Adventure Travel with Simon Locke - Colombia57 Tour, Travel & Logistics

Simon Locke
Co-Owner
Colombia57 Tour, Travel & Logistics

Simon grew up on a dairy farm in the beautiful New Forest, England where he developed a strong love for the countryside and fishing. His adventures in various industries helped him build valuable business skills—starting with Mechanical Engineering at an automotive leader and later launching his own successful startup focused on oak timber frame buildings.

During three amazing years of hitchhiking and walking through South America and Asia, Simon discovered his passion for travel. A special moment in Colombia opened his eyes to a fantastic business opportunity. In 2006, he teamed up with co-owners to establish Colombia57. Since then, he has worked hard to develop departments and internal structures while using his creative and friendly communication style to help make the company one of Colombia's top full-service receptive tour operators.

summary
In this episode of the Big World Made Small podcast, Jason Elkins interviews Simon Locke, co-owner of Colombia57, who shares his incredible journey from a farmer's son in Hampshire to a travel entrepreneur in Colombia. Simon discusses his early life, the call to adventure that led him to South America, and the surprising experiences he had in Colombia that changed his perceptions. He reflects on the challenges of running a business in a foreign country, the importance of family support, and the evolution of his company over the years. The conversation highlights the beauty and diversity of Colombia as a travel destination and Simon's passion for sharing it with others.

takeaways

• Simon Locke's journey began on a farm in Hampshire.
• He pursued a rock and roll dream before traveling.
• Traveling was a way to find something different in life.
• Colombia was a surprising and welcoming destination.
• Colombia offers a diverse range of experiences.
• Family support played a crucial role in Simon's journey.
• The travel industry in Colombia has evolved significantly.
• Colombia57 focuses on providing tailored travel experiences.
• Simon emphasizes the importance of personal connections in business.
• The future of Colombia57 looks promising with ongoing developments.

Learn more about Big World Made Small Adventure Travel Marketing and join our private community to get episode updates, special access to our guests, and exclusive adventure travel offers on our website.

Transcript

Jason Elkins (00:01.378)
Welcome back everybody to another episode of the Big World Made Small podcast for the adventure traveler. Today we've got Simon Locke. He's the co-owner of Colombia57 Tour, Travel and Logistics. Simon, welcome to the show. Happy to have you here.

Simon (00:16.694)
Thank you very much, Jason. It's a pleasure to be on your show.

Jason Elkins (00:20.642)
Yeah, this is pretty cool for me. As a lot of our listeners know, I've got a lot of connections with Colombia having spent most of the last three years in and around Colombia. And obviously, based on the business name and anybody that looked at the show notes before they clicked through to listen to this knows you've got a connection with Colombia as well. So this will be a real treat having a conversation with

Simon (00:43.092)
Indeed, yes. Spent quite a few years over here, so...

Jason Elkins (00:44.076)
Suh, suh.

Jason Elkins (00:48.366)
Yes, you have. And just for our listeners benefit, where are you right now?

Simon (00:54.274)
I'm actually in the UK now. I'm in the Southern Coast, so down in Hampshire in England. And I've been here for three years really, just after the pandemic. I moved back from Colombia after living in Colombia for about 15 years.

Jason Elkins (01:09.742)
15 years, we're gonna go back before you came to Colombia because I think our listeners, I don't know what our listeners wanna hear, but I know what I wanna hear. I wanna hear your story. So let's, I don't know how far back we need to go to explain why somebody from the UK would end up in Colombia in the first place, but let's go back. What's the earliest memory you have, Simon? Of anything that might be relevant.

Simon (01:30.738)
The The earliest, okay. There's lots of things I've forgotten, but maybe we shouldn't go into that. So I was born on a farm here in Hampshire. So I'm a farmer's son and a country boy through and through. And I grew up on the farm and quite an idyllic lifestyle, really, fishing and helping my dad on the farm. I was always sort of

less interested in maybe sort of the going forward in education. But I ended up with an apprenticeship at a place called AC Delco's in the docks. And I did that for a good seven years, the apprenticeship and then they took me on, which I was quite good at. So AC, I was a mechanical maintenance fitter. So in that particular factory,

Jason Elkins (02:17.902)
What was that all about?

Simon (02:27.998)
We used to make oil filters and air filters for cars and lorries. So you'd have thousands of filters running through and we would maintain the big presses and the spray sharps and all of the conveyabouts that were working. So I would learn anything from welding to working on milling machines and grinding machines down to a thousandth of an inch. It was all fairly technical stuff of which

you know, I was quite good at. But there was something that I didn't enjoy being cooped up in a factory, know, working nights as well. It wasn't particularly for me. I think generally that's because of my upbringing, being out in the fields and down by the river and the lake. That was more me. And at the same time, I joined a a rock and roll band, which

I was the singer. so we ended up playing in London a bit, in places like the garage at Highbury. you know, was doing quite well, but nothing to ever, you know, make us rich and famous in any way. But it was all good fun. But by then I'd left my job and become, you know, just sort of laboring in a...

Jason Elkins (03:30.542)
Wow, okay.

Simon (03:55.167)
on building sites just to sort of pursue my dream of being this kind of rock and roll star, know, the next Liam Gallagher or Ian Brown from the Stone Roses. And that never happened really. But I was able to.

Jason Elkins (04:08.568)
Which is why we're talking today, probably. Because if you're a big rock star, you probably wouldn't have time for this show.

Simon (04:11.062)
This is why we're talking now. Yeah. I'm still alive really. then so we can, but because of my work on certain building sites, I learned new trades in carpentry and then with a very good friend of mine, we started a business on Oak Timber Frame Buildings. So we would work.

Jason Elkins (04:21.998)
that.

Simon (04:41.012)
out in the wilds and sort of building timber frames and putting old historic barns or pubs back up together with the old oak. That was great fun. There was always a great yearning inside of me to travel. I don't know if you've heard of, well, you must have heard of a guy called Michael Palin. He did some incredible travel shows.

when I was slightly younger and it was seeing Michael Palin travel around the world that really made me sort of think about what I could do myself. Michael Palin, yeah, well Michael Palin, was part of Monty Python.

Jason Elkins (05:21.742)
So these were television shows, because I'll be honest, I'm always honest, I do not recognize the name.

Jason Elkins (05:32.194)
Okay.

Simon (05:33.402)
He was with John Cleese and everything, then he went on to do, you know, he grew up a little bit and did these fantastic travel shows. He's got some amazing books out as well. And I remember...

Jason Elkins (05:43.161)
So how old, rough, or where does this, where did that period of your life fit in with the other things you already told us about? When were you watching these shows?

Simon (05:51.682)
Anything from, you know, sort of 22 to 27. When I was 27, that's when I finally left, decided to sort of leave. And it was watching one show where he was making his way down the river Amazon on one of the big sort of boats and it was sunset. And there was something in there, but he just said that I've got to do this. I'm 27 now. I don't have a particularly...

stable job or life at the moment so probably now is the good time to do it because if I don't do it I knew I I would I would I'm the type of person that would regret it for the rest of my life and probably blame those people who with me.

Jason Elkins (06:26.67)
You

Jason Elkins (06:33.324)
It's interesting that you said.

I going to say it's interesting that you said I wasn't at a particularly stable point in my life. So I thought I'm going to go travel and explore and make it even less stable.

Simon (06:49.09)
Yeah, yeah. Maybe there was some kind of finding myself or something like that, but that was no intention of finding myself. I just wanted to go and do something different and something different from digging holes and being up on top of the roof when the snow's falling, etc. So I said to my business partner then, I said to Matt, I'm going to do this. I want to do this.

Jason Elkins (06:56.994)
Right.

Jason Elkins (07:09.645)
Yeah, absolutely.

Simon (07:17.73)
I've had enough and luckily he sort of went, that's a good idea. I'll do that with you. So we both packed up the business, sold the tools, I sold my car and I told my mom and dad who were just hoping that I was going to grow up at some point, I think, told them that I was then going to go traveling, which the kind of reaction that you had really is like, well, we thought you were going to be, you know, do something a bit more stable. But I bought a one way.

Jason Elkins (07:43.886)
Cause sometimes people when they get to 27 at that point in their life, they're like, okay, it's time to get stable. You know, prepare for family stuff or whatever. And I think oftentimes our parents are kind of at the same mindset. It's like, okay, early twenties, fine, find yourself. But by the time you're starting to approach 30, you should have already found yourself. But I'm kind of like you, I'm 51, I still haven't found myself.

Simon (08:14.016)
Yeah, friends around me were starting to settle down and have children get married or move in with their partners. And I was kind of a bit like, I certainly wasn't, that's not for me. You know, it was more like, well, why isn't this happening to me either? Maybe it is because I was a dick. I don't know. But so I kind of

decided to just move away from it, move away from what was happening around me. I want to just want to sort of prove to myself that I could actually do something memorable in life. think that was that was maybe one of the reasons why I went. And, you know, I said to mum and dad, it's going to be about eight months, I think, you know, I'd looked at Lonely Planet. And that's before we had really, you internet. So I had to look at book kids, you know, the single pages.

Jason Elkins (08:58.862)
Mm-hmm.

Simon (09:13.69)
so I'd sort of spent many a days was circling where I wanted to go and what I wanted to see. And there was an older lady in the village where I lived and she'd lived in Bolivia for a good 17 years, a Scottish lady. so I got chatting to her and she was really inspirational about the whole thing and taught me a little tiny bit of Spanish, you know, to get me, get me through, you know, like una serbesa, una senesero, and, know, things like that.

And then so I bought my flight ticket down to Buenos Aires and that's when the travel started really It's when it sort of got going

Jason Elkins (09:54.478)
That's very cool. Real quick, I want to touch on, because you mentioned the band, and then you just now mentioned I wanted to do something. I got to 27. Things were different in my world, and I wanted to do something. I think you said the word may be meaningful. I'm curious, do you think that your desire to do it with the band and your desire to travel, are those tied to the same kind of instinct or desire? Or do you see those as two totally different directions?

Simon (10:01.313)
Yeah.

Simon (10:25.002)
No, yes, completely linked. 100%.

I'm not the sort of greatest person in the world with words, et cetera, but I think from my side, I've always been somebody who I think I enjoy normality. very much, you know, I'm now happily married with a wonderful daughter and a just wonderful wife. And I really do like sitting in my comfortable trousers in the evening.

watching stupid TV with my wife with a glass of wine, know, doing normal stuff. I love that. But it's very, very quickly gets boring. And I need to do something to give me a peek, you know. And, you know, there are consumable options, but you don't do that anymore, especially when you're a dad. So it but I've always been like that, you know, I've kind of

Jason Elkins (11:11.022)
Mm-hmm.

Simon (11:29.216)
I've always wanted to do something a bit different. Maybe I've always wanted to be different, even though I kind of look and sound when I'm on a time voice quite dull. But I've always wanted to sort of be, you know, just just just do different things because I kind of I've always been that, you know, life is quite short and I want to make the most of life and I get quite I don't like it when I'm being held back with things. So I think, right.

Jason Elkins (11:55.31)
Sounds familiar, Simon. Sounds familiar. I think it can relate to what you're saying.

Simon (11:59.362)
They are connected. They're definitely connected and even now I say things to my wife and I'm like, I wouldn't mind giving that a go and she's like, don't be so ridiculous. So yeah, I'm always thinking about doing things. Maybe less adventurous but...

Jason Elkins (12:17.582)
Tell me a little bit about, because also before we get to what happened in Buenos Aires after that, is your parents. You'd mentioned that maybe they kind of thought you had settled down and created something a little bit more normal, but were they supportive? Were they terrified? Had they traveled before? What were those conversations like with your parents?

Simon (12:43.65)
I certainly think that they were possibly hoping, but they knew that I wasn't going to because they knew me from as a kid. you know, dad is a farmer here in the UK. It's never been a very easy industry. And I've seen my father work incredibly hard for many, many years. He's not since sold

Jason Elkins (12:55.043)
Mm-hmm.

Simon (13:13.206)
farm, sold the cattle anyway. So he's always had a life of working and working very hard. you know, I respect him hugely for that and what he was able to give me and my sister with, you know, what he was earning, you know, it was just amazing. then, you know, he is, I suppose there's a part of me and him where, where, or him and me, sorry, where, you know, farmers and mechanics,

their vets, their accountants, they can do everything. There's sometimes a very little respect for farmers, but in fact, they're far more educated than somebody that's been to university. And I'll probably get in trouble for that, but it's the truth. And they feed us. They give us the fuel that we need to live every single day. But he'd never, sorry, I'm going off track a little bit on a rant, but they...

They'd never really traveled. The first time we traveled we went to Ibiza because my grandfather died and left a little bit money so my mum took us all to Ibiza. That was our first sort of trip abroad. Staying at El Presidente Hotel. Never forget it. It was great. then but... it was about seven, I think. Something like that.

Jason Elkins (14:28.002)
How old were you?

Jason Elkins (14:32.27)
Okay, so because I'm just curious, like, what do you remember from that trip as far as your parents? Because I remember I took an early trip to Europe with my grandparents and it was, they hadn't traveled much. And I just remember like my grandmother had a really hard time comprehending why it was so hard to get ice cubes, you know, in a drink or whatever. And I just remember them culturally, just, didn't honestly, I'm not sure they enjoyed it.

They're gone, I can't ask them that, but I'm not sure they really enjoyed it. So I'm curious, what are your memories of that trip with your parents and like, was that like, this is amazing? Or is it like, okay, I can't wait till this order go back home. Do you remember? You were pretty young. They did, okay.

Simon (15:14.846)
no, they thoroughly enjoyed it. Yeah, I can remember being allowed to stay up very late in the hotel bar because my parents were enjoying it. And that's great. And from then on, they traveled. They traveled more and more. know, was like for many of us, it was that kind of drug of traveling is amazing, isn't it? Whether it be just a two night break in the Cotswolds or, you know, 18 months in wherever.

Jason Elkins (15:29.176)
Okay.

Simon (15:44.482)
And so they traveled a lot and but they were very proud of me for going to do that. And it was at the point where I'm talking about my mum yet, but it was where when I was leaving, my dad was starting to sell the cows and stuff because he'd had enough and he just couldn't cope anymore with working so hard and not earning as much. And he hurt his legs and stuff like that. And I said, look, you know, I'm going to stay. I don't want to leave you.

whilst you're going through this process. And he was like, no, you're going, I want you to go. You know, so very, very proud of me doing this. And the same with my mum as well. You know, she grew up in very humble beginnings. And it was just, again, that kind of pride, you can tell that pride that I was doing something that's different and taking opportunities in life that, you know, maybe when they were younger, they just didn't have those opportunities, like

know, kids these days have even more opportunities, they, child? So, no, they were really supportive of me, but, you know, there was a chip in there, just sort of, kind of, when you come back, you grow up, type of thing.

Jason Elkins (16:55.522)
Do you remember ever feeling...

Well, yeah, yeah. So I was wondering like when you really kind of went out there and you bought, you know, you sold your stuff, bought the ticket to Buenos Aires. and we'll get into that more, but were there points where maybe you thought I want to go home, but I don't want to disappoint my parents. Did you ever feel like they were proud of you for doing that? So therefore maybe you did it longer or you did things that you wouldn't otherwise have done because you didn't want to

disappoint your parents?

Simon (17:31.562)
No, no, because I knew that they were proud of what I was doing, which kind of fueled me massively. And also my sister as well, you my sister was really supportive. And I just, you know, it was lovely and I was able to write these long emails, you know, trying to possibly be, you know, this travel writer writing back home.

But there was a lot more swearing in my prose than the most travel writers, I think. But no, they were very supportive. I think one of the only reasons that I was sometimes thinking I should go home was just to support, you know, Dad a bit. But it turned out he didn't need me, not in a bad way. know, Dad's a very industrious man and he got on and he did very well for himself.

Jason Elkins (18:31.608)
I get it. And I think that that is a challenge because, you know, I've been traveling full time for the last few years. You traveled and lived here. And I think that that is one thing that comes up is a little bit of like, I'm enjoying myself. I love the experiences and the challenges, but then sometimes for me anyway, that's balanced with, you know, maybe I have a conversation with someone back home and there something's going on and I feel bad that I can't be there. I remember one night my mom had called me and she wasn't feeling well.

And I was very, very concerned, but I'm 2000 miles away. You know, so had to call my ex-wife and ask my ex-wife to, can you go check in on my mom? You know, she, whatever. She ended up being fine. But it was those moments where you just feel like, wow, should I be enjoying myself here? Or what's, why am I so selfish to want to do this? And, I don't know. I'm just sharing that cause that's coming up. And it sounds like you maybe had a little bit of that as well, but.

Simon (19:33.522)
I certainly had that many years later when I was actually living in Colombia, which I'm sure that's something we might get onto later on. But yeah, there was certainly a yearning to get home and be at home a lot more.

Jason Elkins (19:48.984)
Yep, so let's go back to let's go back to Buenos Aires. I want to make sure we don't miss anything We're not going to cover everything but but let's so you bought the bought the ticket to Buenos Aires and And then what?

Simon (19:54.092)
Yeah. No, no.

Yeah, so I flew over with a friend of mine, Matt, we flew into Buenos Aires, completely misjudged the temperature, thinking that Latin America would be nice and warm. Not in August in Buenos Aires, it's not. But the, you know, the Quilomé's beer was good. So we were happy to start off with, and then we went up to Uruguay.

for a bit and then back over to Argentina to get to the Aguasú Falls and then into Paraguay. And then I started to realize a little bit that maybe my travel focus or the ideal of what I wanted to do was slightly different to Matt's. was, you know, a bit more party and stuff like that. Brilliant, go for it, rock and roll. a lovely time. I kind of wanted to do, again, what we sort of...

discussed earlier on something different, something different from my life, you know, that I'd never done before. And that was more tracking, more traveling on the back of a lorry, staying in places that, you know, weren't necessarily in Lonely Planet. So in the end, I decided to go out different ways. We're still the best of friends, you know, just came back from seeing the Libertines with him last week, you know, it's great.

So then I went back down through Argentina and then over to Chile and then up the Atacama Desert through into Bolivia. I spent quite a bit time in Bolivia. There's stories to tell there, but I wanted to spend that time in Bolivia because of Brenda, the lady in the village who taught me my Spanish and gave me that inspiration. So I wanted to stay in Bolivia and then I went over.

Simon (21:54.562)
to Peru where I decided to do my micro-paling bit. And I traveled inland in Peru to a place called Tarapoto. And then from Tarapoto, I got onto one of the tributaries to the Amazon and spent the next month traveling down the Amazon to the Brazilian coast. Many stories to tell there, not on here though. And then down through Brazil,

Then back up to French Guiana, Suriname, Guiana, into Venezuela. From Venezuela, I met up with Matt again there because England were playing cricket in Trinidad and Tobago and it was only $100 to get over from, on the ferry from Venezuela. So we went to see, went to watch the cricket for a little bit. I say a little bit because we got our tickets to go into the stadium.

was great, amazing atmosphere. We saw 16 overs, which if you don't know much about cricket, it's not very long. 16. And then it just started raining. Yeah, it just started raining and we got on with the locals and the next thing I knew, I woke up in the morning. So it was a good day. A really good day and night was had by all. So yeah, and then with all that travels, I would phone home or send an email of every

Jason Elkins (23:01.11)
No idea, no idea what that means. Sounds impressive though.

Simon (23:24.226)
three weeks month and my mum would always say to me, don't go to Colombia. Please don't go to Colombia. And by then I'd heard a of things from other travelers saying, it's very cool, Colombia is the best place, you feel really safe. So obviously I'm going to go to Colombia. When your mum says don't go, you go, even though you're old enough to realize that you should behave a little bit.

Jason Elkins (23:47.342)
Jason Elkins (23:51.426)
Simon, I was 40, I was 48 when I came to Colombia and my parents, both of them asked me not to go. So I get that. But it sounds like you had visited like every other country in South America. It's about all that was left.

Simon (24:00.546)
Let's see.

Simon (24:05.89)
an Ecuador but I had to go through Colombia to get to Ecuador you So there was that kind of natural route. So what I decided to do to try and be as parent friendly as possible. So I flew from Caracas, by the way I was in Caracas but that's not problem to my parents don't worry about it. You know never heard anything bad about Caracas, Jesus.

Jason Elkins (24:10.594)
Yep, okay.

Jason Elkins (24:34.446)
Yeah.

Simon (24:36.47)
You know, it's not exactly the nicest place on earth, nothing towards Venezuelans, but it was pretty dodgy at that point. So I decided to fly from Caracas to Cartagena. Now that was the first flight I'd taken since Brazil to French Guiana, because it's really difficult to cross there. And I hadn't taken any flights anywhere else. It was all on the, you know, on the back of lorries and buses and things like that.

So I thought to myself, well, I'm going to fly into Cartagena. I've heard good things about Cartagena. I'll get the stamp in my passport and we all collect stamps. But with that stamp, you know, I can go back home to my little village, West Wellow in Hampshire and, know, be a hero. possibly they'll sort of build a statue of me in the local square. And I'll do box signings and stuff like that.

Jason Elkins (25:29.357)
Yeah, okay.

Mm-hmm.

Simon (25:36.072)
So I ended up flying to Cartagena and I thought to myself, well, just two weeks. I've got the stamp and then I'll just go down to Ecuador and chill out there, you know, et cetera. I ended up for six months. you know, why did I stay for six months?

Jason Elkins (25:49.302)
Okay, yep. How long in Cartagena?

Simon (25:54.986)
A good few weeks, just a couple of weeks, but then you know hear people go, have you not been to Tyrona or you know all the backpacks, have you done Tyrona? And I hadn't done Tyrona, so I kind of went to Tyrona and that was very cool, spent a few days there in the hammocks and Santa Marta and you get to sort of know people and then you suddenly get to realize, the Copa de Libertadores is happening, which is like the Champions League of South America.

So you then start to go, well, hang on a minute, where are the matches? know, can go and see Boca Juniors play, I can go and see, you know, other teams. so I ended up meeting up with sort of some lads, you know, each destination who had similar ideas of going to see some of those matches. One of them is a guy called Eric Sadler, who I have stayed

very, very good friends with, you know, from then on. And we've been great mates. Now he lives in Bilbao in Spain and runs a DMC over there actually. Fantastic guy. So we met up and, know, we would travel around Colombia watching some of these matches and we actually got to the final in Manizales to watch Anse Caldas and Boca Juniors. And Anse Caldas won. So, yeah.

It was fantastic. I've travelled the length and breadth of Colombia. And then I had to go down, I had to get out of the country for a little bit just to renew my visa. So that's when I went to Ecuador and spent probably about three weeks in Ecuador.

Jason Elkins (27:24.27)
Very cool.

Jason Elkins (27:36.386)
You mentioned some of maybe the things and the thoughts you had in mind, definitely that your parents had in mind about Colombia.

How would you explain the reality versus your preconceived ideas? And things have changed a little bit since then. But I'm just curious, what were the big surprises that were like, wow, I thought I'd only stay for a few days, get my passport stamped, but I stayed because of?

Simon (28:05.152)
Yeah, so basically, my thoughts of what Colombia was like before I even started speaking, before Lezade even landed in Buenos Aires was paramilitaries walking around dusty streets with M16s and nobody walking down the street because they too scared. That type of a thing.

And the reality was that I arrived in this beautiful, sunny, colonial city, historical city, just full of cool music, vibrant, colorful, quite loud. But I was used to that by then. was used to Latin America to Brazil, across the line, that's loud. And just very cool people.

to the point where the police were nice. You know, the police were nice to you and just sort of wanted to help you and chat to you and wherever you come from, what you're doing, which in other countries in Latin America, it doesn't really happen or didn't happen. So it was, I just felt really relaxed. I was like, wow. Maybe it was because I had this perception and then all of a sudden that was completely different. So was like, I'm relaxed.

Jason Elkins (29:31.128)
Well, because I'm guessing some of the other countries you visited, maybe to some extent, Peru, Uruguay, you mentioned like Suriname and other places, those are places that most people don't really have a perception of at a time. Like most people I know or most people in the US think Uruguay. Like I have no idea what to expect there. So I'm not going there with any fear. I'm like...

Simon (29:56.77)
Yeah. Yeah.

Jason Elkins (29:59.244)
Now I might go there and realize, wow, I don't like this place. And I'm, I don't know, I haven't been there, but where Colombia, it's like the only thing I ever heard about Colombia growing up was negative stuff that kind of matches what you're talking about. You know, the dusty streets with the military with them 16s and people don't want to leave their house because they're going to, bad things are going to happen to them. So I don't know how, I mean, so it's almost like when you have no expectations, it's probably.

totally different experience than we have these negative perceptions. Right, I guess. So you just got here and it wasn't anything like what you thought it was going to be.

Simon (30:39.17)
No, that's it. I went to a lot of countries knowing nothing about it, so it wasn't a problem to go. And this is the problem that we have as a company. There's so many preconceived perceptions about Colombia where I have the same job now. We're 18 years into Colombia.

I have that same job now as what I had 18 years ago. I do the same thing. I tell people it's

Jason Elkins (31:17.358)
So you're almost, you're the one on the other end trying to, that speaking with people that their parents said, whatever you do, please don't go to Colombia. And you're on the other end saying, you know what? My parents told me that as well. And ignore them just, yeah, exactly. Well, I do believe that, I mean, a lot of people, they just came,

Simon (31:26.378)
Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Ignore them. Ignore them. Yeah, get your stamp. Go back a hero.

Simon (31:41.313)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (31:45.452)
I spent a lot of time here you obviously spend a lot of time here you run into a lot of people that Say I thought I would I came for a weekend and I stayed for three months or I came for a month and I and here two years later I'm still basically here, which is my story. Obviously, that's that's what happened to you. So almost from if you were really trying to Promote Colombia you could almost say to people look just take a short trip come for a few days. Don't go to you know

El Poblado in Medellin and go after things that you shouldn't be going after, but come and have an authentic real experience in Colombia and they'll probably come back and book that two week vacation.

Simon (32:25.888)
Yeah, yeah, definitely, because...

I always say that Colombia is kind of the big toe test for the rest of South America. It has a little bit of everything. And you've got your Caribbean coast, you've got Pacific coast, you've got Andean mountain ranges, you've got desert, you've got flatlands, the Los Llanos, you've got Amazon jungle. There's incredible amounts of history, archaeological sites.

Jason Elkins (32:36.439)
Explain that.

Simon (33:00.29)
When we talk about ecosystems, we've got, I think it's something like 70 % of the world's paramount just in Colombia itself, which is an ecosystem that goes between 3,000, 3,700 meters above sea level. And then you've got rainforests, cloud forest, the most amount of bird species in the world. You've got a bit of everything.

So even though some people might go, no, I want to go to, I'm looking to go to Latin America for the first time. I'm thinking about going to Peru. So I always say, well, why don't you go to Colombia? Because then you're checking out the entire continent and then you can decide what you want to focus on next time.

Jason Elkins (33:48.418)
Yeah, no, that's a good point. And I think maybe for our listeners, that probably I probably should have mentioned sooner because we were kind of going through your story and anybody that hasn't read the show notes when you say I'm doing what I was doing 18 years ago. So let's let's touch on that real quick and then we'll go back and fill in some gaps. But so tell us kind of what's your elevator pitch or whatever for for your business. What are you doing now with your business? So the people listening to this can help kind of connect the dots.

Simon (33:58.079)
No, sorry.

Simon (34:17.73)
Yeah, okay. So, do you mean before we go back to me travelling around Asia as well? Colombia 57.

Jason Elkins (34:17.902)
Because obviously you're promoting Colombia.

Jason Elkins (34:25.782)
Yes, yeah, just just a couple minutes on what you're doing now and then we'll go back to figure out how we got here

Simon (34:32.866)
Colombia 57 is a destination management company. So we provide ground handling services for travel companies, the travel industry throughout the world and be it cruise, cruise lines who want to bring ships here and their passengers come on shore and we operate their land services for them and create programs for them.

high-end mid-range FIT travel, which is kind of fully inclusive tour travel. So, know, your mom and dad that might want to travel over here or families, but we create programs for them and tailor-made travel programs, group trips, and also corporate travel as well. So incentive programs where companies want to their best salespeople and their partners over for a luxury sort of trip.

you know, or five night check that money can't buy experiences in Colombia. So that's what we do.

Jason Elkins (35:33.774)
So you're working primarily with just for anybody that's listening that doesn't, I mean, I think you explained it really well, but for destination management company, you're working in a sense, business to business. So you're working with everybody you just mentioned, intermediaries. So you, if somebody wants to Colombia, they're not necessarily gonna pick up the phone and speak with you. They're more likely to speak with a tour company.

Simon (35:48.736)
with the insipidary basically.

Jason Elkins (36:02.296)
that handles marketing, sales, legit, some of that stuff on that end. And then you're the ones on the ground, boots on the ground.

Simon (36:04.748)
Yeah.

Simon (36:08.374)
Yeah, so let's say there's a tour operator in the States or the UK, ABC Travel, ABC Travel, we are their office in Colombia. We take their reservation.

Jason Elkins (36:21.496)
So when their clients show up at the airport, you show up, you're, we're, know, ABC travel, we got the sign and we're going to take great care of you. And, and what may not be obvious to some people is because your relationship with ABC travel is so important, you're to do a damn good job taking care of ABC travels clients. as opposed to just a one-off booking, you know, when you're working directly with the consumer, you get a lot of one-off bookings.

Simon (36:26.102)
where ABC travel.

Simon (36:41.74)
Yeah. Yeah.

Jason Elkins (36:51.822)
You know, it's a different business model, but sometimes people say, well, why would I want to work through a tour operator that then has people on the ground? Why don't I just work directly with somebody that's on the ground? And there's all kinds of reasons that we probably is for a whole nother episode. What's that?

Simon (37:05.098)
is generally for insurance purposes and things like that.

It's generally for insurance purposes and being covered for your international flights, etc.

Jason Elkins (37:16.556)
Yeah. Okay. Okay. Cool.

All right, so you did a great job explaining that. So now we know where you're at, what you're doing to a certain extent. So let's go back. You get to Colombia, you stay for six months, obviously kind of fell in love with the place. How did you get from that point to where you are now running the DMC?

Simon (37:40.118)
My visa ran out and I had to leave. I went back to the UK, which was lovely. And I started working on building sites again just to earn quick money, cash in hand, and just see what I was doing. But I'd already started to think about the next trip.

what I wanted to do. I still wasn't ready. And I knew that there was something else that I needed to do somewhere, at least one other trip. my now one of the co-owners of Colombia 57, I'd known him for years and he was traveling to Asia where he was working for a Oberland tour company.

So he was driving trucks for this overland tour company. And he said, look, you know, I'm going to be over there for a bit and then I'm probably going to stop.

and maybe we could do some traveling around there and I'll probably be in Kathmandu and I thought Kathmandu that sounds cool right so I bought a flight to Kathmandu and sort of mum and dad were like okay enjoy yes right okay and so so I went over there and again it's just incredible

Jason Elkins (39:04.782)
This is not stopping. He's not going to stop.

Simon (39:16.46)
Justin Crowley, know, I'm just one of these people that I really do get, dare I say it, if any of my friends see this, but I really do get quite emotional about just having the luxury of being able to do what I was able to do. There are so many people in this world that are unable to do that. You know, even people here in the UK just unable to do that, whether it be because of financial reasons or because they just don't

have that, you know, get up and go in them, even though they'd like to, you know, they look at the TV and think, that'd be great. no, but I'm not sure if I can do it. So if anybody is listening to this and is thinking, well, just get on and do it. Life's too short. You know, and it was, I kind of got there and I think, no, I've forgotten this, I've forgotten that. it doesn't matter. You know, and it was just, again, life changing experiences. I, you know, I trekked to base camp in Mount Everest.

We did not quite to base camp, we went to place called Kalapatar which is a mountain about 5,500 meters above sea level but you get the best views of Mount Everest which I kind of wanted to rather than go to base camp and just look up I wanted to see Mount Everest you know and that was like a 12 day trekking trip and again I just did more trekking and more walking and

Jason Elkins (40:43.96)
So 12 day track to get to the point where you can really see the mountain is what I heard you say. They're okay. Yeah. All right. So 12 day investment. Yeah, that's, that's pretty cool.

Simon (40:49.09)
No, there and back. There and back.

Simon (40:55.49)
Yeah, you stay in lodges and stuff like that. Just great. You you see monasteries and then we will get back to Kathmandu. Me and my mate, had to go from, decided that his company needed to take a truck from Kathmandu down to Mumbai. So I would do that. So we drove all the way through from Kathmandu down to Mumbai through these little villages and

You know, places that really, it was quite obvious, hadn't had too many travelers pass through. You you sat on the floor in some kind of little restaurant and loads of people just watching you. You know, it's the eating show. It was just amazing, just such an experience of things you just wouldn't dream of. You know, as a farmer's son in this little village, I never dreamed of doing things like that. And, you know, and then I sort of became proud of myself.

Jason Elkins (41:31.886)
Simon (41:55.906)
for once, you really proud of myself, what I was doing. And then from there, I went over to Thailand. then, yeah, because Russell, guy who I was traveling with, he kind of got quite sick in India, lost quite a few kilos. Yeah, you kind of end up leaving India with an ass, a blood orange.

Jason Elkins (42:16.78)
I've heard that happens sometimes. Yeah.

Jason Elkins (42:24.142)
I really, really want to go, but yeah, I've heard that.

Simon (42:28.064)
Yeah, just make sure you've got a hotel room with a fridge in it so you can put the toilet paper in there. Anyway, so we ended up going to Thailand again, fantastic place. And then onto Vietnam and Cambodia. Cambodia, if anybody is thinking about going somewhere in that direction, Cambodia is just an incredible country. I loved it.

Jason Elkins (42:35.533)
in the fridge.

Okay.

Simon (42:55.606)
Just beautiful people, really lovely, lovely people. And then, sorry, I'm rabbiting on a little bit. But so, in Cambodia, I got an email from the family, your sister's getting married. Okay, that's good. Congratulations. And I said, you know, I remember thinking, do you think I should go home? And I was like, yes, you need to go home. And I luckily, sorry, I was in Cambodia and went to Vietnam.

And I got my suit made for the wedding in Vietnam. Much to my mother's disgust. You know, I should have bought it in John Lewis. so I got it made in Vietnam and went home for the wedding. And then again, it was that whole sort of, am I going to do? And then it was like, know, Russell and I talked about something in Colombia and he'd never been.

Jason Elkins (43:28.727)
Okay.

Simon (43:52.0)
And I talked about the business opportunities there, and there are lots of backpackers, but there weren't too many higher end travelers, et cetera. And the decision was made that I would go over to Colombia and start the feelers for the company and work out what we can be doing for a certain itinerary that the Overland company had asked us to do. And it started from there. And we started the company, I think, on a budget of

We were on about $2,000 each. We were staying in hostels about, at that point they would have been about three pound a night. You know, the ones with the curtain, with the toilet. the morning, yeah, the morning orchestra was quite, yeah, was very audible. You certainly did, you certainly did.

Jason Elkins (44:36.76)
And you can't sit up in the back.

Jason Elkins (44:43.822)
I know exactly what you're talking about.

Simon (44:49.218)
There was no sort of testing, testing one, two. knew it was the mic was working. We would be talking to this first client, know, saying to him, yeah, we're in the office at the moment and then putting your hand up in the internet cafe for another 15 minutes. And it was all sort of a sketchy start. And then we established the company. We got things sort of more legal, let's say on the

Jason Elkins (44:54.446)
Yep.

Simon (45:18.434)
administration side. And you know, people from that business then went to other companies and talked about these two Brits who were in Colombia. And word of mouth was our main marketing sort of ploy, really, because we didn't have any marketing money, or know how, I'm going to be really honest with you. I mean, I didn't know how to use Excel when we started the company. Our first

Jason Elkins (45:42.755)
Mm-hmm.

Simon (45:46.452)
laptop got nicked within two weeks. I think, you know, most of the budget went on run anyway. But it worked, you know, slowly and surely we made our way around Colombia gathering all of this sort of port.

Jason Elkins (46:03.726)
You know what's, Simon, what's coming up for me as you're describing this is going back to the conversation we had about your dad being a farmer.

the the accountant, just all these different jobs. It really comes down to business, right? And as I hear you describe this, I'm thinking, I didn't know how to use Excel when I started this. Well, maybe your dad, when he started farming, didn't know how to fix the tractor, right? Which is kind of what's cool about, or the similarity between two totally different types of business, farming business and tourism business. But there's a lot of similarities in business. that?

I don't know, just...

Simon (46:46.306)
Yeah, yeah, 100%. I've always said, you know, I've always been around business, businessman. You know, and a businessman isn't necessarily somebody that walks around in a pinstripe suit and a bowler hat all the time. I've always been in an environment where if it's not, if it's not working, you need to sort of get on your hands and knees and fix it yourself. And I was always used to that. I was seven years old.

Jason Elkins (47:13.326)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Simon (47:16.288)
going out in the middle of winter and helping my dad feed the calves because he needed that extra pair of hands. So calling in any type of help that you can get. And that's the way it started, yeah. And it was that, you know, don't give up type of thing. Sometimes you just thought, Christ, what am doing? This is ridiculous. But it worked.

Jason Elkins (47:23.042)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (47:36.958)
Well, especially in Colombia, I can imagine some of the challenges with the beautiful, wonderful people here that, yeah.

Simon (47:41.184)
Yeah. Yeah.

Simon (47:47.212)
I mean, they are wonderful people, but this is the thing, the Colombians are wholly, you know, really welcoming and lovely. they actually, you we got a lot of support from Pro Colombia at the very beginning. Well, they still do, not just from the very beginning, but, you know, purely for the fact that, we were these foreigners coming over and we wanted to promote their country. And, you know, it was a...

It was a hard sell. So any help is always welcome and we did get a lot of support. It just, again, that different work ethic sometimes and you have to kind of tune your mind to it, which...

Jason Elkins (48:34.414)
Well, actually what prompted me was because you mentioned Excel. And here we are in 2024. There's still a lot of great tour operators here in Colombia.

Jason Elkins (48:46.68)
You know, they've got their way that they've always done it. works for them. And sometimes it can be a bit of it because I work with door operators in Colombia as well. it's, yeah, it's an interesting, interesting place.

Simon (48:59.298)
Yeah, well that's the journey for us now as a company. I wouldn't say we were the founders, certainly not. There were some other DMCs who were here before. We were certainly, let's say, the first quarter of that promoting the country, I would say. But now there's a lot more. And the youngsters, they know...

They know more about social media. know about, you know, the tech, you know, startups and what was a startup when you were younger? Was there a startup? What was that? You know, I thought that'd be like the start-up mode on an engine. But now, know, these startups and, know, and they're just, they're very good at what they do. So, you know, that's competition now. That's, that's how you need to, that's why we have younger people in our company. Less cynical as well.

Jason Elkins (49:37.132)
Yeah,

Jason Elkins (49:49.688)
Yep. Yeah.

Jason Elkins (49:54.606)
It's a smart thing. So there's a lot of things we could go into there. Probably have a whole episode around just kind of the business side and that. But I also want to kind of skip forward because you were basically, my understanding is you're basically living in Colombia, running the business, and then eventually you made the choice to move back to the UK.

Simon (50:04.875)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (50:21.646)
I think what I'm curious about there is not necessarily, well, you can discuss whatever you want, but it's like maybe the challenges of kind of letting go probably, because I assume for you to leave the country but still do business in the country must've been a challenge. So I'm curious kind of what that transition was like for you.

Simon (50:42.292)
Yes.

I met Deanna, my wife, was, you know, kind of, I was, when I met Deanna, I was starting to think about, I really wanted to go home. And that would have been a good nine years ago now. know, within eight years, eight, nine years, I kind of,

That was cool. Colombia was great. Because I have a third partner as well. So Brendan came in to the business. As you say, that's another part of the... That could be a different episode. So there were... We had a team of nearly 50 people in the company. And I knew that it could operate. But I knew that we started having...

a lot more competition. And I was working at that time with my general manager about changing certain, the efficiency of the company and how we improve on profit, know, going to the business side of things rather than the whole, you know, wonder of, of, you know, Colombia and tourism and stuff. It was more the business side of it and making the company profitable and efficient. And, still.

with its very high level of service. But I was kind of starting to miss home a lot with friends and once I'd met Deanna, I'd always said to her at the very beginning when she finally went out for a drink with me after a very, very long time, me asking her, I said, look, if this does continue,

Simon (52:39.68)
I don't think I'm going to be in Colombia for the rest of my life. she was like, no, it's okay. We'll see how it goes. And then, you know, several years later, the pandemic hit. And just before the pandemic, had, we had Alice, my daughter. So then that really changed things. It was very much a case of, you know, if something happens to the company again,

I need to look after my daughter. She's priority. My wife and my daughter are priority. It doesn't matter about the business. doesn't matter about where I live. They're the most important people. So it was then that I really made that change. going back slightly, it was kind of just the, I'm British and I will always be British.

However much I thought I could be Latin, know, Latino, sorry, of Colombian, it just wasn't gonna work. I didn't have that natural vibe for dancing salsa. I thought the music was okay, but I still liked indie music. In my house in Colombia, you'd walk in and there would be

Tetley tea bags and Oasis playing on the radio. It wasn't pure salsa. I learned the language. I'm fairly fluent in Spanish. So I wasn't that sort of gringo abroad that just didn't want to do anything. I found it quite hard actually to make really, really good friends over in Colombia. And I think that's just because I'm...

I've always been, possibly a little bit guarded with people I meet. I know I'm somebody who, if I like somebody I really like them, if I'm not sure about them, then I just keep the distance.

Jason Elkins (54:57.11)
Yeah. And, and I think that there's a lot of Colombians like that as well. They can be friendly, but they're definitely, you know, for them to, if they're going to invite you into their house, it's, they really, there's a trust level there. and that can be difficult when you're, you're coming from a different culture. There's not a heck of lot of, you know, foreigners running around. So there's a, oftentimes there's that little bit of suspicion. Why are you here? Especially if you're

Simon (55:03.01)
100 %

Simon (55:13.238)
Yeah, yeah, very nice.

Jason Elkins (55:27.202)
a single guy traveling around in Colombia. So it can present challenges, I'm sure.

Simon (55:30.294)
Yeah, I think, I think sort of on the suspicion side, you know, maybe that's sort of a strong word. just just generally think I didn't fit in. I wasn't, you know, I enjoyed it. I love it. I love Latin America and I love Colombia and I'm, you know, amazing and I go back regularly. But I just didn't fit in, you know, I'm I'm Simon Locke from the countryside in the UK.

My humour is fairly coarse and sarcastic sometimes.

Jason Elkins (56:06.434)
And that's hard with language differences too, right? Humor is a tough one.

Simon (56:09.152)
Yeah, you know, I thought it was funny until I got to Colombia. And then, yeah, the crowd was difficult there. must admit. Especially when you do start to bring mother-in-law jokes. That's not a crowd pleaser in Latin America.

Jason Elkins (56:15.638)
Yeah, me too.

Jason Elkins (56:29.868)
I found myself, I found myself many times trying to explain to people that no, I really am funny back in the US. Because they just look at me like, Jason, what are you talking about? Like, isn't that funny? she's also no, it's not okay. Yeah, I get that. So. All right. So, so anyway, so you, you decided, okay, maybe I'm, I really care about Colombia, Colombia, but I'm not Colombian. So you went home and

Simon (56:36.545)
Yeah.

Simon (56:41.826)
Yeah. No, it's not funny. You know, you've offended me. Alright, sorry, I've got to walk away.

Simon (56:51.754)
Yeah, yes sir.

Well, was also my parents were sort of getting slightly older. If they do watch this and listen to this, I don't want to offend them. But so they were getting slightly older and I kind of wanted to, been, I wanted to be with them, yeah. And for them to share the, you know, my granddaughter, their granddaughter, sorry, growing up. And my wife was happy to make that change. You know, she was

Jason Elkins (57:07.212)
and you just wanted to be close to them. Yeah. Yeah.

Simon (57:25.164)
Possibly similar to me when I was 27, it was like, okay, what else is out there? What else is there for me? And she came over with me. And the idea was for me to move over and push the business that had been battered from the pandemic. We went from employing 50 people down to eight people. And then start again, but how do you start again when

all three business partners are in Colombia, what's the best reach? Because then we'll be doing what all other DMCs are going to be doing. You know, let's take advantage of the fact that we've got British Passports and you know, I want to go back. So that's what happened, you know, I set up the office here and I just started talking to people again, it was almost like going back to 2006 when we started, we're like, hey, we're in Colombia 57. But luckily, you know, people are like, yeah, we know you, what's it like now in Colombia? How are you guys, you know, are there other hotels to buy?

you know, things like that, what your suppliers like, you what's the infrastructure. So I able to speak, you know, face to face with everyone. And we got that.

Jason Elkins (58:29.55)
Yep, yep.

And it, you feel like it, do you feel like it almost gives you a sense of, I mean, there's a, I don't know, sense of credibility because it's great that you have the time and the experience in Colombia. You've got partners in Colombia, but I also think that's if I'm a tour operator, maybe in London.

want to have a conversation with a DMC in Colombia, I probably would see the benefit of having a meeting with another Brit that's in London that you feel a connection with because similar culture, you live in the same place. I just, I think it'd be easier for me to, if I was in London, have a conversation with you about Colombia, I'd probably feel a little bit more trusting than if I was doing a Zoom call with you in Colombia. Do you find that to be the case?

Simon (59:17.878)
Yeah, 100%. And also the fact that when I then introduce them to the team member with whom they're going to be working with on a certain program and a quote, they even have greater trust in that team member because I've employed them, because I work with them, then they trust my judgment on that person. Very much like...

Jason Elkins (59:33.282)
Yeah, I get it. Yeah.

Simon (59:45.608)
if you go to the pub and you say, by the way, this is Andy, he's a good friend of mine, you're not going to think, well, you know, he's dick. You're going to think, well, he's obviously a because he's coming with Simon or, you know, or with Jason, et cetera. So it's that same sort of perception. And then there's that sort of,

Jason Elkins (59:53.475)
You

Simon (01:00:03.702)
belief in what I'm saying about Colombia and where I've been and quite often...

I'm very, you know, we have to be very honest about Colombia. We have to be honest about certain hotels or certain areas. So if people are speaking to me, I don't give them a big sell and make the quick buck. It's like, no, you don't want to go there. You don't want to go here. You're talking about, you know, if you're with your family, then have you thought about going here? So you start to get quite a very personal relationship with your clients where they trust you and they can give you a quick call. Sometimes

You know, they call me and the conversation is 30 seconds, one minute because they're busy. But it's like, I want to this hotel in. Is this going to work? Just quickly? Can you tell me what, you know, is that okay for, you know, they've got a five and an eight year old? No, but try this one. Okay. I'll put that one in. Thanks very much. All right. See you. And it is literally as quick as that. Sometimes I have huge, you know, two hour conversations with people about a big group trip, but they, they, they kind of absorb.

Jason Elkins (01:00:57.517)
Yeah, yeah,

Simon (01:01:07.36)
what I'm telling them. But I'm also then able to understand the client more. You know, it's not just through an email because it's the same as, you know, kind of, I don't know, reading a book. You read a book and everybody reads a book differently. And the voices of the characters are all very different. they, you know, I've got clients who come across very quite, you know, quite sharp in emails and my stuff, like, my gosh, is she angry? I'm like, no.

She's great. I was just talking about how many bottles of wine we drank the other night. It's all about having that personal relationship and understanding of the profile of each client, which I'm able to do from here. And therefore, I'm able to transmit that to our team, who then get it. That person isn't always angry. They're just to the point because they're busy.

Jason Elkins (01:01:42.798)
Mm-hmm.

Simon (01:02:28.364)
Okay.

Simon (01:02:43.062)
Well, I think really at the end of the day is, know, Colombia 57, I think I've mentioned a couple of times that we're into our 18th year now. And the three business partners have maintained a very steady ship throughout the ups and downs of business in the travel industry. We operate throughout Colombia. Like I said, we operate in cruise, the incentives and tailor-made travel.

and we're always there to, answer any questions and talk through personally, you know, certain, certain programs or if they've got clients that, that need, you know, need a little bit more hand holding, then we're, more than happy to do that. the website, funny enough, there's going to be a new website soon. So you might click on it and not see anything or the older version, but Hey, that's going to be happening very shortly when, when I get time to do some content for it.

That's the next.

Simon (01:03:49.674)
Well there you go.

Simon (01:03:56.362)
Yeah.

Simon (01:04:44.546)
Thank you, Jason. It was an absolute pleasure and I think there's plenty more that we can talk about. I don't want to bore everyone even further.

Simon (01:04:59.562)
mother in law jokes.

Simon (01:05:13.246)
yeah, yeah, I can talk about nearly getting shot in Boulogne. Yeah, yeah, there's a lot, yeah. I could go on for hours, but I think we should make some... Bring a bottle of wine!

Simon (01:05:29.41)
Yeah, Yeah.

Thank you, Jason. Look after yourself. Happy Christmas.