The Life Less Traveled

“You’re traveling alone?” the old woman in Hanoi, Vietnam asked Allie Almario, one eyebrow raised in concern. She was carefully making incense sticks by hand, one at a time.

“Yes, I am.” Allie replied, a little startled by the question.

“Hmmmm, most unusual,” she murmured.

Perhaps. Often as a single Filipino-American woman trotting around the world, Allie finds herself in situations that defy description. She’s just returned from Chile where she spent two weeks hiking through the desert canyonlands of the Atacama Desert, indulging in an afternoon of relaxation in a remote hot springs, and horsebacking her way above La Ultima Esperanza (The Last Hope) in Patagonia after photographing the cobalt blue glaciers of the fjords around Torres del Paine National Park. Did she mention she was staying in four-star all-inclusive resorts? It’s all part of her job as vice president of an award-winning adventure travel company based in Lake Tahoe, NV called Myths and Mountains.

It all started with a college semester living in the International House. American students were paired with incoming foreign exchange students from several different countries. It sparked an interest in travel, and the following semester Allie signed up for six months of studying abroad in London. She was hooked. After college, she spent another year working in London, then came back to the USA and stumbled upon an interesting job at the Philadelphia Zoo. “I’m only going to do this for a year,” she grumbled, a slight pretentious tinge of a British accent obscuring her New Jersey twang, still dreamy-eyed from her London life. Eleven years later, Allie had lived the life most can only dream of. A job scouting out exotic locations for the Zoo’s successful travel program (Zoofaris), being a tour leader on African safaris, and just to make her parents happy, using her English degree as the managing editor for the zoo’s publications.

Since then, she has become a specialist in adventure travel, specializing in eco-tourism in the Galapagos, and has checked off all 7 continents and almost 70 countries. Really, she gets paid to do this.

Conception

1) How did you come up with the idea to travel for a living?
I’ve been really lucky in my professional life. The Zoo job was the second job I ever interviewed for. My other two jobs in the adventure travel industry sort of fell into my lap. And realistically, you spend an inordinate amount of time on the phone and writing emails to people halfway around the world on a daily basis. But a few times a year we get a chance to escape, get our passport stamped, and to check out new destinations and try out new things. It’s worth every minute of sitting in that office 10 hours a day.

2) Why did you want to work in the adventure travel field?
I’ve always loved to travel, to “get away from it all.” Then it became a challenge – could I somehow make it to all 7 continents before I hit the age of 40? And I still get a huge kick out of arriving at an airport, listening to the thrum of a language I don’t understand, seeing signs that mean nothing to me, walking out into a sea of humanity who know nothing about me. And I love the idea that 50% of my life is hum drum every day living, doing the laundry, paying the bills, walking the dog, etc. And the other half of my life is getting to do things in places most people only dream of. I’ve spent three days traveling through India’s harsh Thar Desert by camel, was jokingly voted World’s Most Seasick passenger on an expedition to Antarctica, swam with playful sea lions and curious penguins in the Galapagos Islands, got drunk on awful-tasting rice wine with headhunters in Borneo, and cried while wandering through the Killing Fields of Cambodia. I’ve slept under the African stars with the haunting cries of hyenas as my alarm clock, climbed the world’s most photogenic Andean peaks at Machu Picchu in Peru, and have eaten fried grasshoppers, ostrich, guinea pig, piranha and ants, just to name a few tasty snacks.

3) What worried you about setting out to excel in this field?
Actually, I’m naturally a very shy person – it’s strange that I spend so much of my time talking to so people in so many different places around the world because in real life, I’m the person at a party who sits in the corner, sucks on a Diet Coke, and people-watches. So in some ways, I’m the world’s worst sales person for travel, but if you get to talk about something you’re passionate about, then it’s different.

4) What excites you about setting out to travel around world?
Everything. Every little thing. I still stare gleefully at every new stamp in my passport. I wish countries still stamped cool images or affixed actual visas as stamps, but now so many just do a boring electronic data entry. I love tasting new spices in foods I’ve never tried before. I always try to learn a few words in the local language. I love that kids giggle the same way whether they’re in Africa, South America or Southeast Asia. There’s something that always challenges you when you’re on the road in a country you’ve never been to, and that makes every day a good reason to wake up.

5) Were there people who thought your idea of making it to all 7 continents was crazy?
Yes. I still remember my parents not quite understanding my need to constantly GO SOMEWHERE. They emigrated here from the Philippines in search of a better life for their children and still scratch their heads wondering why I haven’t found that better life here in America. The truth is I HAVE found it, and it’s allowed me to indulge in my wander lust. Actually, they’re very supportive of me now and are very proud of what I’ve been able to accomplish. I’m very grateful to them for allowing me to grow up that way.

6) Are there people who think your job is brilliant? Yes, if I hear “Can you sneak me into your suitcase?” one more time…<laughs>

7) Was there a specific moment when you thought “Yes, I’m going to do this! I’m actually going to make it to all 7 continents!”?
Well, getting to Antarctica is probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do, but I wanted to do it because it was the last continent on my list. When you cross the legendary Drake Passage by ship, you either get the Drake “Lake” – calm water, easy sailing. Or you get the Drake “Shake” – winds that create hurricane-force winds and rock the boat like crazy. Ironically, I’m really prone to seasickness and it takes two days to sail across the Drake Passage from the southernmost point of South America – Ushuaia, Argentina. I was really dreading the whole experience. Unfortunately, we had the Drake “Shake.” I honestly thought I was going to die. In fact, if I did, it would’ve been a relief. I was so terribly seasick. Believe me, I was on that very first zodiac boat (small rubber boats) that ferries people to the shore and I literally kissed the ground when we arrived at the Antarctic Peninsula. Never mind the penguin poop. And there’s a lot of penguins and penguin poop. But despite the seasickness, I loved the rest of the trip, every minute of it. My favorite memory from that trip was stripping down to my bathing suit and diving into the water with a bunch of other crazy people. It was probably 20 degrees that day, really, really cold, but in the bay were some volcanic hot springs, so we could actually sit on the beach and relax in the warm(ish) waters. On the ride back to the ship, my hair froze sideways and I had icicles in my eyelashes. I don’t think I’ve ever been that cold in my life. But it was GREAT!

Implementation

1) Was it hard or easy to travel to so many unusual destinations?
A little bit of both. I’ve mastered the act of packing lightly, but often I have to travel with added weight like a bunch of company t-shirts to give as gifts to our local guides and drivers, or our travel catalogs. They take up a lot of space. I always try to travel with a sense of humor, because true adventure travel means something is going to go wrong. That’s the nature of adventure. At some point, you WILL miss a flight, or a hotel WON’T have your reservation, or your jeep WILL break down in the middle of the desert. Stuff happens. You just have to roll with it and laugh at yourself if you make mistakes.

2) How long did it take from conception of this idea to actually making it to all 7 continents?
A long time. I really started traveling in my early 20s and I made it to Antarctica by the time I hit 40.

3) What is your funniest memory of traveling?
Too many to count! I should write a book.

Reflection

1) What is the most fun thing about travel?
There’s so many things. I think that I often find myself doing things I would never do at home. For instance, I’m definitely a more outgoing, social person when I’m on the road. I leave my shy persona at home more often these days. This has allowed me to make friends all over the world that otherwise I would have never met. I hate to exercise at home, but I love to hike and challenge myself physically whenever I can on our trips. Who would turn down a chance for a great hike in the gorgeous mountains of Patagonia, for instance? Or chasing butterflies in the cloud forests of Ecuador? Or floating on an inner tube into a river that drops into a maze of ancient caves in Belize? I tried sea kayaking for the first time off the coast of Thailand. We camped on extremely remote beaches and kayaked from island to island and ate freshly caught seafood for every meal. I loved kayaking so much that I eventually bought my own kayak later for Lake Tahoe, where I live. Another thing I’ve picked up on my travels is a love of photography. It’s something I’ve really taken an interest in.

2) Would you do it again?
I can’t think of a single thing I wouldn’t do again or a place I wouldn’t travel to one more time. You’d think that for someone who’s been to the Galapagos at least a dozen times that blue-footed boobies wouldn’t be that fascinating, but hey, I get to say “Blue-Footed Booby” every day at work. And it still makes me giggle.

3) What is the biggest lesson travel has taught you about life?
You can’t control everything. And that’s actually okay. People are the same all over the world. And that’s good. Smiling is the best international currency. And that’s great. Because it’s free.

4) What is your favorite memory of traveling?
Hard to pick one, there’s so so many. I’ve been very lucky.

Advice

1) What is your advice to someone out there thinking of working for an adventure travel company?
Pick a place. Go. Stay. Explore. Learn the language. Come back and be prepared to share your passion. That’s what gets you hired at an adventure travel company.

2) What book would you recommend to someone inspired by your story? Alfred Lansing’s book – Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage. If you think roughing it camping without running water and a toilet is hard, you have to read this book. And I just read another fabulous book called Shantaram: A Novel by Gregory David Roberts. Talk about an adventurous life! I was a little in awe of its 900 or so pages, but once I read the first chapter, I was hooked.