November 13, 2024 • 53 mins
What if you could navigate the intricate tapestry of Latin American culture and business with ease? Join me, Matt Chambers, as I recount my thrilling adventures through South America, including a spontaneous jaunt to the revitalized city of Medellin. Together with my guest Bee Davis, we unravel the joys and challenges of immersing ourselves in diverse cultures, from savoring exotic cuisines to understanding the ever-shifting political landscapes of Ecuador, Venezuela, and Colombia. This episode is a passport to wanderlust, offering tales of spontaneous travel and invaluable insights into the region's dynamic opportunities.
Alongside the seasoned globetrotter Aisha Makara, who boasts visits to over 60 countries, listeners are treated to vivid narratives of cultural peculiarities and culinary discoveries. Whether it's the unexpected delight of horse meat in Mongolia or the irony of U.S. food regulations, our discussions are as flavorful as the dishes we explore. My longing to experience the vibrant streets and mouthwatering tacos of Mexico City underscores a universal truth: food and culture are intricately linked, and understanding one enriches our appreciation of the other.
Embarking on creative ventures such as blogging and podcasting while journeying through life’s myriad paths can be daunting. In this episode, I share my personal experiences of overcoming envy and embracing authenticity in creative pursuits. From navigating the stereotypes that American tourists often face abroad to the importance of cultural immersion, we discuss how patience and understanding can transform a hurried trip into a meaningful encounter. Subscribe to our channels, connect with fellow listeners, and join us on a quest for genuine travel experiences that transcend the ordinary.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello and welcome to Matt Chambers Connects, a
podcast hosted by Matt Chambers.
This is the podcast thattranscends boundaries, empowers
cross-cultural connections andfosters a more connected world.
I'm your host, matt Chambers,and I invite you to join us on
this quest to expand ourunderstanding and build bridges
(00:20):
between my two favorite placeson the planet Latin America and
the United States.
I've been traveling, living anddoing business in Latin America
for nearly two decades, sohow's?
Speaker 2 (00:47):
everything going on your end Is business good.
Yeah, it's actually picking uppretty good.
Things are getting a littlecrazy.
Hopefully I can keep up withall of it.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yeah, you know I saw you're offering quite a lot of
cool services.
Thank you, yeah, I was lookinginto that and you seem to really
make it quite easy for peoplethat want to travel, so you know
one of the things.
I looked into some of yourtravel experiences and it
actually seems like we crossover on quite a few of them.
(01:17):
I've been to a lot of theplaces that you work in and I
don't know if you looked intowhat I've done at all, but I've
been traveling mainly South.
America for about the last 18years on and off.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
I love it For business for fun, you know
across the board.
But yeah, South America is highon my list.
I think my goal is to hit allof the Caribbean and then if I
could try to venture down intosome of the countries in South
America.
My dad is from Ecuador so Ihave a little bit of a cling to
that, so hopefully I can make itthere one day.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Yeah, Ecuador used to be one of the best places to
travel in terms of safety, butall that changed over the last
couple of years.
I don't know if you've seen thecraziness going on there.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Yeah, I've been kind of paying attention to it, so
hopefully things will start toclear up and it'll get better
down there.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Yeah, I mean South America as a whole.
You know, just historicallyI've read quite a lot of books
about South America over theyears and done again 18 years of
traveling in and out of here.
And it's just cyclical right.
Decide they want to be betterfor about 10 or 15 years and
then some psycho gets in thereand changes all the rules and
(02:26):
then it just goes back to thetoilet again and then comes back
, and so you know, I've had todo Quite a bit of balancing
around myself.
I lived in Venezuela for awhile.
Had to leave there Because ofall the stuff happening with
Chavez and then go to Colombia,which was really safe for years,
and then they pretty muchScrewed that up over the last
(02:48):
couple of years.
So it's just like you're goingto travel South America.
You have to be ready to kind ofbounce around and be ready for
some stuff you've never seenbefore.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Yeah, exactly, and I don't know if I'm quite there
yet, you know you got to kind ofbuild your travel experience.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
So where has most of your travel been?
Know how to build your travelexperience, so where has most of
your travel been?
Speaker 2 (03:07):
I mean, I saw some of the stuff on the on the website
, but I'd love to get into thatand talk about some of your
favorite places so, of course,I've been to spot everywhere in
florida, um, and then, uh, I'vehit a lot of the caribbean
countries that I well not a lot.
I've hit a handful of caribbeancountries, and then, uh, we've
also ventured over to frenchpolynesia too, too.
So we hung out at Maria andTahiti for a little bit.
Those are both amazing islands.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yeah, I heard Tahiti is pretty sweet, but isn't it
like 10 grand just to get overthere or something?
Speaker 2 (03:35):
If you work the points out right, it's not too
bad.
I've actually this is probablymy favorite points redemption.
I got my husband and I overthere from St Louis probably my
my favorite points redemption.
I got my husband and I overthere from st louis.
We flew into lax and then overfor 157 dollars, um, using using
points, um so, and that wasround trip back and forth, so it
was.
It took me about a year and ahalf or so to save up those
(03:56):
points for for that tripspecifically, but we were able
to make it over there because ofthat.
Otherwise we wouldn't have beenable to do it because the
flights usually are about twominutes just to get over there.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
I would think most Americans plan out at least a
year, year and a half anyway,for a trip that big right.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Yeah, usually, unless you're crazy like me and you're
just kind of spur of the momentwilly-nilly in it.
I was planning the actualsaving up part of it, but then I
didn't actually plan the tripat all.
So when I got there I was likeman, I don't even know what
we're gonna do here.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
So it was a lot of fun though you know, I'm like
you, I just randomly pop up andgo places.
In fact, I'm just arriving fromMiami.
I um yeah.
I mean, I'm from Miami, not fromMiami.
I'm from Atlanta, but Miami, um, is where I'm from Miami, not
from Miami.
I'm from Atlanta, but Miami iswhere I'm a resident now and I
spend a lot of my time.
(04:49):
And I got kind of tired of thatjust yesterday and I called up
my buddy and I'm like I'm comingto Medellin tomorrow.
So it's not actually Medellinyou fly into Medellin but where
I stays about 35, 40 minutesoutside the city in a little
like small town.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Oh, it sounds amazing .
Speaker 1 (05:08):
I decided that about five or six o'clock yesterday
evening was on a day beforeyesterday evening, was on a
flight by noon the next day andgot here last night about 1.30
in the morning.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
That's awesome.
Yep, that's a lot of how I'dlike to be.
So now that my kids are finallyyou know old enough to where
they're living on their own anddoing their own thing, I can.
I can actually start to do thatkind of thing, because it's a
little bit more difficult whenthey're little.
You can't really just dropthings and and head out, but now
I can.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
So, yeah, I assume this travel that we're talking
about is what inspired thecreation of your business and
your your model right Life, loveand travel.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Yeah, well, actually my son actually was kind of the
inspiration for that.
He was wanting to brag on someof the trips that I had been on,
so he could share my pictureswith his friends.
So he was like, hey, mom, whydon't you start a Facebook page?
And I did, and it just kind oftook off from there.
Facebook page and I did and itjust kind of took off from there
(06:07):
.
So, yeah, it's kind ofblossomed into this this big
thing, behemoth.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Yeah, yeah, it's um.
And now your services.
You're helping people plantheir trips.
You're kind of sort of a travelagent in a different way.
Now, right.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Yeah, um, so it it wasn't supposed to go that way,
it was more um, affiliations andthing.
And then I had quite a fewpeople come out of the woodworks
good friends of mine, that werelike, hey, can you help me?
You know, I need to go here orI've got this wedding and I
don't know what to do, and blah,blah, blah.
I've never gone out of thecountry.
So I kind of started to helpthem out and I'm like, okay,
(06:39):
this is actually kind of fun.
And we went in towards the offthe beaten path road so we did a
lot of you know hidden gems.
I was able to kind of connectwith some locals that were there
in the towns that they werevisiting and we were able to
kind of pre arrange, you knowprivate tours and that sort of
thing.
And and then it just kind oftook off.
I had one of my friends washaving a birthday, so I had a
(07:01):
cake delivered to her hotel roombefore she even got there and
she came in she had like this,decorations and all this stuff.
So she was like, oh my gosh,this should be, this is a
service you could do.
And you know I was.
I basically held their hand theentire trip.
You know, I'd wake up in themorning, be like, hey, this is
what you guys have going ontoday, don't forget to be here
at this time.
Blah, blah, blah.
And she was like you know, I'venever had somebody who was so
(07:23):
on it.
And so then I was like, ok,well, maybe I can offer this to
people.
You know, maybe people do thisand it's kind of taken off.
And now I've got lots of tripson the books and it's a lot of
fun.
I'm really excited about it.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Yeah, and what are all those?
If you don't mind just kind ofgoing through an itemized list
of the things you guys offer.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
I think people would like to hear that.
Well, I'm basically a concierge, so to speak, so I'm basically
tailoring all of my trips towhat you would want.
So if somebody comes to me andthey say, hey, I want a beach
trip, but I also want to do somevolunteering, or I want to do a
beach trip and focus just onspas you know that sort of thing
I kind of get into that nittygritty with everybody and then
from there I will create acustom trip for you and I could
be as involved or as uninvolvedas you'd like.
So some people like to havetheir hand held, some people are
(08:12):
like, you know, just theirarrangements made and then leave
me the hell alone, type thing,you know.
So it just kind of depends.
So I'm I'm, I'm flexible withthat and I'm willing to help out
.
I've had one of my friendsactually called me and she was
like man, I just I really don'tknow what to do.
I need to eat something and Ijust don't even know.
There's so many choices andblah, blah, blah, blah, and I
(08:33):
was like hold on, let me seewhat I can figure out.
So I did some Googling, youknow, I did all that, that
research, so she was real quickto make her decision and she was
like, oh, so glad you made thatdecision.
I was laying on the beach, Ididn't have to think about it,
it was already taken care of forme, made a reservation, she
showed up, had her dinner, wentback to her hotel and everything
(08:55):
was pretty smooth.
So she, she started telling meshe's like, you know, this is a
really great.
I've never had an agent who wasactually willing to do that
kind of stuff for me.
A lot of times they'll, youknow, make the trips.
If something goes wrong I couldcall them, but they don't
really hold my hand or makethose decisions that I'd like
made for me.
So I kind of have taken that on, so like a virtual assistant,
so to speak, but travel, yeah aswell.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
So no, but that's valuable because, again, I've
done about I don't know 30countries.
I guess something around there,a little bit less or plus or
minus.
A lot of South America and Ican't tell you how many people
that I meet along the way.
Who you know, Americans orforeigners that just travel to a
(09:37):
place and they live there forone, two, three years.
One, two, three years and justhave no idea of.
You could mention 15 reallygreat restaurants and I'm like,
oh, where's that?
They just know nothing aboutthe place that they're in.
So there's a demand for that,especially for someone who's
(09:57):
just coming for a week or twovacation to know all the really
good hotspots from a local'spoint of view.
Because I mean, in all theplaces that I've lived, I lived
in venezuela for a short stintand then colombia for several
years, and then you know brazilfor a couple years, on and off,
and every place that you live init really takes a couple years
(10:20):
of living there at least a yearright of living there as a local
to find all these little nooksand crannies that really are the
best places.
So to have someone at your sidewho can just kind of lead you
in the right direction, yeahit's a lot of fun too.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
so that's kind of why I started my podcast beachside
banter with b um.
It.
It's mostly me sitting downwith locals of towns, beach
towns they don't necessarilyhave to be beach towns, mostly
beach towns and I'm just askingthem those dumb American
questions that we're notthinking to ask before we go on
vacation.
You know, can I wear camo toyour country?
(10:59):
Can I?
You know how to?
I mean, that's such a simplerule, but a lot of people don't
know that you can't wear a camoto Jamaica.
You'll get in trouble if you,if you have a camo backpack, you
know is that right?
Just yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Is that because of the gangs, or what?
Speaker 2 (11:13):
It's.
It's simply their military.
So they want to make sure thatmilitary are representative in
the camo and if you are tryingto mock that are not very like,
they just don't tolerate it.
So yeah, you'll.
You'll get stopped in theairport If you have like any
kind of camo shirt on camo pants, something like that.
They'll.
They'll ask you to changebefore they let you into the
country.
(11:34):
So, that's, yeah, just onelittle thing you know.
So I like to sit down and Ilike to ask those questions,
because there's a lot of thingspeople don't know.
Hey, where can I go on a Fridaynight to get the best tacos?
You know stuff like that.
Or what's your national dish?
A lot of people won't even payattention to what their food is
and what kind of food they'reexpecting to eat.
They'll just be like, oh,they'll have American food there
(11:56):
, I'll be good.
So a lot of times people needto you know, know that ahead of
time and they just don't do that.
So that's kind of where I comein.
I'm able to help them out, makethose decisions for them, and
then I'm also kind of divingdeep into with locals as well.
So I'm trying to use my networkso that they have somebody, a
point of contact there in thecountry that they're at as well.
(12:17):
I feel like that's usuallypretty helpful.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
I would think your podcast is probably going to
help you significantly with that, because if you can get locals
in each of these areas on yourshow to talk about what are the
really cool local hot spots,then you just make a list from
what they tell you boom yeah,yeah, that's kind of what I've
been doing so far.
It's been a lot of fun yeah,yeah, no, it sounds like, and I
also saw on there on your listthat you had aisha makara on yes
(12:43):
, um, well, I thought she was aball of energy to bring to my
show.
I had her on maybe two weeksago.
I mean, I think we did theinterview about a month ago,
month and a half ago, but wereleased it two weeks ago or
this past week.
One of the two Wow, she hassome stories.
You know, 60 plus countriesgrew up an orphan.
I mean what a great, greatperson to have on.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Yeah, we had a really great conversation.
We talked a lot about Mongolia.
I found out that they like toeat a lot of horse meat.
That was a little bit of aweird conversation I wasn't
really ready for, but I get it.
I mean, if it's prevalent there, that's what you're going to
eat, so I have no judgmentswhatsoever for it.
But yes, it was a really greatconversation.
(13:26):
I enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Yeah, no, we, we discussed that same thing as
well and ironically, I had eatenhorse meat in Germany, in
Munich, germany, horse, horsehot dog and some other kind of
you know what.
I definitely don't rememberwalking away saying I didn't
like it.
I remember eating a horse hotdog with mustard and some other
kind of something they put onthere.
(13:48):
I was not complaining.
You know it's hard for anAmerican because I think, like
the USDA and our government putsa lot of rules on food that
probably shouldn't be there,it's really weird, because they
contradict themselves in the USbecause we have all these crazy
rules, like speaking of myself,but, as an example, you can't
(14:08):
eat horse meat, but we can have750 ingredients that we can't
pronounce in Kellogg's cereal.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Right.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Or in Froot Loops.
No other countries will allowit, but the US will allow it.
It's just really weird how Ifeel like our country
contradicts themselves with food.
We'd probably be exponentiallybetter off eating horse meat
than we would.
All these, you know again allthese things on the back of the
cereal box that we shouldn't beeating.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Right, yeah, and then you know you grab a bag of
potato chips and you're like Idon't understand why.
Why am I so unhealthy?
Speaker 1 (14:43):
well, you know I always say, like my diet is
about 90, really, really good.
But then I have this vice.
I have like a coke zero problem.
I have to have like one everyday or every other day, and then
some.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
If there's chips I'm gonna eat them yeah, no, I'm the
same way.
Uh, my my is tacos, so anytimeyou throw a taco in front of me,
I definitely have to try it.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Have you been to.
Mexico city.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
No, I have not yet.
I haven't been to.
Mexico.
Yet I don't even know why,cause it seems like it would be
so like perfect, cause you knowtacos and all that stuff, but I
just haven't made it there yet.
Hopefully one day I'm going to,I'm going to recommend.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
I know you like the beaches and for your business.
The beaches in Mexico areabsolutely awesome, so you don't
want to skip those for businesspurposes.
But going to Mexico withoutgoing to Mexico City is a
colossal mistake, because MexicoCity is incredible.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Gotcha.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Especially for culture and stuff.
I bet Tons of culture, tons ofmuseums.
I feel like you can live therefor 20 years, never eat all the
good, there's just incredibleMexican food in general in every
corner.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Yes, yeah, the architecture, the museums.
It's really really good and Ifound that if you find a
restaurant that doesn't have asign or a name posted out front,
it's probably the bestrestaurant that doesn't have a
title, like a sign or like aname posted up front, it's the
probably the best restaurantthat you'll ever eat.
You're saying that in general.
(16:12):
Yeah, it just anywhere I go, Ifeel like, especially like I
went to Belize and we we poppedinto a couple of places that we
didn't even know for sure wererestaurants, and the places that
we sat down we're just like, ohmy God, God, this is the best
food I've ever had.
So, yeah, I tend to go by thatrule.
If I don't have a sign or Idon't know who they are, they're
probably pretty good food.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
For sure, and you definitely want to get with the
locals in the town and ask themwhere to eat, right?
Absolutely Going back to yourpoint earlier.
You know I've traveled, done alot of travel trips with buddies
in the US and they always wantto stay at like the Marriott.
I went to Buenos Aires,argentina, with a buddy who's an
awesome guy, a really goodfriend of mine.
(16:52):
But I had done significantlymore South America travel than
him at the time and he wanted togo to South America.
He was like it's Argentina.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
I was like all right, let's go to Buenos.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Aires.
It's an awesome city, um.
So he says, hey, I have a bunchof points on my american
express.
We can stay at the marriott forfree.
I'm like, okay, that's cool,like I don't care if you're
gonna pay for it and you know,the marriott's cool and even if
I have to pay for it, themarriott's cool.
Um, but it would be cooler toget an airbnb right At the end
(17:23):
of the day and, like, live withthe locals.
However, if it's free, I'm in.
Let's do the Marriott Right.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Well, we didn't only stay at the Marriott.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
But I found out later that he wanted to do it because
he also wanted to eat everymeal at the Marriott, because he
was scared to eat in thestreets.
And I'm like oh my God, likeBuenos Aires, argentina has some
of the best food I've ever been.
I'm not recommending that abunch of people like fly down
there because the people in thatcity are kind of rude.
It's not by any means it's notmy favorite city in Latin
(17:52):
America.
In fact, it's probably my leastfavorite city in Latin America
in terms of just a lot of peopletell you the opposite on that.
A lot of people really like it.
I just found the people to bevery, very rude there and they
are not that way in any otherplace I've been in Latin America
.
However, the food andarchitecture are spectacular
(18:15):
yeah.
But yeah, I went down therewith him for 10 days and we ate
at the Marriott like two meals aday.
I'm like I can't.
Why am I here?
I'm not going to eat the foodand hang out and get to know
these people.
I don't see any point in cominghere.
Except for Florida, we couldhave hung out in Buckhead,
atlanta, where we live Right.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
That's exactly how I feel we have a rule that you
cannot eat in any place that youcan get at home, so chain
restaurants are completely off.
There's no way none of thoseare happening and yeah.
So we just try to make surethat we pick something that is
just totally unique.
And then it's fun too, becauseI feel like I could actually
make like an entire meal out ofmy favorite places and like.
(18:54):
So, like you know, I went tothe Cayman Islands and I had the
absolute best lobster I've everhad in my life and like I paid
300 bucks for it, didn't you?
absolute best lobster I've everhad in my life and like I paid
300 bucks for it, Didn't you?
Uh, it's a little pricey, Iwon't lie, it was a birthday
gift, so it was kind of okay.
Um, and then I had, um, thisamazing spicy tuna and Aruba and
I'm like man, if I could justpick up little pieces key lime
(19:15):
pie the best key lime in Floridaso I definitely would love to
tap out on.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
So I'd like build this huge meal based on, like,
little things from each place.
Yeah well, you know, I think,someone like you that travels
and is, uh, apparently a foodie.
I think you could create a hellof a cookbook from just things
you've learned throughout yeah,that's a fun idea.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
I'll have to explore that.
That's basically all we'redoing now.
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
I found the Cayman Islands to be pretty awesome.
I've been there several timesscuba diving, but that's another
one.
It's like man, you get up andgo get some eggs and sausage 65
bucks.
It was insane, the money thatwe spent.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Yeah, it is a little pricey there, um, but it's.
It's definitely like the foodis amazing, um, and the vibe is
really nice, but I feel likeit's more of a luxe island in
general.
So, for sure, um, you know, youkind of have to have that, you
know luxury taste or whatever.
We took our kids there for thefirst time and it was a little
boring for them.
There's not really a ton of kidactivities.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
It's more, you know, adult luxury Island where you
hang out, spend a lot of moneyshop kind of thing, and then you
come back and tell all your yougo there to go, to go back, and
tell all your neighbors howmuch money you spent.
It's one of those Right.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Well, my husband, he was like, can we just like open
up a bank account here, just sothat we could say we have an
offshore account in the Caymans?
I'm like, oh my gosh, you're sofunny.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
My buddy and I.
For a few years we went downthere scuba diving.
We used to go every year forabout 10 or 12 years and three
of those years were in theCaymans and it's incredible.
It's incredible First class,everything food everything
experience, incredible, it'sincredible.
First class, everything, food,everything experience
everything's first class.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
So yeah, I'd like to get back down there.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
In fact we did that stingray.
I think we did like a stingray.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Petting thing or something that's a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
People love that.
Yeah, they also have a turtlesanctuary there as well.
My kids were able to swim atthe turtles.
That was like the only thingthat they were excited about.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
So let me ask you if someone reaches out to you and
they're looking to put togethera trip, what's your advice on
trying to kind of drill downinto what it is that they truly
want and helping them create,you know, a destination and a
and a trip that they actuallywould, would enjoy?
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Yeah, so I know it's kind of hard.
I do have a little quiz on mywebsite that kind of will throw
you around a couple of differentplaces.
That kind of helps you narrowdown a few and then, beyond that
, like well, just let's have aconversation.
You know, I've I've got tons ofknowledge when it comes to,
like the Caribbean and that sortof thing Mostly islands.
(22:07):
If you're looking for any sortof a beach vacation, definitely
let's chat.
I can kind of direct you to whatyou're looking for, based on
what vibe you're asking for andthat sort of thing.
I feel like that's the best wayto really match somebody is
just to kind of have thatconversation.
I always send over aquestionnaire as well.
So if somebody wants to gothrough and they fill out that
questionnaire there's questionsthat kind of help me pick and
(22:30):
decipher what kind of a personthey are, what kind of things
they'll enjoy and that sort ofthing.
So then that, yeah, we'll sendover a sample itinerary and then
we kind of go from there andreally dive deep into it and
figure out what exactly you wantand how much you want to spend
and all of that stuff.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Yeah, cool.
That sounds awesome.
And are you sending anyone toSouth America at all, or is it
mostly just beach towns in theCaribbean?
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Honestly, the most popular right now is Costa Rica.
It seems to be like the most,most most requested.
Beyond that, belize is reallypicking up a lot too.
I feel like a lot of people arereally starting to go down
there.
I don't really have a lot ofpeople who are asking for South
America.
I did have somebody who wasreaching out about Columbia so
(23:15):
we're definitely going to kindof walk that path and see where
that goes, but for the most partit's mostly islands, beaches,
beaches, that sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Yeah, Columbia's become a huge destination over
the last five, six years,especially for digital nomads.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
It's much more than just digital nomads.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
by the way, I actually moved out of Medellin
because I lived there way beforethis big, huge influx of Fort
Bros and all those guys thatreally, I think screwed up.
Medellin so bad?
You have no idea.
We could have an entire podcastjust talking about Fort Bros
and a couple of other things,just totally screwed up the city
(23:52):
of Medellin.
So I ended up just moving outof there because of you know the
things that started happeningthere.
But now you know, when I come toMedellin now fly into Medellin
I'm about 30, 40 minutes outsidethe city, a little small town I
found me a little like getaway,where you know most people,
most of the travelers that go toMedellin, are going to stay
(24:14):
right in the city where they canspeak some English and get
around.
So I try to find the placeswhere they aren't going to come
because they can't speak Spanish.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
And hide out in those little towns.
It's kind of my MO.
So that's what I did.
I don't come to Medellin muchnow.
Maybe once a year come visitfriends for a couple of weeks
and then jet off.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
But yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Colombia is a big deal and then you know you're
going to get a lot of peoplegoing to Buenos Aires and then
Peru, Peru, and Buenos.
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throughout Latin America andthe Caribbean.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
They're both high on my list too.
Peru seems absolutely amazing.
It's definitely.
Hopefully I can make it thereone day.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
It's incredible and you're also going to find a lot
of things for your cookbook.
In Peru, it wins like numberone cuisine almost every single
year.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Yeah, I have a friend who did a missionary work down
in Peru and he came back and waslike, trying to represent the
taco or whatever, he made taco,like some sort of taco.
It wasn't even a taco thing, Idon't even know what it was, but
it was just amazing flatbreadpizza thing, I don't even know.
And I was just like, oh my gosh, that's the whole reason I want
to go to Peru now so I can makethat figure it out, cause it
(26:29):
was very good.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Well, every meal that you have there, you're going to
be like and it looks so basic,like what was some some of it?
Some of it will look so basicand you're like, wow, how'd they
just do that Right?
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
I had some cool stuff there.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
There's a lot of exotic like alpaca.
By the way, going back to yourhorse meat from earlier, they
eat a lot of alpaca steaks downthere.
A lot of koi.
Do you know about koi?
Speaker 2 (26:55):
They eat guinea pig.
No, yep, yep.
I've heard that in Ecuador it'slike their main dish right Is
guinea pig.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Yeah, and surprisingly it's not bad.
It's weird to think about it.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
It's very weird.
I had a pet guinea pig, so itmakes it kind of hard for me,
but that's honestly.
One of the reasons why Ihaven't made it to Ecuador yet
is because I've heard thatthey're carrying them around on
sticks and stuff.
They're like I don't know if Ican see that right now.
Well, I don't know if I can seethat right now.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Well, I didn't see that.
In Peru we did a five day fouror four day, five night.
I think it's five days, fournights.
Yeah, four nights, five day hikethrough the Salcante Trail in
Machu Picchu, and one of thosedays we camped out inside of the
rainforest and for dinner theguys were like, hey, you guys
want to get koi for dinner?
Sure, which is guinea pig, likesure.
(27:41):
And so a couple of us went withthe guide in this van, trekking
through the Amazon jungle toget through this koi and we go
to this guy's house that hadthis basically a little shack.
I mean it was like a I don'tknow like you'd see like a
mobile home or something in theUS.
But he says, yeah, yeah, comeon in, no problem, you walk
through his front door, out theback door and the backyard was
(28:03):
just fenced in and there wasnothing but koi, like guinea
pigs, running around and he waslike which one do you want?
right, which ones do you want?
You got to pick your own guineapigs and okay they all look the
same.
So you're kind of like I don'treally care, but I guess I'll
take that one that's unlucky guyhere.
So so then, they take them liveand they put them in these
(28:24):
burlap sacks, like you feed yourcorn sack and take it back, and
they disappear with this hugebag of live guinea pigs and all
of a sudden, two hours later,it's on your plate you have no
idea how it got from A to B, butI don't want to know.
You don't want to know, right?
No?
Speaker 2 (28:45):
I'm better off not knowing.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
So I want to switch gears for just a second and
circle back a bit on yourpodcast.
How do you manage to keep allyour podcast content fresh and
exciting?
I'm kind of struggling withthat right now.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Well, we found each other on Podm match, so I use
that most often.
I feel like that's been like mygreatest tool.
But a lot of people I havefound just by connecting with
them through LinkedIn.
You know, I a lot of tourpeople reach out to me and say
hey, I know that you're planningtrips, can we talk?
Blah, blah, blah, and I'm likehey, you know what, you'd be
great for my show, you shouldcome, we'll have this
(29:20):
conversation, that sort of thing.
So, um, I try to keep it.
I don't know, it's really hardto keep things new, but I'm just
doing it for the fun of it, forthe most part you know.
So if if I don't get a singlelistener for any episodes,
that's fine, because I had fun Ihad.
I learned a lot from thatconversation and that's usually
what I'm trying to strive formost it's just learning, so that
(29:42):
way I can keep on top of thingsand, you know, offer these
tours and that sort of thing tomy audience and as well as
people who want me to plan theirtrips for them.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Yeah, I'm actually going to start guesting at some
point early next year.
I mean I would start now.
I'm just not going to openmyself up on any of those sites
because it's right now I'm notquite organized it's a whole
other side yeah, it's a wholeother side.
So I'm going to start doingthat as well, kind of I'm going
(30:12):
to put think that more seriously, I guess early next year.
But yeah, I mean, pod match hasbeen great for me, but you know,
the majority, like the first 15people I got, uh, 15, 20 people
were all friends.
For the most part it's peoplethat I knew.
Yeah, um, but the learningbehind this, you're right.
I mean learning is just it's alot of fun.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
It really is some of some of my people I've actually
read their books.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Like I'll have like a month or month and a half
before they can interview andthey'll send me their book and I
read it what I learned fromthese people is pretty, pretty,
pretty incredible.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
How are you doing your marketing?
Are you just?
Speaker 1 (30:45):
kind of putting it out there and letting the
algorithms do what they do.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
Well.
So I did kind of.
I went back to school and I didget my bachelor's degree for
digital marketing, so I do havesome knowledge when it comes to
that sort of thing.
So I don't do any kind of paidads or anything like that.
It's mostly SEO on the back endof the website and just really
trying to pop out as muchcontent as I can on all the
socials.
(31:09):
So that seems to be working thebest for me, but a lot of it is
the algorithms.
I call them the alligators.
They sometimes you throw yourstuff out there and they just
eat them up and they don'tactually show them to anybody.
So, um, it's just a lot of, youknow, throwing stuff at the
dartboard and seeing what sticksyeah, I'm.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
Next year I'm going to make more of a push on the
marketing um website and thingslike that that I haven't built
yet.
I've just been putting outclips and things like that onto
the social media site.
So I'm hoping that next year Ihave some pretty good plans in
place to help that go.
And actually one of the thingsI wanted to do while I'm
traveling is a food blog.
(31:49):
Yes, obviously people love foodright.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
And so I think that, in addition to my podcast.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
right, that should draw, drive more people to the
show.
So yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
So when I first started out it was like I said,
just a quick little social mediaaccount.
It wasn't supposed to beanything, um.
And then my son was like, hey,you know, you wrote some things.
I threw stuff stuffed out inlike journals and stuff over the
years and he was like, whydon't you throw those out as
blogs?
And I did, and that's kind ofwhat has been really driving
everybody to me now is you knowthose search results and you
(32:21):
know type in life, love andtravel like pops right up.
So, funny note though I don'treally I haven't told a single.
Like none of my personal peopleknow that I'm actually running
this podcast.
So everybody who has found me,has all been outside of my, my
own network and it wasn'tanything.
Yeah, I just, you know there'sa lot of haters out there, so I
(32:45):
didn't really want to go thatroute.
I figured I would try to do itas as naturally and organically
as possible, and that's kind ofwhere I'm at right now.
So a lot of my good friends soquote unquote don't even know
that I'm doing this.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
So the um.
The interesting thing I'vefound is you're right, there are
a lot of haters out there and Ihad three or four real close
friends real close friends abouta month or month and a half ago
, kind of all at the same timetexting me your podcast is
really good, and I think I'vehad a lot of people that aren't
(33:21):
in my network that have said,hey, keep going with this
podcast, it's really good stuff.
And so when they sent it myfriends sent it.
I was like you know.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
I think it is good right now.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
It's new, we're in our fourth or fifth month right
now.
I think right now what we'vedone has been really good and
it's going to continue to getbetter.
But I think their messages camefrom a different spot.
Their messages came from alittle like poking a little bit,
a little bit of a little bit ofenvy, and you can feel it, and
so I think sometimes yeah,you're better off, I didn't tell
anyone.
I was doing it until I startedputting out TikToks, and then
(33:56):
they found you right.
Yeah, they found me and this guythat I I know we were in
another business together in thefurniture business back in the
day and this guy just he wasjust really an envious.
There was like this group ofreally jealous guys that they
almost brought the entirecompany we were working for to
its knees.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
I mean, they were that it didn't have anything to
do with me.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
It was just, they were that, you know, just toxic
people and um, but they werepowerful enough in the company,
within the company, that theythey almost brought it to its
knees.
And so when one guy sent me amessage about the podcast, I
know exactly where he found outabout my podcast too, because I
see who you know, you see ontiktok, who's looking at your
clips right yeah and there's oneguy who was one of the toxic
(34:39):
guys had seen my clip and he sothe other third party guy told
me some weird place that hefound my podcast.
I'm like I know it's a lie.
He found out from this otherdude.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
You were peeping on me, man, it's okay.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
Yeah, I mean these guys like they don't have
anything to do and they think onone track, and so then when you
start doing something that'screative or different, I think
it makes people nervous.
Who the hell does she think sheis?
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Right.
Yeah, that's exactly thepushback and honestly, I was
more afraid that I would getnegative feedback from people
who were close to me than I wasabout strangers.
For whatever reason, it seemseasier to put myself out in
front of my, in front of perfectstrangers, than it is in front
of my friends and family andit's.
(35:29):
you know, they can be negative,but I feel like sometimes
they're they're overly negativeand I can't let those thoughts
get into my head because if theydo, then I'll never be
successful.
So this way I don't have toworry about it.
If they find me, they find me.
Otherwise, hey, I'm just goingto enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Yeah, and like a lot of people in your close network,
they don't.
The only thing that a lot ofpeople understand is getting up
in the morning, going to a job,work and getting money going
home eating dinner but that's it.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
They don't think outside the box.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
So they wonder why you did Right Right, and I've
had that same problem with closefamily members.
I've had to kind of push awayand really close.
Your friends are the worst.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
You find out that your friends are all your
friends.
Yes, exactly yeah.
People will show their truecolors when, when they see you
being more successful than them.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
So we're just not even more successful, but just
doing something that's outsideof the norm that's who?
Speaker 2 (36:27):
yeah, exactly, yeah I get me down to a nine to five.
I just can't do it.
It's not in me, it's miserableright and I don't even care if
someone.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
if someone goes to work at nine and gets off at
five, and when they get to 80,they have more money than me, I
don't care.
Yeah, that's, if someone goesto work at nine and gets off at
five, and when they get to 80,they have more money than me, I
don't care.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
That's the way I look at it.
I don't even know if I'm goingto make it to 80.
So why am I saving for that?
I don't even want to.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
You know, I don't even care.
I think I want to do that andyou know if, if they have one
hundred million dollars and I'vebeen to 180 countries and have
180 really cool stories, I winin my mind.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
I agree 100%.
Yeah, no, money doesn't mean asmuch to me as those memories
that I get to take and, nomatter what, nobody can take
those from me.
That's right.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
And the freedom right , living a life with complete
freedom.
I think it's a big deal.
Let me ask you do you think wemissed anything on the show,
that on this interview that youwould like to get out there?
Speaker 2 (37:32):
Anything important that you'd like people to hear.
No, actually, I think younailed everything.
We talked about all the littlecrevices and inside of life,
love and travel.
So, yeah, I think we're good.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
How do people reach out to you if they're interested
in your services?
Speaker 2 (37:47):
Yeah, so my website is probably the easiest way to
get ahold of me.
You can just Google life, loveand travel.
I should be the first one thatpops up.
Beyond that, you can definitelyfind me on YouTube at the
podcast Beachside BanterBeachside Banter with Bea.
I don't even know why I can'ttalk right now.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
Beachside.
Banter with Bea, I'll help youout.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
I can't say my own thing.
My words are just gettingjumbled.
Facebook, I'm on InstagramThreads, Twitter, you name it,
or X, now I guess Anywhere youcan find me anywhere.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
I really wish he wouldn't have changed the name
of.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
Twitter.
It's still going to be Twitterto me, no matter what I know.
I mean I love Elon.
Speaker 1 (38:27):
Musk.
I'm a massive fan of that guy.
I love him Like every man inthe world wants to be that guy
and we can't be.
He's like a once in ageneration guy.
Why the hell he changed fromTwitter to X?
It's the only thing that thatguy's done in his entire career
(38:47):
that I feel I have the right toquestion.
Speaker 2 (38:48):
Yeah, no, I agree.
I do know that he's trying todo like X-mail and that sort of
thing.
So I don't know if the X wassupposed to like mimic the G
from Google maybe.
I don't know.
That's what I'm giving him, Ijust don't like it.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
Look, I hope he hears this, because I love the guy, I
love you, I hate next.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
I'm not a fan of it either.
I'll be honest with you, nomatter what it'll always be
Twitter.
I'm always going to call himtweeting.
I know I know Well, hey, thankyou.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
Thank you so much for coming on.
I think it was incredible andhopefully we can connect down
the road and if you get to apoint where you want to, you
know, have someone on your showabout talk about South America.
I could possibly be your guy.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
I was already thinking it definitely, and I
will definitely need to pickyour brain too, because it
sounds like you've been to somereally cool locations that I'd
like to know about too.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
Yeah, I think with the South America travel for me.
I think you could probably domultiple shows if you really
wanted to travel for me.
I think you could probably domultiple shows if you really
wanted to.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
It's going to be hard for you to tie all of that into
one show because I've done themajority of South America and
that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
Most of the time when I go, I'm staying long term,
like in Brazil.
Went there for the first timefor a week.
I stayed eight months, you know.
The second time I went back foranother six months and I just
keep's awesome.
So you get to know all kinds oflittle nooks and crannies that
you're not going to get out of aweek vacation, right, peru's
another one.
I mean some of thoseexperiences in Peru, I mean you
(40:22):
could talk all day just aboutthe places to eat in Peru, right
, you could have an hour-longpodcast just on.
Where can?
Speaker 2 (40:28):
I eat in.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
Peru.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
Have you been to Chile yet?
Speaker 1 (40:32):
I haven't done Chile and I'll be fair, I really don't
want to.
Speaker 2 (40:36):
Okay, that's fair.
Speaker 1 (40:38):
I know that sounds.
Look if someone calls.
If someone called me uptomorrow and said, matt, I have
you a free flight to Chile,we're going to go down there and
you're going to have a hoteland a flight and all that paid
for.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
I'm going to go.
I'll be on the plane, well yeah, but for whatever.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
for whatever reason, and there's no reason, there's
no negative or I don't haveanything negative at all about
Peru or about Chile, it's justnot one of those places that
I've ever been.
Speaker 2 (41:05):
Like you know, I really want to go there.
Yeah, I think it'd be reallyneat, though, cause it's a bunch
of different.
I mean, you go from super hotto super cold.
(41:34):
As someone from Missouri, Itotally get that.
We have the absolute worstweather ever.
It's totally bipolar.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
Yeah, no, it sounds like science issues for me.
So I don't know.
I mean I'm sure I'll get thereone day.
I mean South America.
You know, I've spent 18 yearsof my life living, traveling,
doing business here.
There will be a day where Ijust end up in Chile for some
reason.
But I don't think it's going tobe because I sit around and
plan it out.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
Got it.
That makes sense.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
It's just you know.
I'm sure you have those placeswhere you're like okay, everyone
likes it, but I just don't want, I just don't care, right.
Speaker 2 (42:09):
Yeah, and I'll.
I'll be honest with you.
Mexico I think that's why Ihaven't made it there yet is
because that's kind of on mylist.
I think it's just becauseeverybody's been there.
And you know, I just I'mlooking for more of like the
places where people haven't beenthat I could talk about, type
thing.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
Well, I think you're right about Mexico.
Every everyone under the sun.
When an American says I'mreally going to go on a vacation
, it's Mexico.
They feel like they've reallydone something going to Cancun
and staying in a resort.
You fly into Cancun to do thoseresorts.
I hate making fun of how peopletravel, because that can be a
gateway.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
I always say no matter what it was for me,
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
Any travel trip you take could be a gateway to who
knows what, to what you and I donow, um, but when people go to
cancun, like 13 times, you knowthey all of a sudden they're
going to cancun like every year.
We love cancun, it's awesomedown there, you know, um, and
I'm like it's not reallytraveling like when you really
talk to true travel guys.
(43:09):
You, you fly Delta, first classmaybe, or whatever coach class,
even into the Cancun airport.
You walk out, go throughimmigration, some dude's holding
a sign going, hey, we're overhere, right, and then you follow
him out and you hop in the limoor his really nice air
conditioned van.
He drives you to the resort andyou never leave the resort.
For the entire week you didn'teven see Cancun, nope.
Speaker 2 (43:37):
You just saw the resort yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
It's not a vacation, no.
So but going back to what yousaid about not wanting to go to
a place where a lot of people go, there are a lot of places in
Mexico, like if you went toMexico City, you're going to
have very, very few friends inyour friendship circle that can
say they've been to Mexico city.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
Yeah, I bet, and I've heard of like some really cool
like beach towns towards theSouth of Mexico, um, that a lot
of people are talking about.
Well, not a lot of people, butsome people who are more into
like the, the cultural immersion, that type of thing they've.
They've talked about it and I'mlike, okay, maybe I could go
there, because nobody's reallybeen there and that sort of
thing.
But yeah, I just I really enjoy.
I mean, don't get me wrong,I've, I've been all inclusive.
(44:17):
You know, my very first tripout of the country was Punta
Cana, all inclusive.
We did exactly what you said.
We got to the resort, we hungout there, we ate at the resort
the entire time.
I think we did a one excursionon a party boat or something
like that, and that wasbasically the end of it.
But to me, I felt like I wasmissing a lot.
I felt like there was, you know, I wasn't really exploring, I
(44:37):
wasn't really eating the food, Iwasn't doing any of that stuff.
So when we took our next tripover to Jamaica, we did another
all inclusive.
I was like, hey, we're noteating the food here every
single day, we're going to goout, we're going to venture out.
And then it slowly developedinto okay, well, now I want to
stay in Airbnb.
I don't really want to hit ahotel.
I will if I have points for it,but I prefer to stay in, you
(44:57):
know, someplace that's like inthe middle of a neighborhood, or
just try to immerse myselfabsolutely as much as possible.
And that, I feel like, is whenI know for sure that you know I
feel more fulfilled when I leave.
I also try to like do a littlebit of volunteer work while I'm
there as well.
You know I'll try to do likefour hours or so where I walk
(45:18):
dogs or, you know, clean outcages or something like that,
just while I'm there.
So I feel like I'm also tryingto give back and bridge the gap
between the Americans and thepeople like the locals, and they
don't really really like wedon't normally respect them and
we don't normally have thatbecause we don't do the research
and that sort of thing.
So I'm trying to try to bringthat to everybody so that they
(45:39):
start to travel more with apurpose and a meaning and that
sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (45:43):
so yeah, yeah, um, I can't tell you how many
Americans in fact, are you stillthere?
Did we cut out?
Yeah, no, you're good, okay,there, did we cut out.
Speaker 2 (45:52):
Yeah, no, you're good .
Speaker 1 (45:53):
Okay, cool, I thought we cut out for a second.
I meet a lot of Americans.
In fact, I was just in Brazilfor six months and I was in Rio.
I've been there long enough.
Once you stay in the sameneighborhood for enough time in
a foreign country, people startto recognize you.
You're the only white Americandude that keeps showing up every
(46:14):
day and orders the same thing,and you're trying your best to
learn the language and then, allof a sudden, they see you
progressing through the language.
You went from not even beingable to order a coffee to now I
can have a conversation.
So now they start respectingyou as a different type of
person.
You're not just a regulartourist, right, and you know,
and Rio de Janeiro is a hugetourist city, but if you get off
(46:34):
the beaten path and stay for awhile, they'll start accepting
you as more of a local, andthat's kind of what had started
happening to me.
That's where I learned that itwas just recently that it hit me
.
But I was in a place that I'vebeen to many times.
I went to use the restroom.
I had to walk behind thecounter where everyone paid and
(46:56):
to come back out and there'sthis American guy.
That's like she doesn't speakEnglish.
I don't know what she's tryingto tell me.
All she was trying to tell himwas that she didn't have change
for the bill.
Could he pay with a card orcould he get change and come
back?
That's all she was trying tosay.
And he's like in her face likeI have cash.
Why don't you take cash?
What are you talking about?
And he's flipping out, shedoesn't speak English and like,
(47:17):
because I walked out of thebathroom, I was like, sir, is
there any way I can help you?
Because I do speak somePortuguese and I understand
Portuguese, you know really,really well, Almost 100% by this
time.
It wasn't that way in thebeginning but now I understand
it really well and I cancommunicate.
But this guy didn't communicatein any.
He had no Portuguese and shehad no English.
(47:38):
So I, kind of just to be nice,became the mediator, and also I
didn't want my country to looklike a bunch of assholes, if I
could.
Speaker 2 (47:45):
That's it Right.
If I could fix it right.
Speaker 1 (47:48):
And so this guy was being a complete ass, completely
, and I was like, sir, can Ihelp you?
And he's like, sorry, sorryabout using that word.
I hope I didn't offend you withwhat I was saying.
You're good.
Anyway, yeah, so this guy'slike dude she doesn't speak any
English and I'm like, bro,you're in Brazil, but they don't
(48:11):
have to speak English here.
They speak Portuguese here.
And he said well, I needsomebody to speak English.
Speaker 2 (48:14):
I'm like you're going to have to fly back, bro Right
get out of here.
You're in the wrong place.
Speaker 1 (48:19):
You're either going to have to speak to me and tell
me what your problem is, becauseI speak English, or you're
going to have to fly back.
You have two options, and so Ihelped this guy out.
But the point is I meet thosepeople all the time and you know
, it's just.
It's embarrassing when peoplelike you and I try to go to a
place and represent our countryin a good way and then you see a
(48:41):
bunch of assholes like this.
You start to understand why therest of the world thinks we're
assholes.
Speaker 2 (48:53):
It's, it becomes very blatant right, one hundred
percent, yes.
So that's why I'm hoping thatyou know people will hear the
podcast.
They'll start to kind of, youknow, maybe we can make that a
movement.
Let's make like culturalimmersion of movement where we
actually like get people onboard when they they start to
dig into these countries andlearn about them and what they
need to learn before theyactually just hop on a plane and
head over there.
Because it really does.
(49:14):
It makes it makes all of uslook bad.
They all hate us.
They go out of their way tohelp us.
They hate us and I just I.
I personally it drives me crazybecause there's no reason for
any of that.
Like, part of the travel andpart of the trip is learning
what they're trying to tell youand what they're trying to say
to you and having patience.
(49:34):
You're supposed to be flexibleon a vacation.
You cannot go on a vacation andbe impatient.
I'm sorry, it'll never work outfor you.
Speaker 1 (49:43):
Well, I think one of the things, one of the many
things that creates thatimpatience is number one.
We come from a culture whereeverything's very fast right
there's, and I'm not trying tochange that, I think, like
American culture, has it figuredout when it comes to many, many
things.
But when, when you're used tothat and you're working 53, 54
(50:05):
weeks per year at that speed andthen all of a sudden, all you
have seven days to pick up andgo to Brazil, which is nine
hours in flight time away,you're flying for 18 hours of
your seven days.
So one day is just a little bitmore than one day by the time
you get to the airport and allthat.
One and one and a half days isjust traveling and you only have
(50:27):
five and a half days to enjoythat.
The first couple of days youspend exhausted because you're
you just flew nine hours, right.
And so you're trying to get 75tourist spots in in five days,
right.
You're trying to go to everytourist spot in the whole city
because you're scared to death.
You're never going to be ableto come back to this place.
Speaker 2 (50:45):
That is true, yes, so you maintain this like?
Speaker 1 (50:48):
speed that you would you know, New York city speed
and Brazil, where they don'teven know what that is.
They just chill yeah.
So it's just, I don't know.
It just doesn't.
It's hard to get someone thatonly has seven days vacation
into that mindset.
Speaker 2 (51:10):
I mean, I get it, but you're still being, you know,
giving us a bad name and allthat stuff.
So that's all.
Speaker 1 (51:18):
Well, I think I think we are, you know, to your point
of trying to create a movement.
Speaker 2 (51:22):
I think you and I are probably doing that without
knowing that we're doing it, Ihope so I think that just if
yeah, if this type of contentcan get out there, um, but just
if yeah, if this type of contentcan get out there.
Speaker 1 (51:32):
I think there's a lot here to learn from people or
for people and yeah, hopefullythose are value adds that we're
bringing to the world withoutknowing it.
Speaker 2 (51:46):
Fingers crossed for sure, awesome.
Speaker 1 (51:48):
Thank you so much for coming on.
I really appreciate it.
Thank you so much for joiningme on this episode of Matt
Chambers Connects.
Stay tuned for upcomingepisodes where we'll dive deeper
into these two fascinatingworlds.
If you enjoyed today's episode,please subscribe to our YouTube
channel, matt Chambers Connects.
You can also find us on Spotify, apple Podcasts, youtube Music
(52:10):
and many other major podcastplatforms, so you don't miss a
show.
Also, please join us on oursocial media channels so you can
connect with other listenersand ask your most pressing
questions and also tell us whattypes of guests you'd like to
see on the show.
Thanks again and I'll see younext time.
Thank you.
Hello and welcome to Matt Chambers Connects, a
podcast hosted by Matt Chambers.
This is the podcast thattranscends boundaries, empowers
cross-cultural connections andfosters a more connected world.
I'm your host, matt Chambers,and I invite you to join us on
this quest to expand ourunderstanding and build bridges
(00:20):
between my two favorite placeson the planet Latin America and
the United States.
I've been traveling, living anddoing business in Latin America
for nearly two decades, sohow's?
Speaker 2 (00:47):
everything going on your end Is business good.
Yeah, it's actually picking uppretty good.
Things are getting a littlecrazy.
Hopefully I can keep up withall of it.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yeah, you know I saw you're offering quite a lot of
cool services.
Thank you, yeah, I was lookinginto that and you seem to really
make it quite easy for peoplethat want to travel, so you know
one of the things.
I looked into some of yourtravel experiences and it
actually seems like we crossover on quite a few of them.
(01:17):
I've been to a lot of theplaces that you work in and I
don't know if you looked intowhat I've done at all, but I've
been traveling mainly South.
America for about the last 18years on and off.
Speaker 2 (01:29):
I love it For business for fun, you know
across the board.
But yeah, South America is highon my list.
I think my goal is to hit allof the Caribbean and then if I
could try to venture down intosome of the countries in South
America.
My dad is from Ecuador so Ihave a little bit of a cling to
that, so hopefully I can make itthere one day.
Speaker 1 (01:50):
Yeah, Ecuador used to be one of the best places to
travel in terms of safety, butall that changed over the last
couple of years.
I don't know if you've seen thecraziness going on there.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Yeah, I've been kind of paying attention to it, so
hopefully things will start toclear up and it'll get better
down there.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Yeah, I mean South America as a whole.
You know, just historicallyI've read quite a lot of books
about South America over theyears and done again 18 years of
traveling in and out of here.
And it's just cyclical right.
Decide they want to be betterfor about 10 or 15 years and
then some psycho gets in thereand changes all the rules and
(02:26):
then it just goes back to thetoilet again and then comes back
, and so you know, I've had todo Quite a bit of balancing
around myself.
I lived in Venezuela for awhile.
Had to leave there Because ofall the stuff happening with
Chavez and then go to Colombia,which was really safe for years,
and then they pretty muchScrewed that up over the last
(02:48):
couple of years.
So it's just like you're goingto travel South America.
You have to be ready to kind ofbounce around and be ready for
some stuff you've never seenbefore.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Yeah, exactly, and I don't know if I'm quite there
yet, you know you got to kind ofbuild your travel experience.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
So where has most of your travel been?
Know how to build your travelexperience, so where has most of
your travel been?
Speaker 2 (03:07):
I mean, I saw some of the stuff on the on the website
, but I'd love to get into thatand talk about some of your
favorite places so, of course,I've been to spot everywhere in
florida, um, and then, uh, I'vehit a lot of the caribbean
countries that I well not a lot.
I've hit a handful of caribbeancountries, and then, uh, we've
also ventured over to frenchpolynesia too, too.
So we hung out at Maria andTahiti for a little bit.
Those are both amazing islands.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
Yeah, I heard Tahiti is pretty sweet, but isn't it
like 10 grand just to get overthere or something?
Speaker 2 (03:35):
If you work the points out right, it's not too
bad.
I've actually this is probablymy favorite points redemption.
I got my husband and I overthere from St Louis probably my
my favorite points redemption.
I got my husband and I overthere from st louis.
We flew into lax and then overfor 157 dollars, um, using using
points, um so, and that wasround trip back and forth, so it
was.
It took me about a year and ahalf or so to save up those
(03:56):
points for for that tripspecifically, but we were able
to make it over there because ofthat.
Otherwise we wouldn't have beenable to do it because the
flights usually are about twominutes just to get over there.
Speaker 1 (04:06):
I would think most Americans plan out at least a
year, year and a half anyway,for a trip that big right.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
Yeah, usually, unless you're crazy like me and you're
just kind of spur of the momentwilly-nilly in it.
I was planning the actualsaving up part of it, but then I
didn't actually plan the tripat all.
So when I got there I was likeman, I don't even know what
we're gonna do here.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
So it was a lot of fun though you know, I'm like
you, I just randomly pop up andgo places.
In fact, I'm just arriving fromMiami.
I um yeah.
I mean, I'm from Miami, not fromMiami.
I'm from Atlanta, but Miami, um, is where I'm from Miami, not
from Miami.
I'm from Atlanta, but Miami iswhere I'm a resident now and I
spend a lot of my time.
(04:49):
And I got kind of tired of thatjust yesterday and I called up
my buddy and I'm like I'm comingto Medellin tomorrow.
So it's not actually Medellinyou fly into Medellin but where
I stays about 35, 40 minutesoutside the city in a little
like small town.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
Oh, it sounds amazing .
Speaker 1 (05:08):
I decided that about five or six o'clock yesterday
evening was on a day beforeyesterday evening, was on a
flight by noon the next day andgot here last night about 1.30
in the morning.
Speaker 2 (05:18):
That's awesome.
Yep, that's a lot of how I'dlike to be.
So now that my kids are finallyyou know old enough to where
they're living on their own anddoing their own thing, I can.
I can actually start to do thatkind of thing, because it's a
little bit more difficult whenthey're little.
You can't really just dropthings and and head out, but now
I can.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
So, yeah, I assume this travel that we're talking
about is what inspired thecreation of your business and
your your model right Life, loveand travel.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Yeah, well, actually my son actually was kind of the
inspiration for that.
He was wanting to brag on someof the trips that I had been on,
so he could share my pictureswith his friends.
So he was like, hey, mom, whydon't you start a Facebook page?
And I did, and it just kind oftook off from there.
Facebook page and I did and itjust kind of took off from there
(06:07):
.
So, yeah, it's kind ofblossomed into this this big
thing, behemoth.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Yeah, yeah, it's um.
And now your services.
You're helping people plantheir trips.
You're kind of sort of a travelagent in a different way.
Now, right.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
Yeah, um, so it it wasn't supposed to go that way,
it was more um, affiliations andthing.
And then I had quite a fewpeople come out of the woodworks
good friends of mine, that werelike, hey, can you help me?
You know, I need to go here orI've got this wedding and I
don't know what to do, and blah,blah, blah.
I've never gone out of thecountry.
So I kind of started to helpthem out and I'm like, okay,
(06:39):
this is actually kind of fun.
And we went in towards the offthe beaten path road so we did a
lot of you know hidden gems.
I was able to kind of connectwith some locals that were there
in the towns that they werevisiting and we were able to
kind of pre arrange, you knowprivate tours and that sort of
thing.
And and then it just kind oftook off.
I had one of my friends washaving a birthday, so I had a
(07:01):
cake delivered to her hotel roombefore she even got there and
she came in she had like this,decorations and all this stuff.
So she was like, oh my gosh,this should be, this is a
service you could do.
And you know I was.
I basically held their hand theentire trip.
You know, I'd wake up in themorning, be like, hey, this is
what you guys have going ontoday, don't forget to be here
at this time.
Blah, blah, blah.
And she was like you know, I'venever had somebody who was so
(07:23):
on it.
And so then I was like, ok,well, maybe I can offer this to
people.
You know, maybe people do thisand it's kind of taken off.
And now I've got lots of tripson the books and it's a lot of
fun.
I'm really excited about it.
Speaker 1 (07:36):
Yeah, and what are all those?
If you don't mind just kind ofgoing through an itemized list
of the things you guys offer.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
I think people would like to hear that.
Well, I'm basically a concierge, so to speak, so I'm basically
tailoring all of my trips towhat you would want.
So if somebody comes to me andthey say, hey, I want a beach
trip, but I also want to do somevolunteering, or I want to do a
beach trip and focus just onspas you know that sort of thing
I kind of get into that nittygritty with everybody and then
from there I will create acustom trip for you and I could
be as involved or as uninvolvedas you'd like.
So some people like to havetheir hand held, some people are
(08:12):
like, you know, just theirarrangements made and then leave
me the hell alone, type thing,you know.
So it just kind of depends.
So I'm I'm, I'm flexible withthat and I'm willing to help out
.
I've had one of my friendsactually called me and she was
like man, I just I really don'tknow what to do.
I need to eat something and Ijust don't even know.
There's so many choices andblah, blah, blah, blah, and I
(08:33):
was like hold on, let me seewhat I can figure out.
So I did some Googling, youknow, I did all that, that
research, so she was real quickto make her decision and she was
like, oh, so glad you made thatdecision.
I was laying on the beach, Ididn't have to think about it,
it was already taken care of forme, made a reservation, she
showed up, had her dinner, wentback to her hotel and everything
(08:55):
was pretty smooth.
So she, she started telling meshe's like, you know, this is a
really great.
I've never had an agent who wasactually willing to do that
kind of stuff for me.
A lot of times they'll, youknow, make the trips.
If something goes wrong I couldcall them, but they don't
really hold my hand or makethose decisions that I'd like
made for me.
So I kind of have taken that on, so like a virtual assistant,
so to speak, but travel, yeah aswell.
Speaker 1 (09:17):
So no, but that's valuable because, again, I've
done about I don't know 30countries.
I guess something around there,a little bit less or plus or
minus.
A lot of South America and Ican't tell you how many people
that I meet along the way.
Who you know, Americans orforeigners that just travel to a
(09:37):
place and they live there forone, two, three years.
One, two, three years and justhave no idea of.
You could mention 15 reallygreat restaurants and I'm like,
oh, where's that?
They just know nothing aboutthe place that they're in.
So there's a demand for that,especially for someone who's
(09:57):
just coming for a week or twovacation to know all the really
good hotspots from a local'spoint of view.
Because I mean, in all theplaces that I've lived, I lived
in venezuela for a short stintand then colombia for several
years, and then you know brazilfor a couple years, on and off,
and every place that you live init really takes a couple years
(10:20):
of living there at least a yearright of living there as a local
to find all these little nooksand crannies that really are the
best places.
So to have someone at your sidewho can just kind of lead you
in the right direction, yeahit's a lot of fun too.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
so that's kind of why I started my podcast beachside
banter with b um.
It.
It's mostly me sitting downwith locals of towns, beach
towns they don't necessarilyhave to be beach towns, mostly
beach towns and I'm just askingthem those dumb American
questions that we're notthinking to ask before we go on
vacation.
You know, can I wear camo toyour country?
(10:59):
Can I?
You know how to?
I mean, that's such a simplerule, but a lot of people don't
know that you can't wear a camoto Jamaica.
You'll get in trouble if you,if you have a camo backpack, you
know is that right?
Just yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Is that because of the gangs, or what?
Speaker 2 (11:13):
It's.
It's simply their military.
So they want to make sure thatmilitary are representative in
the camo and if you are tryingto mock that are not very like,
they just don't tolerate it.
So yeah, you'll.
You'll get stopped in theairport If you have like any
kind of camo shirt on camo pants, something like that.
They'll.
They'll ask you to changebefore they let you into the
country.
(11:34):
So, that's, yeah, just onelittle thing you know.
So I like to sit down and Ilike to ask those questions,
because there's a lot of thingspeople don't know.
Hey, where can I go on a Fridaynight to get the best tacos?
You know stuff like that.
Or what's your national dish?
A lot of people won't even payattention to what their food is
and what kind of food they'reexpecting to eat.
They'll just be like, oh,they'll have American food there
(11:56):
, I'll be good.
So a lot of times people needto you know, know that ahead of
time and they just don't do that.
So that's kind of where I comein.
I'm able to help them out, makethose decisions for them, and
then I'm also kind of divingdeep into with locals as well.
So I'm trying to use my networkso that they have somebody, a
point of contact there in thecountry that they're at as well.
(12:17):
I feel like that's usuallypretty helpful.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
I would think your podcast is probably going to
help you significantly with that, because if you can get locals
in each of these areas on yourshow to talk about what are the
really cool local hot spots,then you just make a list from
what they tell you boom yeah,yeah, that's kind of what I've
been doing so far.
It's been a lot of fun yeah,yeah, no, it sounds like, and I
also saw on there on your listthat you had aisha makara on yes
(12:43):
, um, well, I thought she was aball of energy to bring to my
show.
I had her on maybe two weeksago.
I mean, I think we did theinterview about a month ago,
month and a half ago, but wereleased it two weeks ago or
this past week.
One of the two Wow, she hassome stories.
You know, 60 plus countriesgrew up an orphan.
I mean what a great, greatperson to have on.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Yeah, we had a really great conversation.
We talked a lot about Mongolia.
I found out that they like toeat a lot of horse meat.
That was a little bit of aweird conversation I wasn't
really ready for, but I get it.
I mean, if it's prevalent there, that's what you're going to
eat, so I have no judgmentswhatsoever for it.
But yes, it was a really greatconversation.
(13:26):
I enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Yeah, no, we, we discussed that same thing as
well and ironically, I had eatenhorse meat in Germany, in
Munich, germany, horse, horsehot dog and some other kind of
you know what.
I definitely don't rememberwalking away saying I didn't
like it.
I remember eating a horse hotdog with mustard and some other
kind of something they put onthere.
(13:48):
I was not complaining.
You know it's hard for anAmerican because I think, like
the USDA and our government putsa lot of rules on food that
probably shouldn't be there,it's really weird, because they
contradict themselves in the USbecause we have all these crazy
rules, like speaking of myself,but, as an example, you can't
(14:08):
eat horse meat, but we can have750 ingredients that we can't
pronounce in Kellogg's cereal.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Right.
Speaker 1 (14:15):
Or in Froot Loops.
No other countries will allowit, but the US will allow it.
It's just really weird how Ifeel like our country
contradicts themselves with food.
We'd probably be exponentiallybetter off eating horse meat
than we would.
All these, you know again allthese things on the back of the
cereal box that we shouldn't beeating.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
Right, yeah, and then you know you grab a bag of
potato chips and you're like Idon't understand why.
Why am I so unhealthy?
Speaker 1 (14:43):
well, you know I always say, like my diet is
about 90, really, really good.
But then I have this vice.
I have like a coke zero problem.
I have to have like one everyday or every other day, and then
some.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
If there's chips I'm gonna eat them yeah, no, I'm the
same way.
Uh, my my is tacos, so anytimeyou throw a taco in front of me,
I definitely have to try it.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Have you been to.
Mexico city.
Speaker 2 (15:09):
No, I have not yet.
I haven't been to.
Mexico.
Yet I don't even know why,cause it seems like it would be
so like perfect, cause you knowtacos and all that stuff, but I
just haven't made it there yet.
Hopefully one day I'm going to,I'm going to recommend.
Speaker 1 (15:22):
I know you like the beaches and for your business.
The beaches in Mexico areabsolutely awesome, so you don't
want to skip those for businesspurposes.
But going to Mexico withoutgoing to Mexico City is a
colossal mistake, because MexicoCity is incredible.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Gotcha.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Especially for culture and stuff.
I bet Tons of culture, tons ofmuseums.
I feel like you can live therefor 20 years, never eat all the
good, there's just incredibleMexican food in general in every
corner.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Yes, yeah, the architecture, the museums.
It's really really good and Ifound that if you find a
restaurant that doesn't have asign or a name posted out front,
it's probably the bestrestaurant that doesn't have a
title, like a sign or like aname posted up front, it's the
probably the best restaurantthat you'll ever eat.
You're saying that in general.
(16:12):
Yeah, it just anywhere I go, Ifeel like, especially like I
went to Belize and we we poppedinto a couple of places that we
didn't even know for sure wererestaurants, and the places that
we sat down we're just like, ohmy God, God, this is the best
food I've ever had.
So, yeah, I tend to go by thatrule.
If I don't have a sign or Idon't know who they are, they're
probably pretty good food.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
For sure, and you definitely want to get with the
locals in the town and ask themwhere to eat, right?
Absolutely Going back to yourpoint earlier.
You know I've traveled, done alot of travel trips with buddies
in the US and they always wantto stay at like the Marriott.
I went to Buenos Aires,argentina, with a buddy who's an
awesome guy, a really goodfriend of mine.
(16:52):
But I had done significantlymore South America travel than
him at the time and he wanted togo to South America.
He was like it's Argentina.
Speaker 2 (17:01):
I was like all right, let's go to Buenos.
Speaker 1 (17:03):
Aires.
It's an awesome city, um.
So he says, hey, I have a bunchof points on my american
express.
We can stay at the marriott forfree.
I'm like, okay, that's cool,like I don't care if you're
gonna pay for it and you know,the marriott's cool and even if
I have to pay for it, themarriott's cool.
Um, but it would be cooler toget an airbnb right At the end
(17:23):
of the day and, like, live withthe locals.
However, if it's free, I'm in.
Let's do the Marriott Right.
Speaker 2 (17:28):
Well, we didn't only stay at the Marriott.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
But I found out later that he wanted to do it because
he also wanted to eat everymeal at the Marriott, because he
was scared to eat in thestreets.
And I'm like oh my God, likeBuenos Aires, argentina has some
of the best food I've ever been.
I'm not recommending that abunch of people like fly down
there because the people in thatcity are kind of rude.
It's not by any means it's notmy favorite city in Latin
(17:52):
America.
In fact, it's probably my leastfavorite city in Latin America
in terms of just a lot of peopletell you the opposite on that.
A lot of people really like it.
I just found the people to bevery, very rude there and they
are not that way in any otherplace I've been in Latin America
.
However, the food andarchitecture are spectacular
(18:15):
yeah.
But yeah, I went down therewith him for 10 days and we ate
at the Marriott like two meals aday.
I'm like I can't.
Why am I here?
I'm not going to eat the foodand hang out and get to know
these people.
I don't see any point in cominghere.
Except for Florida, we couldhave hung out in Buckhead,
atlanta, where we live Right.
Speaker 2 (18:33):
That's exactly how I feel we have a rule that you
cannot eat in any place that youcan get at home, so chain
restaurants are completely off.
There's no way none of thoseare happening and yeah.
So we just try to make surethat we pick something that is
just totally unique.
And then it's fun too, becauseI feel like I could actually
make like an entire meal out ofmy favorite places and like.
(18:54):
So, like you know, I went tothe Cayman Islands and I had the
absolute best lobster I've everhad in my life and like I paid
300 bucks for it, didn't you?
absolute best lobster I've everhad in my life and like I paid
300 bucks for it, Didn't you?
Uh, it's a little pricey, Iwon't lie, it was a birthday
gift, so it was kind of okay.
Um, and then I had, um, thisamazing spicy tuna and Aruba and
I'm like man, if I could justpick up little pieces key lime
(19:15):
pie the best key lime in Floridaso I definitely would love to
tap out on.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
So I'd like build this huge meal based on, like,
little things from each place.
Yeah well, you know, I think,someone like you that travels
and is, uh, apparently a foodie.
I think you could create a hellof a cookbook from just things
you've learned throughout yeah,that's a fun idea.
Speaker 2 (19:41):
I'll have to explore that.
That's basically all we'redoing now.
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
I found the Cayman Islands to be pretty awesome.
I've been there several timesscuba diving, but that's another
one.
It's like man, you get up andgo get some eggs and sausage 65
bucks.
It was insane, the money thatwe spent.
Speaker 2 (20:03):
Yeah, it is a little pricey there, um, but it's.
It's definitely like the foodis amazing, um, and the vibe is
really nice, but I feel likeit's more of a luxe island in
general.
So, for sure, um, you know, youkind of have to have that, you
know luxury taste or whatever.
We took our kids there for thefirst time and it was a little
boring for them.
There's not really a ton of kidactivities.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
It's more, you know, adult luxury Island where you
hang out, spend a lot of moneyshop kind of thing, and then you
come back and tell all your yougo there to go, to go back, and
tell all your neighbors howmuch money you spent.
It's one of those Right.
Speaker 2 (20:38):
Well, my husband, he was like, can we just like open
up a bank account here, just sothat we could say we have an
offshore account in the Caymans?
I'm like, oh my gosh, you're sofunny.
Speaker 1 (20:48):
My buddy and I.
For a few years we went downthere scuba diving.
We used to go every year forabout 10 or 12 years and three
of those years were in theCaymans and it's incredible.
It's incredible First class,everything food everything
experience, incredible, it'sincredible.
First class, everything, food,everything experience
everything's first class.
Speaker 2 (21:05):
So yeah, I'd like to get back down there.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
In fact we did that stingray.
I think we did like a stingray.
Speaker 2 (21:09):
Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (21:09):
Petting thing or something that's a lot of fun.
Speaker 2 (21:12):
People love that.
Yeah, they also have a turtlesanctuary there as well.
My kids were able to swim atthe turtles.
That was like the only thingthat they were excited about.
Speaker 1 (21:24):
So let me ask you if someone reaches out to you and
they're looking to put togethera trip, what's your advice on
trying to kind of drill downinto what it is that they truly
want and helping them create,you know, a destination and a
and a trip that they actuallywould, would enjoy?
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Yeah, so I know it's kind of hard.
I do have a little quiz on mywebsite that kind of will throw
you around a couple of differentplaces.
That kind of helps you narrowdown a few and then, beyond that
, like well, just let's have aconversation.
You know, I've I've got tons ofknowledge when it comes to,
like the Caribbean and that sortof thing Mostly islands.
(22:07):
If you're looking for any sortof a beach vacation, definitely
let's chat.
I can kind of direct you to whatyou're looking for, based on
what vibe you're asking for andthat sort of thing.
I feel like that's the best wayto really match somebody is
just to kind of have thatconversation.
I always send over aquestionnaire as well.
So if somebody wants to gothrough and they fill out that
questionnaire there's questionsthat kind of help me pick and
(22:30):
decipher what kind of a personthey are, what kind of things
they'll enjoy and that sort ofthing.
So then that, yeah, we'll sendover a sample itinerary and then
we kind of go from there andreally dive deep into it and
figure out what exactly you wantand how much you want to spend
and all of that stuff.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Yeah, cool.
That sounds awesome.
And are you sending anyone toSouth America at all, or is it
mostly just beach towns in theCaribbean?
Speaker 2 (22:53):
Honestly, the most popular right now is Costa Rica.
It seems to be like the most,most most requested.
Beyond that, belize is reallypicking up a lot too.
I feel like a lot of people arereally starting to go down
there.
I don't really have a lot ofpeople who are asking for South
America.
I did have somebody who wasreaching out about Columbia so
(23:15):
we're definitely going to kindof walk that path and see where
that goes, but for the most partit's mostly islands, beaches,
beaches, that sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Yeah, Columbia's become a huge destination over
the last five, six years,especially for digital nomads.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
It's much more than just digital nomads.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
by the way, I actually moved out of Medellin
because I lived there way beforethis big, huge influx of Fort
Bros and all those guys thatreally, I think screwed up.
Medellin so bad?
You have no idea.
We could have an entire podcastjust talking about Fort Bros
and a couple of other things,just totally screwed up the city
(23:52):
of Medellin.
So I ended up just moving outof there because of you know the
things that started happeningthere.
But now you know, when I come toMedellin now fly into Medellin
I'm about 30, 40 minutes outsidethe city, a little small town I
found me a little like getaway,where you know most people,
most of the travelers that go toMedellin, are going to stay
(24:14):
right in the city where they canspeak some English and get
around.
So I try to find the placeswhere they aren't going to come
because they can't speak Spanish.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
And hide out in those little towns.
It's kind of my MO.
So that's what I did.
I don't come to Medellin muchnow.
Maybe once a year come visitfriends for a couple of weeks
and then jet off.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
But yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
Colombia is a big deal and then you know you're
going to get a lot of peoplegoing to Buenos Aires and then
Peru, Peru, and Buenos.
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throughout Latin America andthe Caribbean.
Speaker 2 (25:50):
They're both high on my list too.
Peru seems absolutely amazing.
It's definitely.
Hopefully I can make it thereone day.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
It's incredible and you're also going to find a lot
of things for your cookbook.
In Peru, it wins like numberone cuisine almost every single
year.
Speaker 2 (26:07):
Yeah, I have a friend who did a missionary work down
in Peru and he came back and waslike, trying to represent the
taco or whatever, he made taco,like some sort of taco.
It wasn't even a taco thing, Idon't even know what it was, but
it was just amazing flatbreadpizza thing, I don't even know.
And I was just like, oh my gosh, that's the whole reason I want
to go to Peru now so I can makethat figure it out, cause it
(26:29):
was very good.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
Well, every meal that you have there, you're going to
be like and it looks so basic,like what was some some of it?
Some of it will look so basicand you're like, wow, how'd they
just do that Right?
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
I had some cool stuff there.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
There's a lot of exotic like alpaca.
By the way, going back to yourhorse meat from earlier, they
eat a lot of alpaca steaks downthere.
A lot of koi.
Do you know about koi?
Speaker 2 (26:55):
They eat guinea pig.
No, yep, yep.
I've heard that in Ecuador it'slike their main dish right Is
guinea pig.
Speaker 1 (27:00):
Yeah, and surprisingly it's not bad.
It's weird to think about it.
Speaker 2 (27:05):
It's very weird.
I had a pet guinea pig, so itmakes it kind of hard for me,
but that's honestly.
One of the reasons why Ihaven't made it to Ecuador yet
is because I've heard thatthey're carrying them around on
sticks and stuff.
They're like I don't know if Ican see that right now.
Well, I don't know if I can seethat right now.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Well, I didn't see that.
In Peru we did a five day fouror four day, five night.
I think it's five days, fournights.
Yeah, four nights, five day hikethrough the Salcante Trail in
Machu Picchu, and one of thosedays we camped out inside of the
rainforest and for dinner theguys were like, hey, you guys
want to get koi for dinner?
Sure, which is guinea pig, likesure.
(27:41):
And so a couple of us went withthe guide in this van, trekking
through the Amazon jungle toget through this koi and we go
to this guy's house that hadthis basically a little shack.
I mean it was like a I don'tknow like you'd see like a
mobile home or something in theUS.
But he says, yeah, yeah, comeon in, no problem, you walk
through his front door, out theback door and the backyard was
(28:03):
just fenced in and there wasnothing but koi, like guinea
pigs, running around and he waslike which one do you want?
right, which ones do you want?
You got to pick your own guineapigs and okay they all look the
same.
So you're kind of like I don'treally care, but I guess I'll
take that one that's unlucky guyhere.
So so then, they take them liveand they put them in these
(28:24):
burlap sacks, like you feed yourcorn sack and take it back, and
they disappear with this hugebag of live guinea pigs and all
of a sudden, two hours later,it's on your plate you have no
idea how it got from A to B, butI don't want to know.
You don't want to know, right?
No?
Speaker 2 (28:45):
I'm better off not knowing.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
So I want to switch gears for just a second and
circle back a bit on yourpodcast.
How do you manage to keep allyour podcast content fresh and
exciting?
I'm kind of struggling withthat right now.
Speaker 2 (28:59):
Well, we found each other on Podm match, so I use
that most often.
I feel like that's been like mygreatest tool.
But a lot of people I havefound just by connecting with
them through LinkedIn.
You know, I a lot of tourpeople reach out to me and say
hey, I know that you're planningtrips, can we talk?
Blah, blah, blah, and I'm likehey, you know what, you'd be
great for my show, you shouldcome, we'll have this
(29:20):
conversation, that sort of thing.
So, um, I try to keep it.
I don't know, it's really hardto keep things new, but I'm just
doing it for the fun of it, forthe most part you know.
So if if I don't get a singlelistener for any episodes,
that's fine, because I had fun Ihad.
I learned a lot from thatconversation and that's usually
what I'm trying to strive formost it's just learning, so that
(29:42):
way I can keep on top of thingsand, you know, offer these
tours and that sort of thing tomy audience and as well as
people who want me to plan theirtrips for them.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
Yeah, I'm actually going to start guesting at some
point early next year.
I mean I would start now.
I'm just not going to openmyself up on any of those sites
because it's right now I'm notquite organized it's a whole
other side yeah, it's a wholeother side.
So I'm going to start doingthat as well, kind of I'm going
(30:12):
to put think that more seriously, I guess early next year.
But yeah, I mean, pod match hasbeen great for me, but you know,
the majority, like the first 15people I got, uh, 15, 20 people
were all friends.
For the most part it's peoplethat I knew.
Yeah, um, but the learningbehind this, you're right.
I mean learning is just it's alot of fun.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
It really is some of some of my people I've actually
read their books.
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Like I'll have like a month or month and a half
before they can interview andthey'll send me their book and I
read it what I learned fromthese people is pretty, pretty,
pretty incredible.
Speaker 2 (30:43):
How are you doing your marketing?
Are you just?
Speaker 1 (30:45):
kind of putting it out there and letting the
algorithms do what they do.
Speaker 2 (30:49):
Well.
So I did kind of.
I went back to school and I didget my bachelor's degree for
digital marketing, so I do havesome knowledge when it comes to
that sort of thing.
So I don't do any kind of paidads or anything like that.
It's mostly SEO on the back endof the website and just really
trying to pop out as muchcontent as I can on all the
socials.
(31:09):
So that seems to be working thebest for me, but a lot of it is
the algorithms.
I call them the alligators.
They sometimes you throw yourstuff out there and they just
eat them up and they don'tactually show them to anybody.
So, um, it's just a lot of, youknow, throwing stuff at the
dartboard and seeing what sticksyeah, I'm.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
Next year I'm going to make more of a push on the
marketing um website and thingslike that that I haven't built
yet.
I've just been putting outclips and things like that onto
the social media site.
So I'm hoping that next year Ihave some pretty good plans in
place to help that go.
And actually one of the thingsI wanted to do while I'm
traveling is a food blog.
(31:49):
Yes, obviously people love foodright.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
And so I think that, in addition to my podcast.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
right, that should draw, drive more people to the
show.
So yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:00):
So when I first started out it was like I said,
just a quick little social mediaaccount.
It wasn't supposed to beanything, um.
And then my son was like, hey,you know, you wrote some things.
I threw stuff stuffed out inlike journals and stuff over the
years and he was like, whydon't you throw those out as
blogs?
And I did, and that's kind ofwhat has been really driving
everybody to me now is you knowthose search results and you
(32:21):
know type in life, love andtravel like pops right up.
So, funny note though I don'treally I haven't told a single.
Like none of my personal peopleknow that I'm actually running
this podcast.
So everybody who has found me,has all been outside of my, my
own network and it wasn'tanything.
Yeah, I just, you know there'sa lot of haters out there, so I
(32:45):
didn't really want to go thatroute.
I figured I would try to do itas as naturally and organically
as possible, and that's kind ofwhere I'm at right now.
So a lot of my good friends soquote unquote don't even know
that I'm doing this.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
So the um.
The interesting thing I'vefound is you're right, there are
a lot of haters out there and Ihad three or four real close
friends real close friends abouta month or month and a half ago
, kind of all at the same timetexting me your podcast is
really good, and I think I'vehad a lot of people that aren't
(33:21):
in my network that have said,hey, keep going with this
podcast, it's really good stuff.
And so when they sent it myfriends sent it.
I was like you know.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
I think it is good right now.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
It's new, we're in our fourth or fifth month right
now.
I think right now what we'vedone has been really good and
it's going to continue to getbetter.
But I think their messages camefrom a different spot.
Their messages came from alittle like poking a little bit,
a little bit of a little bit ofenvy, and you can feel it, and
so I think sometimes yeah,you're better off, I didn't tell
anyone.
I was doing it until I startedputting out TikToks, and then
(33:56):
they found you right.
Yeah, they found me and this guythat I I know we were in
another business together in thefurniture business back in the
day and this guy just he wasjust really an envious.
There was like this group ofreally jealous guys that they
almost brought the entirecompany we were working for to
its knees.
Speaker 2 (34:14):
I mean, they were that it didn't have anything to
do with me.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
It was just, they were that, you know, just toxic
people and um, but they werepowerful enough in the company,
within the company, that theythey almost brought it to its
knees.
And so when one guy sent me amessage about the podcast, I
know exactly where he found outabout my podcast too, because I
see who you know, you see ontiktok, who's looking at your
clips right yeah and there's oneguy who was one of the toxic
(34:39):
guys had seen my clip and he sothe other third party guy told
me some weird place that hefound my podcast.
I'm like I know it's a lie.
He found out from this otherdude.
Speaker 2 (34:51):
You were peeping on me, man, it's okay.
Speaker 1 (34:53):
Yeah, I mean these guys like they don't have
anything to do and they think onone track, and so then when you
start doing something that'screative or different, I think
it makes people nervous.
Who the hell does she think sheis?
Speaker 2 (35:09):
Right.
Yeah, that's exactly thepushback and honestly, I was
more afraid that I would getnegative feedback from people
who were close to me than I wasabout strangers.
For whatever reason, it seemseasier to put myself out in
front of my, in front of perfectstrangers, than it is in front
of my friends and family andit's.
(35:29):
you know, they can be negative,but I feel like sometimes
they're they're overly negativeand I can't let those thoughts
get into my head because if theydo, then I'll never be
successful.
So this way I don't have toworry about it.
If they find me, they find me.
Otherwise, hey, I'm just goingto enjoy it.
Speaker 1 (35:48):
Yeah, and like a lot of people in your close network,
they don't.
The only thing that a lot ofpeople understand is getting up
in the morning, going to a job,work and getting money going
home eating dinner but that's it.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
They don't think outside the box.
Speaker 1 (35:59):
So they wonder why you did Right Right, and I've
had that same problem with closefamily members.
I've had to kind of push awayand really close.
Your friends are the worst.
Speaker 2 (36:11):
You find out that your friends are all your
friends.
Yes, exactly yeah.
People will show their truecolors when, when they see you
being more successful than them.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
So we're just not even more successful, but just
doing something that's outsideof the norm that's who?
Speaker 2 (36:27):
yeah, exactly, yeah I get me down to a nine to five.
I just can't do it.
It's not in me, it's miserableright and I don't even care if
someone.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
if someone goes to work at nine and gets off at
five, and when they get to 80,they have more money than me, I
don't care.
Yeah, that's, if someone goesto work at nine and gets off at
five, and when they get to 80,they have more money than me, I
don't care.
Speaker 2 (36:46):
That's the way I look at it.
I don't even know if I'm goingto make it to 80.
So why am I saving for that?
I don't even want to.
Speaker 1 (36:51):
You know, I don't even care.
I think I want to do that andyou know if, if they have one
hundred million dollars and I'vebeen to 180 countries and have
180 really cool stories, I winin my mind.
Speaker 2 (37:08):
I agree 100%.
Yeah, no, money doesn't mean asmuch to me as those memories
that I get to take and, nomatter what, nobody can take
those from me.
That's right.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
And the freedom right , living a life with complete
freedom.
I think it's a big deal.
Let me ask you do you think wemissed anything on the show,
that on this interview that youwould like to get out there?
Speaker 2 (37:32):
Anything important that you'd like people to hear.
No, actually, I think younailed everything.
We talked about all the littlecrevices and inside of life,
love and travel.
So, yeah, I think we're good.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
How do people reach out to you if they're interested
in your services?
Speaker 2 (37:47):
Yeah, so my website is probably the easiest way to
get ahold of me.
You can just Google life, loveand travel.
I should be the first one thatpops up.
Beyond that, you can definitelyfind me on YouTube at the
podcast Beachside BanterBeachside Banter with Bea.
I don't even know why I can'ttalk right now.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
Beachside.
Banter with Bea, I'll help youout.
Speaker 2 (38:07):
I can't say my own thing.
My words are just gettingjumbled.
Facebook, I'm on InstagramThreads, Twitter, you name it,
or X, now I guess Anywhere youcan find me anywhere.
Speaker 1 (38:19):
I really wish he wouldn't have changed the name
of.
Speaker 2 (38:22):
Twitter.
It's still going to be Twitterto me, no matter what I know.
I mean I love Elon.
Speaker 1 (38:27):
Musk.
I'm a massive fan of that guy.
I love him Like every man inthe world wants to be that guy
and we can't be.
He's like a once in ageneration guy.
Why the hell he changed fromTwitter to X?
It's the only thing that thatguy's done in his entire career
(38:47):
that I feel I have the right toquestion.
Speaker 2 (38:48):
Yeah, no, I agree.
I do know that he's trying todo like X-mail and that sort of
thing.
So I don't know if the X wassupposed to like mimic the G
from Google maybe.
I don't know.
That's what I'm giving him, Ijust don't like it.
Speaker 1 (39:03):
Look, I hope he hears this, because I love the guy, I
love you, I hate next.
Speaker 2 (39:12):
I'm not a fan of it either.
I'll be honest with you, nomatter what it'll always be
Twitter.
I'm always going to call himtweeting.
I know I know Well, hey, thankyou.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
Thank you so much for coming on.
I think it was incredible andhopefully we can connect down
the road and if you get to apoint where you want to, you
know, have someone on your showabout talk about South America.
I could possibly be your guy.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
I was already thinking it definitely, and I
will definitely need to pickyour brain too, because it
sounds like you've been to somereally cool locations that I'd
like to know about too.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
Yeah, I think with the South America travel for me.
I think you could probably domultiple shows if you really
wanted to travel for me.
I think you could probably domultiple shows if you really
wanted to.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
It's going to be hard for you to tie all of that into
one show because I've done themajority of South America and
that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
Most of the time when I go, I'm staying long term,
like in Brazil.
Went there for the first timefor a week.
I stayed eight months, you know.
The second time I went back foranother six months and I just
keep's awesome.
So you get to know all kinds oflittle nooks and crannies that
you're not going to get out of aweek vacation, right, peru's
another one.
I mean some of thoseexperiences in Peru, I mean you
(40:22):
could talk all day just aboutthe places to eat in Peru, right
, you could have an hour-longpodcast just on.
Where can?
Speaker 2 (40:28):
I eat in.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
Peru.
Speaker 2 (40:30):
Have you been to Chile yet?
Speaker 1 (40:32):
I haven't done Chile and I'll be fair, I really don't
want to.
Speaker 2 (40:36):
Okay, that's fair.
Speaker 1 (40:38):
I know that sounds.
Look if someone calls.
If someone called me uptomorrow and said, matt, I have
you a free flight to Chile,we're going to go down there and
you're going to have a hoteland a flight and all that paid
for.
Speaker 2 (40:53):
I'm going to go.
I'll be on the plane, well yeah, but for whatever.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
for whatever reason, and there's no reason, there's
no negative or I don't haveanything negative at all about
Peru or about Chile, it's justnot one of those places that
I've ever been.
Speaker 2 (41:05):
Like you know, I really want to go there.
Yeah, I think it'd be reallyneat, though, cause it's a bunch
of different.
I mean, you go from super hotto super cold.
(41:34):
As someone from Missouri, Itotally get that.
We have the absolute worstweather ever.
It's totally bipolar.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
Yeah, no, it sounds like science issues for me.
So I don't know.
I mean I'm sure I'll get thereone day.
I mean South America.
You know, I've spent 18 yearsof my life living, traveling,
doing business here.
There will be a day where Ijust end up in Chile for some
reason.
But I don't think it's going tobe because I sit around and
plan it out.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
Got it.
That makes sense.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
It's just you know.
I'm sure you have those placeswhere you're like okay, everyone
likes it, but I just don't want, I just don't care, right.
Speaker 2 (42:09):
Yeah, and I'll.
I'll be honest with you.
Mexico I think that's why Ihaven't made it there yet is
because that's kind of on mylist.
I think it's just becauseeverybody's been there.
And you know, I just I'mlooking for more of like the
places where people haven't beenthat I could talk about, type
thing.
Speaker 1 (42:26):
Well, I think you're right about Mexico.
Every everyone under the sun.
When an American says I'mreally going to go on a vacation
, it's Mexico.
They feel like they've reallydone something going to Cancun
and staying in a resort.
You fly into Cancun to do thoseresorts.
I hate making fun of how peopletravel, because that can be a
gateway.
Speaker 2 (42:44):
I always say no matter what it was for me,
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
Any travel trip you take could be a gateway to who
knows what, to what you and I donow, um, but when people go to
cancun, like 13 times, you knowthey all of a sudden they're
going to cancun like every year.
We love cancun, it's awesomedown there, you know, um, and
I'm like it's not reallytraveling like when you really
talk to true travel guys.
(43:09):
You, you fly Delta, first classmaybe, or whatever coach class,
even into the Cancun airport.
You walk out, go throughimmigration, some dude's holding
a sign going, hey, we're overhere, right, and then you follow
him out and you hop in the limoor his really nice air
conditioned van.
He drives you to the resort andyou never leave the resort.
For the entire week you didn'teven see Cancun, nope.
Speaker 2 (43:37):
You just saw the resort yeah.
Speaker 1 (43:40):
It's not a vacation, no.
So but going back to what yousaid about not wanting to go to
a place where a lot of people go, there are a lot of places in
Mexico, like if you went toMexico City, you're going to
have very, very few friends inyour friendship circle that can
say they've been to Mexico city.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
Yeah, I bet, and I've heard of like some really cool
like beach towns towards theSouth of Mexico, um, that a lot
of people are talking about.
Well, not a lot of people, butsome people who are more into
like the, the cultural immersion, that type of thing they've.
They've talked about it and I'mlike, okay, maybe I could go
there, because nobody's reallybeen there and that sort of
thing.
But yeah, I just I really enjoy.
I mean, don't get me wrong,I've, I've been all inclusive.
(44:17):
You know, my very first tripout of the country was Punta
Cana, all inclusive.
We did exactly what you said.
We got to the resort, we hungout there, we ate at the resort
the entire time.
I think we did a one excursionon a party boat or something
like that, and that wasbasically the end of it.
But to me, I felt like I wasmissing a lot.
I felt like there was, you know, I wasn't really exploring, I
(44:37):
wasn't really eating the food, Iwasn't doing any of that stuff.
So when we took our next tripover to Jamaica, we did another
all inclusive.
I was like, hey, we're noteating the food here every
single day, we're going to goout, we're going to venture out.
And then it slowly developedinto okay, well, now I want to
stay in Airbnb.
I don't really want to hit ahotel.
I will if I have points for it,but I prefer to stay in, you
(44:57):
know, someplace that's like inthe middle of a neighborhood, or
just try to immerse myselfabsolutely as much as possible.
And that, I feel like, is whenI know for sure that you know I
feel more fulfilled when I leave.
I also try to like do a littlebit of volunteer work while I'm
there as well.
You know I'll try to do likefour hours or so where I walk
(45:18):
dogs or, you know, clean outcages or something like that,
just while I'm there.
So I feel like I'm also tryingto give back and bridge the gap
between the Americans and thepeople like the locals, and they
don't really really like wedon't normally respect them and
we don't normally have thatbecause we don't do the research
and that sort of thing.
So I'm trying to try to bringthat to everybody so that they
(45:39):
start to travel more with apurpose and a meaning and that
sort of thing.
Speaker 1 (45:43):
so yeah, yeah, um, I can't tell you how many
Americans in fact, are you stillthere?
Did we cut out?
Yeah, no, you're good, okay,there, did we cut out.
Speaker 2 (45:52):
Yeah, no, you're good .
Speaker 1 (45:53):
Okay, cool, I thought we cut out for a second.
I meet a lot of Americans.
In fact, I was just in Brazilfor six months and I was in Rio.
I've been there long enough.
Once you stay in the sameneighborhood for enough time in
a foreign country, people startto recognize you.
You're the only white Americandude that keeps showing up every
(46:14):
day and orders the same thing,and you're trying your best to
learn the language and then, allof a sudden, they see you
progressing through the language.
You went from not even beingable to order a coffee to now I
can have a conversation.
So now they start respectingyou as a different type of
person.
You're not just a regulartourist, right, and you know,
and Rio de Janeiro is a hugetourist city, but if you get off
(46:34):
the beaten path and stay for awhile, they'll start accepting
you as more of a local, andthat's kind of what had started
happening to me.
That's where I learned that itwas just recently that it hit me
.
But I was in a place that I'vebeen to many times.
I went to use the restroom.
I had to walk behind thecounter where everyone paid and
(46:56):
to come back out and there'sthis American guy.
That's like she doesn't speakEnglish.
I don't know what she's tryingto tell me.
All she was trying to tell himwas that she didn't have change
for the bill.
Could he pay with a card orcould he get change and come
back?
That's all she was trying tosay.
And he's like in her face likeI have cash.
Why don't you take cash?
What are you talking about?
And he's flipping out, shedoesn't speak English and like,
(47:17):
because I walked out of thebathroom, I was like, sir, is
there any way I can help you?
Because I do speak somePortuguese and I understand
Portuguese, you know really,really well, Almost 100% by this
time.
It wasn't that way in thebeginning but now I understand
it really well and I cancommunicate.
But this guy didn't communicatein any.
He had no Portuguese and shehad no English.
(47:38):
So I, kind of just to be nice,became the mediator, and also I
didn't want my country to looklike a bunch of assholes, if I
could.
Speaker 2 (47:45):
That's it Right.
If I could fix it right.
Speaker 1 (47:48):
And so this guy was being a complete ass, completely
, and I was like, sir, can Ihelp you?
And he's like, sorry, sorryabout using that word.
I hope I didn't offend you withwhat I was saying.
You're good.
Anyway, yeah, so this guy'slike dude she doesn't speak any
English and I'm like, bro,you're in Brazil, but they don't
(48:11):
have to speak English here.
They speak Portuguese here.
And he said well, I needsomebody to speak English.
Speaker 2 (48:14):
I'm like you're going to have to fly back, bro Right
get out of here.
You're in the wrong place.
Speaker 1 (48:19):
You're either going to have to speak to me and tell
me what your problem is, becauseI speak English, or you're
going to have to fly back.
You have two options, and so Ihelped this guy out.
But the point is I meet thosepeople all the time and you know
, it's just.
It's embarrassing when peoplelike you and I try to go to a
place and represent our countryin a good way and then you see a
(48:41):
bunch of assholes like this.
You start to understand why therest of the world thinks we're
assholes.
Speaker 2 (48:53):
It's, it becomes very blatant right, one hundred
percent, yes.
So that's why I'm hoping thatyou know people will hear the
podcast.
They'll start to kind of, youknow, maybe we can make that a
movement.
Let's make like culturalimmersion of movement where we
actually like get people onboard when they they start to
dig into these countries andlearn about them and what they
need to learn before theyactually just hop on a plane and
head over there.
Because it really does.
(49:14):
It makes it makes all of uslook bad.
They all hate us.
They go out of their way tohelp us.
They hate us and I just I.
I personally it drives me crazybecause there's no reason for
any of that.
Like, part of the travel andpart of the trip is learning
what they're trying to tell youand what they're trying to say
to you and having patience.
(49:34):
You're supposed to be flexibleon a vacation.
You cannot go on a vacation andbe impatient.
I'm sorry, it'll never work outfor you.
Speaker 1 (49:43):
Well, I think one of the things, one of the many
things that creates thatimpatience is number one.
We come from a culture whereeverything's very fast right
there's, and I'm not trying tochange that, I think, like
American culture, has it figuredout when it comes to many, many
things.
But when, when you're used tothat and you're working 53, 54
(50:05):
weeks per year at that speed andthen all of a sudden, all you
have seven days to pick up andgo to Brazil, which is nine
hours in flight time away,you're flying for 18 hours of
your seven days.
So one day is just a little bitmore than one day by the time
you get to the airport and allthat.
One and one and a half days isjust traveling and you only have
(50:27):
five and a half days to enjoythat.
The first couple of days youspend exhausted because you're
you just flew nine hours, right.
And so you're trying to get 75tourist spots in in five days,
right.
You're trying to go to everytourist spot in the whole city
because you're scared to death.
You're never going to be ableto come back to this place.
Speaker 2 (50:45):
That is true, yes, so you maintain this like?
Speaker 1 (50:48):
speed that you would you know, New York city speed
and Brazil, where they don'teven know what that is.
They just chill yeah.
So it's just, I don't know.
It just doesn't.
It's hard to get someone thatonly has seven days vacation
into that mindset.
Speaker 2 (51:10):
I mean, I get it, but you're still being, you know,
giving us a bad name and allthat stuff.
So that's all.
Speaker 1 (51:18):
Well, I think I think we are, you know, to your point
of trying to create a movement.
Speaker 2 (51:22):
I think you and I are probably doing that without
knowing that we're doing it, Ihope so I think that just if
yeah, if this type of contentcan get out there, um, but just
if yeah, if this type of contentcan get out there.
Speaker 1 (51:32):
I think there's a lot here to learn from people or
for people and yeah, hopefullythose are value adds that we're
bringing to the world withoutknowing it.
Speaker 2 (51:46):
Fingers crossed for sure, awesome.
Speaker 1 (51:48):
Thank you so much for coming on.
I really appreciate it.
Thank you so much for joiningme on this episode of Matt
Chambers Connects.
Stay tuned for upcomingepisodes where we'll dive deeper
into these two fascinatingworlds.
If you enjoyed today's episode,please subscribe to our YouTube
channel, matt Chambers Connects.
You can also find us on Spotify, apple Podcasts, youtube Music
(52:10):
and many other major podcastplatforms, so you don't miss a
show.
Also, please join us on oursocial media channels so you can
connect with other listenersand ask your most pressing
questions and also tell us whattypes of guests you'd like to
see on the show.
Thanks again and I'll see younext time.
Thank you.
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