they call it there.

Jason Elkins (27:26.364)
Mm. Yeah.

Mary (27:40.974)
And then, you know, that wonderful world event happened in February or March of 2020. And we all became locked down in our tiny little apartment for the next three months. And yeah, it was really quite interesting, right? Because it was one of those times where we were able to, I think, connect more with...

Jason Elkins (27:54.46)
Wow.

Mary (28:07.886)
people again through Zoom, through other means, right? Yeah, how are you doing on your side of the world? What are you doing over here? Like what's life like over there? I feel like we had probably one of the strictest quarantine situations in Bogota during the time where we were in a high rise apartment and we literally couldn't leave the door to our apartment. We couldn't use the facilities in our apartment building. We couldn't like step outside the door to our apartment. And it was...

Jason Elkins (28:16.54)
Mm -hmm.

Mary (28:37.55)
It was a lot to be, again, I'm telling this to the world who I'm sure everybody had very similar experiences, but it's a lot to be, you know, stuck inside of an apartment with two kids under five and your spouse who's always at work. So that was, that was a bit of a weird time.

Jason Elkins (28:56.156)
It's, it's yeah, it's interesting because right. Because I spent most of COVID in the States and Arizona. I came here when I came to Columbia, people were still wearing masks in some of the neighborhoods, which was bizarre. but it was, but the stories I'd heard from the people that, you know, had been here through it. I think Columbia was not one of the more pleasant places to be because everything that's cool about Columbia is outside your apartment.

Right? I mean, the whole benefit to being in Columbia for me is to walk out on the streets and to go to the panadrias or, or to, to go out and socialize. And when you're locked and the apartments are small and they're not always necessarily the most comfortable. and in your situation, well, I was working in Arizona. I was working in real estate in Arizona when it all came down and we were still able to figure out ways to help people buy and sell homes, which blows my mind.

But we'd have the people that, hey, we're stuck at home. We've got this little apartment we want to buy now because we're driving each other crazy. So at least they could move. You know, at least it made sense that, okay, we can move into a bigger house. We can go stay with family because, you know, there were workarounds and all that. But when you are in a country without family that you...

Mary (30:07.534)
Right.

Jason Elkins (30:19.996)
You were already planning to leave in a few months, so going out and buying a bigger house or finding a bigger apartment, even if you could do it, you couldn't do it.

Mary (30:27.438)
Right, we had three months left and we're like, you know what, we're just gonna suck it up. We're gonna order in beers and charcuterie as often as we can and sit on the balcony and just try to survive.

Jason Elkins (30:40.924)
Yeah. Did they did. So they've got a few services here. They've got one called Robbie, that you can currently, you can order pretty much anything you want and they bring it to you very quickly. was that fully active during COVID?

Mary (30:57.614)
It was yeah, Rafi, I think set the standard for delivery for me. It spoiled me for the rest of my life, I think. Yeah, I mean, you're absolutely right. Like anything you want, they will go and do for you. They will go, they will buy it. Even if it's not like a store on the app, you will go, they will buy it, and then they will come back and take care of it for you. It's fantastic. But yeah, they were up and running. And that's, I mean, we had to use them a lot. We had to lean on them a lot because...

Jason Elkins (31:07.004)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (31:21.244)
It.

Mary (31:26.798)
you know, it's things like grocery shopping got not really hard.

Jason Elkins (31:33.372)
Yeah, it's, it's the, it's weird. And I suspect that they were really able to refine their services during that time, because by the time I got here, I was blown away. I was staying at a guest house and this guy's like, he gets on his phone or a pack of cigarettes, a bottle of rum, some, I think some probably antibiotics, what I mean, it was just like literally whatever you want. And I think you can even do money. Yeah. I think.

Mary (31:56.654)
pack of Sharpies and it's there in 15 minutes.

Jason Elkins (32:00.22)
I think you can do money exchange. I think you can say, hey, bring me some pesos for dollars. I mean, it was just, it was, it was crazy. And, and it was so quick. It was like he, by the time he got done explaining what this is all about, there was some guy down below, you know, beeping his horn on the motorcycle, like, Hey, I'm here. And it was like, it was really, really weird. Yeah. So anyway.

Mary (32:07.478)
my gosh, insane.

Mary (32:18.894)
Yeah.

Yeah, they really perfected delivery.

Jason Elkins (32:25.788)
Yeah, yeah. So, and you can't get alcohol delivered in the States. I don't think it's still to this day. I don't think you can have somebody bring you a bottle of rum on the back of a motorcycle. So, but anyway, not, not that that's my thing. It may or may not be my thing, but you know, we can, we can change the subject now. All right. So you were here. So the last few months you were here, you couldn't really enjoy it. And then what happened?

Mary (32:28.814)
Anyways.

Not like that.

Mary (32:42.35)
You

Mary (32:47.534)
Right, right. Yeah. So, you know, I think we got really lucky though, because we were able to do so much on the front end. We really front loaded a lot of our Colombian experiences that, you know, by the end of the three months, by the end of the two years in our last three months, we're like, okay, there's nothing, there's nothing I feel like we're missing out on. We're just, you know, we're a little cramped, but I think we're, I think we're ready to kind of make the next step. And so the next step after that was Cyprus.

Our next posting after that was in Nicosia, Cyprus. And so we went back to the States for a few weeks for, they make you do like a home leave period. And then we arrived in Nicosia in August of 2020.

Jason Elkins (33:31.74)
All right, very cool. And what were the highlights of that trip or what do you want to share with our listeners about Cyprus? Because that's a place probably a lot of them have not been. I haven't.

Mary (33:42.222)
Yeah, again, it was one of those places where I probably would never have gone if we didn't get posted there. And it's such a fascinating place. You know, obviously politically it's fascinating, you know, with it being a split island still. But it's just this little haven in the Mediterranean that I think does not get nearly enough love or appreciation just for its...

Obviously it's scenic landscape. I think it had some of the best beaches in Europe, but just its accessibility too. It's part of the EU, so it's connected to the EU. It's accessible to the East as well. I think it was really, we were there for three years. And so it was really easy living for three years after being in Armenia and Columbia.

Jason Elkins (34:29.98)
So three.

Jason Elkins (34:34.172)
I'm curious, so you said three years and the other sounded like they were two year posts. Was this a three year post or did you just stay on?

Mary (34:42.158)
This was a three -year post this was a there was a There are like some HR reasons for that that we don't have to get into but yeah It was a three -year assignment. Yeah

Jason Elkins (34:45.148)
Okay.

Jason Elkins (34:50.076)
Okay. I just, I was just curious if it was a, we, we let's, you know, we love it so much. We'll stay a little longer, but you're not in Cyprus. So that you went to Cyprus when?

Mary (35:00.302)
2020. So yes, let me just last we left last summer.

Jason Elkins (35:02.94)
Okay, so it's ju - Great. Where are you now?

Mary (35:07.822)
And now we're in Maryland. We're in sunny Chesapeake, Maryland. It's not quite as adventurous as all that, but.

Jason Elkins (35:19.324)
Is it? I well, I'm able to see your face. Our listeners can't see your face and just yeah, we're in Maryland and I don't know if we want to go that direction or if we should start talking now about your travel business. But what's in Maryland besides you?

Mary (35:33.582)
Let's do that. No, because we haven't talked about that at all yet. So let's talk about Ponte.

Jason Elkins (35:37.276)
All right, good timing. So we don't need to know why you're in Maryland or what your favorite thing about Maryland is. Maryland is a beautiful place. I love crab cakes and actually there I have some very fond memories of that area. So now, yeah, I want to know you're traveling, you're living in three different very cool places. When did the travel business get started? How did you start that? How did that all fit in?

Mary (35:41.486)
I'm sorry.

Yeah.

Mary (36:06.35)
Yeah.

So it was actually, I think like late 2019, my husband and I were in Salento in Columbia on a trip there to Valdez Côte -Bras and we were just having a really great time. And there was one investment thing he was following that was talking about, you know, buying business as an investment piece.

Jason Elkins (36:24.188)
Yeah.

Mary (36:39.886)
And so he's just searching for something completely different. And all of a sudden this travel business comes up as one of the ones that are available for purchase. And we're just like, again, huh, that's interesting. Let's learn more about that. And so we started this conversation with the owners of the company then, and it all just fit. It was one of those situations where...

Their philosophy to travel completely matched up with mine. Their size completely matched up with what I would want. And it was just one of those opportunities that I knew was never going to come around again. And you know, when I'm, I got to the point where I was sitting back, I was like, well, what? This was late 2019.

Jason Elkins (37:21.98)
And this was.

And this was 2019, which is travel markets going hot and crazy and why, what a great time to buy a travel business. Right. So when did you actually sign the papers?

Mary (37:31.181)
huh, yeah.

huh. Yeah. Well, we were going through the sale, you know, February, March. And again, there's this little thing that's happening and we thought, Hmm, I wonder if that's going to affect us. I wonder if this is going to affect anything. and it got to a point, I mean, we all got to that point where it's like, okay, do we keep going? Do we, you know, do we keep going? Do we pull out? Right. Do we.

say, okay, this was fun, but you know, we had the we had the opportunity to stop and go, okay, we can stop now if we really don't want this. Or we can plan for it. We can say, okay, look, we know that we know the travel industry is going to tank for a couple of years, we know that, you know, let's just have the assumption that we're not going to have any income for a year and a half. And at the minimum, right, let's build it into our business plan now. So that we're not surprised by it.

Right? Like this, again, this opportunity was too good to pass up. It was one of those, this is never going to fall on my lap again. This is, this is something that is going to, we're definitely going to regret this if this passes us by. and so we went forward with it and, and I, I think that past me was a little crazy for pushing through it, but you know, we did it and, we survived again. We built it into the business plan. we made sure that.

Jason Elkins (38:33.884)
Right.

Mary (38:56.686)
our systems were set up to where we could cover our costs for the next year and a half. And then, you know, yeah, we slowly rebuilt like so many others, kind of squeaked by for a few years. And then, you know, 21 came around, 22 came around, and we started to get a little more. And then, you know, 23 was a pretty, pretty successful year for us. And so, you know, it feels great for it. You know, now we're in year four of operations.

but I feel like, you know, we're finally, finally doing what it's meant to be doing. It's like, it works, right? Like this tour operator thing, it works. And, you know, people want to travel and they want to go see the world and, and having an outlet to be able to do that in a, in a way that's, you know, sustainable, responsible, ethical, authentic, you know, all these things that we try to do with Panti. you know, that's never going to go away. And it's just, it's making sure that we come to the table doing the right thing.

Jason Elkins (39:35.004)
Mm -hmm.

Mary (39:54.254)
and then people will meet us there.

Jason Elkins (39:57.628)
Yep. Yep. Absolutely. It's, it's interesting. I'm curious. Did you, cause the business that's already in place going into COVID, you know, a lot of the tour operators and operations had people already booked. And that was one of the biggest challenges with was dealing with refunds, rescheduling, all of the questions and uncertainty around all this. Presumably since you were buying a business that was already in place, you, you got the pleasure of going through all that, right?

Mary (40:28.366)
Yeah, I did. And I got really, really lucky though. No, I did because I think I got really super lucky because the former owners of the business, there are two of them, Marta Rabins and Heather Murchison. They were the ones that founded the company. They grew the company. They're the ones that really, you can attribute so much of its success even now to them. They stayed on as mentors to me through the entire COVID process.

Jason Elkins (40:29.436)
Yeah, OK. She's shaking her head.

Jason Elkins (40:56.892)
Hmm.

Mary (40:57.454)
You know, they helped me navigate the waters of the refunds that we needed to process, help with the clients that maybe weren't eligible for refunds and we had to defer. And they really went out of their way to help me when they didn't have to. They could have just been like, pandemic, bye, I'm out. But they stuck around because obviously this is such a big project that they did. They didn't want to see it fail. And so they've...

Jason Elkins (41:18.812)
Mm -hmm.

Mary (41:27.182)
still continue to help me often, just as a woman business owner. And just having that support is always nice.

Jason Elkins (41:36.956)
Very cool. Very cool. I've spoken. Right. I spoke with one gentleman who quit his job. You know, he was doing some destination management company stuff for a company and.

He quit his job right before and like, I'm going to go out on my own. And he had talked to some people, yeah, yeah, we'll give you some business, whatever, whatever. And he's like, I'm going to go out on my own. I think he quit his job in February or whatever, you know? And. But, but he, he had a great approach because he's like, well, I knew I wasn't going to make money right off the bat. Anyway, I, you know, I knew.

So he kind of went into it like, I'm not going to make any money for a while anyway, but he didn't have any refunds to process. He didn't have any business already in place. He's like, I just spent my time working on my product. I already knew the product. I knew that these products weren't going to change that much. He's like, I just felt the time building out the product and, and the systems and you know, the website and all that stuff, just take advantage of the time so that when it does come back. And he said, if I had had a bunch of stuff already on my plate, I wouldn't have been able to, you know, or.

Mary (42:22.126)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (42:45.884)
or if COVID wouldn't have happened, I would have just been jumping in and I probably never would have done as good of a job building the business as I did. But yeah, so it's...

Mary (42:53.494)
Yeah. I completely relate to that. I absolutely relate to that because I feel very similarly that, you know, I feel like if I, if I jumped right in and felt like I just needed to keep turning operations the way they were going, I wouldn't have had the chance to really come down to the basis as to what, what the business is doing, what we were doing, you know, making, making connections with all of our, our network suppliers and getting in touch with all of our clients and really getting to know our very

base fundamental level. And I had that opportunity and we were able to work on the website, we were able to work on our branding, we were able to work on these other aspects that really, they lose a lot of attention in the base, you know, in the everyday churn of operations. And so, you know, yeah, well, COVID was horrible for the industry in general. I feel like it really gave a lot of us the time to step back and reflect, what are we doing? Are we doing things the right way? How can we do things better so that when we do come back?

we can make those changes, structurally, either within your company or in the adventure travel sphere in general. We can come back doing the right thing instead of the profitable thing, if that makes sense. I mean, they're not always the same thing. You know what I mean? Like, let's do this for the right reasons instead of just doing it to churn travelers.

Jason Elkins (44:10.076)
Yeah. Yeah.

Jason Elkins (44:19.9)
Well, it's, it's hard to really make impactful change when you're in the middle of something, you know, it's kind of like, you know, I, I'm thinking of the analogy of trying to learn how to swim, you know, in rough seas, you know, someone throws you over the side of the boat. You've got one objective is to keep my head above water and survive, not to learn how to swim. You don't have time to learn how to swim. So sometimes, you know, that kind of slow down to speed up type of thing that, you know,

Mary (44:45.774)
Mm -hmm.

Jason Elkins (44:46.844)
Life gives us every once in a while an opportunity to do that. Even if we don't appreciate it at the time, like this sucks. Things were good. I was making money. but okay, now I got to stop and reevaluate things, but also something else you touched on. You mentioned, I thought it was brilliant. In Columbia, you guys were really good about taking advantage of the opportunities to travel during the entire time you were there. So that when.

Mary (44:52.078)
Right. Yeah.

Jason Elkins (45:13.724)
this all happened and you only had three months left and you weren't able to go do all that stuff. You're like, well, we had already been purposeful about doing things and experiencing things. And what that is, what your, what your story of that is, is exactly what hit pretty much everybody in the world. At the same time was this realization that, crap, we don't know what's going to happen in the future.

If we're going to do things, we should do them now. Cause you know, it's dark, but there's a lot of people that were planning to retire right around that time or people that were like, okay, and 2020 that's when I'm going to go on my round the world trip. And, and they worked until they were 75 or whatever. And some of them didn't have the chance. You know, some of them weren't able to hold on.

You know, your business was able to hold on. You were able to, you know, create some wonderful things that are really benefiting you and your clients now, but life, you know, I think everybody in the adventure travel and not just adventure travel, just in life in general is just kind of reevaluated things. I, I wouldn't be doing what I was, you know, I was selling real estate when this all started and, and that got really weird. And all of a sudden we were doing it remotely and.

Then I was given the opportunity to do remote, you know, appointment setting for my real estate team. And I'm like, wow, I can do that for anywhere, you know, and I don't know that I would be where I'm at if it hadn't been, you know, for that. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And then, and then I realized I still didn't like real estate. So now I'm having, now I've got a podcast and I'm doing travel stuff again. Thank goodness. but yeah, so things.

Mary (46:40.206)
I could do that from Columbia.

Mary (46:55.342)
Perfect. Perfect.

Jason Elkins (47:01.148)
You know, it's tough because obviously there's a lot of people that did not get as much benefit out of it. I hate to even use the word benefit tied to that, to that, because it was horrible. It sucked. You know, I mean, it was a really bad thing.

Mary (47:12.942)
Right, and that's why we kind of have to view it on two sides, right? Like, yes, it was advantageous for these reasons, but obviously it was catastrophic to the world in general. I feel like all we can do though is just kind of adjust, adapt, flex. I feel like we've all done that, obviously, in our personal lives, but professionally, if we've wanted to survive, we needed to flex.

Jason Elkins (47:23.964)
Mm -hmm.

Jason Elkins (47:33.884)
Yeah.

Mary (47:41.71)
And we needed to find other ways to do what we were doing. And travel was one of those things that it's always going to, there's always going to be a need for it. There's always going to be a demand for it. And that was kind of our mantra going through it, even on the really, really hard days of what have we done? It's like, travel is going to come back. There's like almost nothing that's going to keep travel from coming back.

Jason Elkins (48:10.3)
Yeah, yeah. Well, it's.

Mary (48:10.766)
and we just had to get there. We just had to get another day.

Jason Elkins (48:15.036)
And I suspect just listening to you and I'm able to see you on the screen here. I don't think this is all business for you. I don't think this is a, you know, I, I, I'm guessing you chose this type of business as opposed to, you know, a laundromat somewhere or a real estate firm or, you know, other things. I think there's something to it a lot more than just the, you know, can we make money doing this? Right.

Mary (48:34.996)
absolutely.

Mary (48:41.804)
absolutely. I mean, like I said from the beginning, like it was, it wasn't about the investment. It wasn't about the business. It was about, you know, travel planning and, and having something in the travel industry in the travel sphere is that's one thing that I could see myself doing day after day after day and not get tired of it. And I can, like, I will sit down and I will, I will get into a trip and I, I won't come up for a breath for a long time and I won't get tired of it.

Jason Elkins (49:00.252)
Great. Yeah.

Mary (49:09.71)
And so it just really fits. I mean, it's ever since, since I was young, right? Since those early days, it's always been a need to go see what else is out there, to go explore these little cultures and to see what I don't know. And I feel like it's one of these things, travel is one of these amazing things that the more you do it, the more you realize that there's left to be done. Right? Does that make sense? Like,

The more you go, the more you realize you're never going to know all the other tiny little details and aspects. There's always going to be so much more to see. And some people could look at that as a depressing thing, right? Like, well, I'm never going to get to all the different... I feel it's an amazing thing that there is so much in the world, that there's so many, again, these little micro -cultures that I'm never going to get the chance to experience, but they exist and they thrive and they've been thriving.

Jason Elkins (49:51.516)
-huh.

Mary (50:05.23)
for thousands of years and they've developed, right? And there are humans attached to those microcultures and they have entire lives that I'm never gonna have any contact with. And it's just, it's fascinating to me. It's like reading in that way, right? Like the more you read, the more you realize you're never gonna get to read.

Jason Elkins (50:15.868)
It's a weird.

Jason Elkins (50:20.284)
Or it's, yeah, it's that like, I don't know what I don't know until I start to learn. And then I realized I don't know more than I didn't know. And it's this weird thing. Like I named the podcast, Big World Made Small, because in some sense it was like, I just want to bring people together. I want to encourage people to go out and learn and, and have it not seem so overwhelming. But at the same time, what you just said makes is true. It's like the more I travel, the more I'm like, like I.

Mary (50:23.95)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Mary (50:40.334)
Mm -hmm.

Jason Elkins (50:47.452)
I created the podcast. I was in Southeast Asia, my first trip to Southeast Asia, and it always seemed so far away. And I thought I'm making the big world feel smaller by traveling. But then when I came back to South America, I'm like, but I didn't go to any number of places. I didn't go to Myanmar. I didn't make it to India. I didn't go to Bangladesh. And it's like, yeah.

Mary (51:10.446)
But that's the beauty of it. You don't have to, right? You don't have to have it as a checklist. Like you don't have to have travel and have the world as a, well, I didn't experience it, so it's a lack on my part, right? It's like, I got to go experience the things that I did at the quality that I did, right? Like rather than just saying, boom, boom, boom, boom, we're gonna get all these things off just to see them. It's like, I got to really experience this one culture that's, you know.

Jason Elkins (51:15.548)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (51:30.588)
Yeah, yeah.

Mm -hmm.

Mary (51:38.638)
in a really deep way, in a really slow, intimate way that is enriching to my life. And just to know that there are so many more of those out there, that's energizing to me. That brings me energy.

Jason Elkins (51:52.54)
No, I...

I would agree because frankly, well, you and I probably both know some people that have been to almost all countries or maybe even all of them. And it's like, okay, on one sense, that's cool because they can't, they have to have had experiences along the way.

But they couldn't have experienced all of it, number one. Number two is, it's like, I like knowing that there's more places to see. I probably, I'm a realist. I'm not going to get to see all of them. But I sure like the idea that they exist because maybe I'll, you know, as long as there's more places to see and experience, not to chuck off the list, I couldn't care less about number of countries. But.

If tomorrow morning I woke up and just somehow was able to download every cultural experience that's available on the planet, I'd be like, man, how boring. Like, I don't, what am I going to do the next day? You know, it's, I don't want to know it all. I don't want to see it all. It's like, I love dreaming about where to go next. You know, even if I never make it, you know, I've, I've.

Mary (52:46.314)
Thank you.

Mary (52:51.322)
Right. my gosh, you're so right.

Jason Elkins (53:05.852)
I'm on my phone all the time looking at flights on kayak or Airbnb and Armenia or Georgia. And I don't know if I'll ever make it, but man, I sure get excited about the fact that I could, you know, I'm fortunate enough to have the, you know, the physical health and the resources to go do stuff. Maybe not on the same level as some of your clients are doing it. I'm more likely to, with my one little suitcase and staying in a crappy Airbnb somewhere, but I'll enjoy it just as much.

But anyway, so what's new and exciting on the horizon for you?

Mary (53:35.534)
Yeah.

Mary (53:44.174)
gosh, yeah, what is new and exciting? You know, I think that, we're, I feel like I'm still kind of in the rebuilding stage. And I know that that's, you know, now we're, we're four years past covert, not even, but, you know, a few years past COVID. I honestly don't even know if we're going to be out of, out of a rebuilding stage. I feel like the, the world we're in right now is, is so, it's different enough.

Jason Elkins (54:07.42)
I was gonna ask.

Mary (54:12.366)
from pre -COVID that it's always going to be different, right? Like we're always, there's always gonna be new, new changing things that we're dealing with in travel.

Mary (54:25.614)
pandemics and natural disasters and political incidents and you name it, there's always going to be something that's going to be changing the way that the industry works. I think for as far as what's new for us,

Mary (54:45.902)
I hope you can have it at this little pause here. I'm really trying to think of something.

Jason Elkins (54:49.436)
No, no, that's, and I, maybe there's so much, there's so much exciting new stuff that it's hard to put your finger on one. I get that because I'm, you got something. All right, what do you got?

Mary (54:56.909)
Yeah. I got something. I got something. Yeah, I got something. All right. something that's really exciting that I think that I'm going to lean heavier into, in terms of, you know, what, what we do at Ponte, is, you know, we do offer worldwide destinations and that's great. We always have. you know, I think that the first destination that Ponte was really focused in was, was India. It kind of just bloomed out of that. but.

based off of my experience in Columbia and based off of a few recent trips that I've taken to that area, you know, I was in Peru in December and then Ecuador just last month in May. It really solidified my love for the North Andes region. Just...

I feel like everywhere you travel, you leave a piece of your heart, but that corner of South America is just, it becomes so special to my heart that it's definitely a region I'm going to be leaning heavier into in the next few months, next couple of years, I think. You know, really developing more product there, more itineraries there. I want to show just the depth of that region. You know, like there is...

There's so much more than the major sites that there are, that it's a place for culinary. Columbia is a culinary destination. Columbia is a family destination. Columbia has these all, and I mean, Ecuador and Peru too, but it has all of these other really wonderful things to it that I think get hidden by, it gets hidden by its history.

a lot of the time, you know, I mean, you asked, you know, how did your family feel about you moving to Columbia? you know, that gets wrapped up in it too. You know, I feel like you, you tell somebody that you live in Columbia or you were there with two young children, like, my gosh, how did, how was that? Were you safe? Yes, you're absolutely safe. You know, it's, it's this, it's this stigma that they're trying to overcome constantly. And I think one of the things that's driving not only my own,

Mary (57:15.47)
my own efforts with what we're doing now, it's seeing so many of the young tour operators in Columbia trying to share their country in a way that changes that narrative. And I'm sure you see it too, right? You see that the successful tourism industry is being run by a younger generation. They are the ones that love their country so much. They love their culture. They love everything about Columbia that they...

Jason Elkins (57:28.828)
Yeah. Yeah.

Mary (57:44.974)
want to share it with the world, but they're met with these stigmas, with this horrible history that they have. And that's all that people see. And to be able to change that, to accept that, yes, this happened, but that it's a thing in the past. And we're moving forward and we have this amazing biodiversity, we have this amazing agrodiversity, culture diversity.

these wonderful natural sites that you can't find anywhere else in the world. And they're, they're doing it so proactively, just out of the love of their country. It was, it was really beautiful to witness. And it's, it's something that is, is,

Mary (58:31.118)
It makes, it makes me want to be a much heavier Columbia supporter because of it, you know? So if you're listening, go to Columbia and enjoy yourself because you're gonna.

Jason Elkins (58:37.916)
Yeah, I get it. Yeah, that's and you're you're absolutely right. And the thing is, like, if you haven't been to Columbia, you can hear us saying this. Hopefully you hear the passion in the voice. If you were looking at Mary's face right now, you you would see it and you'd feel it. And and I get it like, you know, I grew up.

I'm probably a little older than you are, Mary. I mean, when I was growing up in high school, I was on the news was bad stuff happening in Columbia. It's, it's kind of like, you know, somebody wanting to go to Afghanistan or something, you know, and it's just like, well, why would I want to go there? but the truth is almost every day I look around me and I think, my goodness, there are so many people who will never experience this because of.

Mary (59:10.286)
Yep.

Mary (59:15.246)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (59:29.532)
old playing stories or images in their head of things that they'd heard. There are some political reasons. You know, I mentioned the State Department warning. I'm not knocking the State Department, but yeah, if I, but you know what? I've been a lot of places where the state, you know, I lived in Belize for a while and the State Department warning wasn't that excited about going to Belize either. So set that stuff aside, you know, quit watching the news. Cause you're never going to see the good stuff on these. You're not going to see.

Mary (59:45.838)
Yeah. Don't not list to the State Department, but also, you know, like take it with a grain of salt.

Jason Elkins (59:59.1)
Well, yeah, don't, yeah, you know, just like, but it's hard if you haven't traveled outside the country and you, and you know, it's, it's really hard, but I think Columbia's, you know, I've been to, I've experienced a lot of great places in South America, spent time, you know, Venezuela, Africa, some other places before I ever came to Columbia. But Columbia is the one where it really challenged my own beliefs, my own stories and images in my head of what I was going to experience.

And when I got here, it was like, yeah, this is not like what my parents were telling me it was going to be like, you know, everything was just like, wow, I'm so happy I came here and I got to see it for myself. Are there difficult things that happen here? Yes. There's difficult things that happen in St. Louis, Missouri, or Chicago, Illinois, or Oakland, California, or, you know, Paris, France, or any of the places. And put the trade offs here are so high.

Mary (01:00:51.149)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (01:00:57.276)
You know, like I'm not, I shouldn't say this. Anybody that anybody that's in St. Louis disregard this. Stop listening for a second. I don't see, I don't see a whole lot of benefits to going to St. Louis, but I see, yeah, there are some risks there. You know, there, there's some challenges and issues there. There's not much in St. Louis, particularly that would draw my attention except for maybe some barbecue. But you know, with a place like Columbia and probably a lot of places in the world, there's so many amazing things that are happening.

Mary (01:00:58.19)
It is.

Mary (01:01:04.142)
Hahaha!

Jason Elkins (01:01:27.356)
that it's, it makes it a little easier to kind of accept, you know, that there is a certain level of risk anytime you travel. But when you're here and you get on the bus and you look totally different than everybody else on the bus and you're trying to, you're looking at your phone, trying to figure out where you can get off. So you can walk to the Metro station and people will just look at you. What are you looking for? You know, can I help you? And then, you know, the last time I was in, I was in a situation recently and by the time I got off the bus, there were six or seven people.

Mary (01:01:51.406)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (01:01:56.412)
trying to give me directions on, okay, get off here, walk down this way, boom, boom, boom. And they're all using their own set of directions because Colombians have their own way of doing things. And my Spanish can barely manage one person at a time. But I got off feeling like, man, I'm so cared for and so looked after. And this is white middle -aged guy in Medellin, Colombia, where some people might have stories about what's a white middle -aged guy doing in Medellin, Colombia.

And these people were just so incredibly welcoming. And it's just like almost every day. You know, I left a few, when I first got here, I left a few coins on a table at a pen at a coffee shop. And the woman chased me out on the street to tell me I left my money, you know? And I'm like, that's a tip. Isn't that what you do? You know, and they have, I've had people, you know, I have a receipt hanging out of my back pocket and people on the Metro or wherever will stop me and point out and say, Hey, you've got something hanging out of your pocket. You know, they're not trying to, I mean,

Mary (01:02:29.134)
Yeah.

Mary (01:02:40.75)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (01:02:53.34)
Yeah, there's pickpocketing everywhere, but I haven't experienced it. And I've experienced so much of the opposite that even at this point, even if I did get pickpocketed or probably even robbed, I'd be like, I would see it as an anomaly. Not the, you know, this is, that's one person who's having a problem right now. but everybody else has just been so sweet and wonderful. And, yeah. So come to Columbia and you and I need to probably figure out some ways to collaborate on that as well. Cause obviously I'm very excited about it. And I think it's great that you're going to.

Mary (01:03:10.99)
Right, right.

Mary (01:03:21.262)
Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, stay tuned for more Columbia content from up here.

Jason Elkins (01:03:23.228)
going to do more stuff down here. So, all right, cool.

I'm excited for that. We've discussed a lot of things. When you expand into Columbia, we'll do another episode to just talk about that. But as far as this episode, is there anything I forgot to ask you, should have asked you, or anything that you want to make sure that our listeners know about you, your views on life, or anything that I missed that we should discuss before we wrap up?

Mary (01:03:34.478)
Yeah.

Mary (01:03:40.014)
Yeah.

Mary (01:03:55.054)
I think, I mean, we kind of touched on it earlier, but I always, you know, when people always ask me for travel advice, the first thing I always say is, you know, just go, don't try to find the reasons why you shouldn't go, just go, just, you know, make it work because you're not going to regret going. You're not going to get like the actual experiences that you have when you go, you know, you're going to gain so much from.

from going and you know, especially, especially if you have kids, I think, you know, if you take your kids traveling and you, you take them to a new place, you know, a lot of people think that, well, they're not going to get anything from it. They're too young. They're not going to remember. but it's so much more than, than the sites that they're going to see and the facts that they're going to remember. you know, kids pick up on, problem solving. They pick up on being in a different, you know, language environment. They pick up on other food. They pick up on all these little cues.

that if you make it a habit enough, then they begin to do that themselves and they become more comfortable with it themselves. So, I feel like if you're ever on the fence about going somewhere, just go. It's gonna be an incredible transformational experience. Just go.

Jason Elkins (01:05:14.012)
There's nothing I can't add to that at all. Thank you. That's a perfect way to end the conversation. Just go. So thank you. And we've got your website in the show notes. And the whole point of this is to help people connect with you as a person. And if they're inspired by your message and they think they might want to check out what Ponte's doing, then I trust they'll click the link. I would encourage them to very much. This is my...

Mary (01:05:38.542)
I'd really appreciate it. Thank you.

Jason Elkins (01:05:39.868)
Yeah, this is not my first conversation with you, Mary. And I'm inspired by what you're doing and excited about it. And it's great to have another veteran working in the travel business, because that's not my honesty. I don't see very often and we didn't really touch on it too much, but.

Mary (01:05:51.246)
I know. Yeah. You know, you mentioned it earlier and that is again, one of those things that whenever I, I mentioned it in my back, well, how'd you get into travel? And I mentioned that and you're like, but that's not a thing people in the travel industry do very often.

Jason Elkins (01:06:06.332)
Yeah. Yup. But it makes sense. I mean, I can see, I can, I can create a few different stories for why that is, but I also, I think that people that are willing to, you know, go, go travel around, serve, whatever it just, I don't know. It worked for me, worked for you. So here we are. So thanks for being here. Appreciate you. And I look forward to chatting with you again soon. Thanks, Mary.

Mary (01:06:28.174)
Thanks so much, Jason. This has been great. Thanks.