LiveMore Adventures

I am currently traveling in Ecuador on a “scouting” trip until February 11. I am traveling with 12 other operators and journalist from North America as guests of Tourism Ecuador. For the last week our days have been filled with one regional highlight after another as we have snaked our way along the spine of the Andes. Yesterday we left the mountains a traveled from 13,500 ft to sea level in under two hours. We are now in the biggest city in Ecuador, the port of Guayaquil. Tomorrow we visit a local pacific surf town for a day at the beach and then on Monday, we fly to the world famous Galapagos Islands for a four day cruise around the islands.

The organized trip ends on Feb 1 but I am staying an extra 10 days to visit the Amazon and some community development projects. So far, the highlights have been visiting the thermal pools of the mountain town Papallacta where the resort had pools literally 10 feet from our cabin doors. Other highlights include the warm welcomes we have received from every community visited and observing the overwhelming human and bio diversity that makes up this small country the size of Nevada.

I look forward to developing many exciting educational adventure based itineraries when I return to Vancouver in a couple weeks. Stay tuned…..

Keeping the adventure alive!!

Shawn
President and Founder

I would like to thank everyone for such a great turnout last night at the Travel Bug here in Vancouver for my slide show on Kenya. I was worried that with the afternoon snowstorm no one would show up. We had 35 adventures folks who came out which I am told from the Travel Bug management is the second largest crowed they have had for their Wednesday night slide shows. I definitely attribute some of the good showing to the article published in last Saturday’s Vancouver Sun Travel section about the presentation and LiveMore Adventures. To view the articles see http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/travel/story.html?id=8140aea5-3ad0-43bc-b416-2a06bdd36c62.
Keeping the adventure alive.
Shawn
President and Founder

In the next few weeks, LiveMore Adventures will launch a series of wilderness skills courses that will range from half a day to 5 days in length. Courses will take place in Southwestern British Columbia and topics will include basic backcountry travel techniques, map & compass navigation; “Leave No Trace” camping, camp site selection, basic backcountry cooking, gourmet backcountry cooking, pack packing, river crossings, blister prevention along with risk management, and equipment selection. Courses are expected to start in April and continue throughout the summer.

Check back for more details.

Keeping the adventure alive!

Shawn

President & Founder

This is an affordable way for travelers to take thousands of pictures without buying extra memory cards and killing valuable battery life, deleting photos.

The plan for my next trip is to dump my photos on to my iPod whenever my memory card is getting close to full.

This is a great idea for several reasons.
-    The largest memory card widely available today is 2 gigs and costs close to $130 and at 30 gigs an I-Pod only costs about $280. At 30 gigs, Apple says that an iPod will hold up to 13,000 photos and 7,500 songs.
-    Apple sells all the USB adaptors that make it possible to transfer photos directly from your camera to your iPod without using a computer. iPod also has an adaptor that allows you to use AA batteries.
-    You save batteries because you no longer have to delete any photos until you get home and transfer them on your computer.
-    The whole set up is very lightweight, even for the minimalist backpacker.
-    The I-Pod has a larger screen than most cameras for you to view your photos.
-    To top it all off you can even listen to music when you are not downloading photos!

VolunTourism is a fairly new and growing style of adventure travel. It has been defined as “integrating the best of travel and tourism - arts, culture, geography, heritage sites, the natural environment, and recreation - with the opportunity to serve and enhance the destination - its people, places, and things.”

Connecting with local people and learning about unique cultures is really at the hart of any international travel experience that has ‘blown me away’ and left a lasting memory. Don’t get me wrong, I love the mountains, oceans, and animals but it’s connecting with the people that has really struck a nerve in me.

Experiences such as staying in the home of a Nepali Sherpa after a successful climb or having afternoon tea in the home of a Kenyan farmer after she proudly showed me her tea and coffee plantation or being the only foreigner in a group of East Indian friends trekking through the Himalayas of India.

VolunTourism adventures give participants the opportunity to give back and connect with locals on a level many international travelers on a regular ‘guided tour’ would never get.

Over the next few months, I will be working on developing new and exciting itineraries that have an extensive VolunTourism component.

Keep building the adventure in your life!