Liz Beatty // Host
Native Traveler Blog
Native Traveler Blog

Check out Native Traveler's full-length EASY RIDER show!

 

Special Offer From BABBEL for Native Traveler Listeners! 

The World's Leading Language Learning App is offering NT listeners a Buy Three Months, Get Three Months Free special offer. Click below and enter the coupon code "TheNativeTraveler".

 
 

The Road to Kalamazoo

Our senior producer Cara Ferguson proves that there's a little easy rider in all of us, and hitting the open road on two wheels may be easier than you think.  With getting there half the fun, you might also be surprised at the hidden gems you'll find along the way.  Hop on and listen in.

 

Mike Ball // Snow City Cycle Marine

Mike Ball from Snow City Cycle Marine gives expert technical advice on getting the right bike and the right gear ready for your next road trip. Those living outside the Toronto area can look to their local colleges and motorcycle shops for courses o…

Mike Ball from Snow City Cycle Marine gives expert technical advice on getting the right bike and the right gear ready for your next road trip. Those living outside the Toronto area can look to their local colleges and motorcycle shops for courses on motorcycle maintenance.

It all began in 1971 in a 450 square foot garage owned and operated by George and Vira. Today Snow City Cycle Marine is the largest Powersports Dealer in the G.T.A. operating out of 12,500 square foot building on Kennedy Road in Scarborough. They successfully sell and service Yamaha, BRP, Kawasaki, and Suzuki product.
 

Heritage Guitar Inc.

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Kalamazoo’s history with the guitar dates back to the late 1800’s when a man by the name of Orville Gibson arrived in town and began designing his own innovative mandolins. By the early 1900’s, his company was also producing guitars and other stringed instruments and, throughout most of the next century, the Gibson Guitar Corporation grew to become the world’s premier guitar manufacturer. From 1917, that growth occurred at the historic 225 Parsons Street location, until 1984 when the company left Kalamazoo for good, closing the doors on the iconic factory.
Not long after, a few former senior employees had decided they wanted to continue the tradition of handcrafting beautiful, high quality electric guitars in Kalamazoo. By the spring of 1985, those individuals had acquired space at the former factory, purchased a lot of the old guitar-making equipment, and were ready to roll.
The first guitar Heritage introduced was the H-140 solid body single cutaway electric guitar, which premiered at the 1985 NAMM show in New Orleans. Over the years, Heritage has built a small array of various instruments, including banjos, mandolins, flat tops, and basses. However, with the demand for the guitars increasing, the company decided to focus exclusively on making the world’s greatest hollow, semi-hollow, and solid body electric guitars.
 

Renée Newman // Discover Kalamazoo

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Cara and Geoff found Kalamazoo is more than a great name.  Located in Southwest Michigan, about two hours from Chicago, Kalamazoo is one of those mid-sized urban gems, with an vital, eclectic downtown, but never far from lakes and outdoor recreation, homey festivals, and more.
Kalamazoo claims to have a big city mindset with a small town heart. Cara and Geoff agree.
 

Cara & Geoff Hit the Road

 

Geoff and Cara's tips on where to stay

After a long day on a bike, Geoff and Cara insist on comfort — all the necessities, a king suite, upscale linens and comforters, a jetted tub, an in-suite kitchen is a nice touch.  They said they also look for a heated indoor pool, a spa and onsite dining options (in case they're too tired to hit the town)

In Kalamazoo, the Radisson Plaza Hotel delivered on all, and Cara and Geoff were able to explore much of the city on foot from their downtown location.

Loews Chicago Hotel was equally impressive and (much to Cara's delight) had a Starbucks in the lobby. Located on the famed Magnificent Mile, it's close to big attractions like Millennium Park and the John Hancock Center.

The Ambassador Hotel's vintage marble floors, stylized polished nickel sconces, bronze elevator doors, and ornate plasterwork deliver one into authentic 1920’s grandeur, but with 21st century comforts.  Geoff and Cara gushed about this one.

269 Cool Things to Do in Area Code 269™

“Want to know where to make your own wine, visit an alligator sanctuary, catch an independent film made by teenagers, or get the best, juiciest burger? 

269 Cool Things to Do in Area Code 269™ is a compilation of submissions from Kalamazoo residents and visitors as they share their favorite gems in (269)™

Since 2010, 269 Cool Things to Do in Area Code 269™ has been a yearly, curated bucket list of places to go, restaurants to try, and things to do for residents and visitors alike.”
— discoverkalamazoo.com

Native Traveler's COLOMBIA show!

 
 

This week, Colombia's dramatic grassroots renaissance and language as a window to culture. Listen in...

(1.13 - Feature//Jodi Cash;  15:00 - kimkim//Tara Davis//Expedition Colombia;  34:00 - Puran Parsani//Babbel)

 

Puran Parsani // Babbel


Puran Parsani tells us about the world's first and best language-learning app.  Founded in 2007 and with more than a million active subscribers, Babbel is ranked the world’s #1 innovative company in education. Their courses are designed to deliver language skills you can use right away. Almost three quarters of users say they’d be able to have a short, simple conversation in their new language within five hours of using Babbel. We tried it—absolutely true.

THE ROMANIAN CHALLENGE

The premise is simple: four polyglots, armed with a handful of starter sentences and impressive backgrounds in linguistic achievement, try to learn Romanian in an hour. The results are pretty mind-boggling. Take a look!

7 MISTAKES ENGLISH SPEAKERS MAKE IN SPANISH

Making mistakes is part of the language learning process, but some mistakes are decidedly more embarrassing than others! Read on to learn how to avoid these seven common (and blush-worthy) errors the next time you try to impress someone with your Spanish skills.

3 WAYS YOU MISS OUT WHILE TRAVELING WHEN YOU DON'T SPEAK THE LANGUAGE

Not only can traveling in a country without speaking the language be ocassionally lonely and difficult, but you might be missing out on actual prizes by doing so! Watch the video attached to this article to see what we're talking about.
 

Jodi Cash

Our feature contributor is writer, editor, and photojournalist Jodi Cash. Jodi has worked for Tales of the Cocktail, Flagpole, Mother Nature Network, and Kinfolk. When she's not writing, she relishes life in Atlanta, Georgia and traveling elsewhere with her husband, Oak House frontman and guitarist Gresham Cash.

 

Tara Davis // Expedition Colombia

Expedition Colombia owners Tara Davis and her husband Jule Domine share a passion for rivers and wild places. Prior to teaching ESL in Medellín, Tara (a British Columbia native) had gone to university in Colorado and studied political science and environmental issues before going on to work for The Wilderness Society. Her focus was on strengthening the wild and scenic designation of Colorado’s rivers. Her connection to Colombia reaches back to stories told by her father who worked there with the National Geographic Society.

Prior to starting Expedition Colombia, Jules studied hydrology and has traveled to over 15 countries as a hydrologist and professional athlete in the sport of whitewater kayaking.
Throughout his travels, he realized he couldn’t go from one pristine river to the next before it was polluted or dammed. He decided to stay in Colombia and work to protect its rivers. Here remain some of the world’s last wild clean rivers and ecosystems, but more importantly, a community of resilient, resourceful, and warm people brave enough to stand up to protect them. As fate would have it, Jules and Tara fell in love with Colombia and each other.

Together, they now run Expedition Colombia, which they describe as "adventure with a purpose." More than a tourism company, they are a network of entrepreneurs and conservationists who know, care, celebrate, and protect Colombia’s ecosystems and cultures. In partnership with local communities, sustained by these natural environments, they welcome curious and conscious travelers to play an active role in Colombia’s positive and peaceful transformation.

 

kimkim

Huge thanks to kimkim for connecting us to Tara, Jules, and Expedition Colombia.

The founders of kimkim built some of the world's leading travel apps, including TripAdvisor, EveryTrail, and TrekkingPartners. They came together to use all this travel know-how to find a better way to plan and book travel using the help of a local expert.

I agree with them, travel planning is sometimes a painful experience—copious hours researching, too many choices. I love the notion of connecting directly to a local travel expert, someone who knows the destination well and offers curated travel advice according to my interests. And then, how delightfully old and new school, to have the entire trip put together and booked in one place?

The kimkim experts call this the future of travel—bringing the local expert back into trip planning. Apparently, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Lonely Planet (and now Native Traveler) see some truth in this.

The Medellín You Won't See On Netflix

The Medellín You Won't See On Netflix

When I told my family that my husband and I were departing for a month in Medellín, Colombia, they were skeptical, to say the least. Like many North Americans, what they knew of the city was based on a blurry image of drug lords, guerrilla wars, and images of Pablo Escobar on magazines and television screens. The amorphous threat of danger in what was once the murder capital of the world still loomed large. 

But in the time since Don Pablo was finally killed on a Medellín rooftop as he tried to flee the authorities, things have been changing in the City of Eternal Spring. The heavy influence of cartels persisted for many years afterwards, to be sure, but after significant government intervention and, even more so, the will of the citizens to reclaim their beloved city, Medellín has begun to thrive.

Colombia’s Lost City

What is the lost city? 

The Lost City (Spanish: Ciudad Perdida) is an ancient city and sacred site of the Tayrona Civilization, which once carpeted the Caribbean coastal plain of Colombia and extended to the highest coastal mountain range on earth, the Sierra Nevadas of Santa Marta. Today, the Lost City remains one of the largest pre-Colombian towns discovered in all of the Americas.

 

Where is it?

Some 100 kilometres away from Santa Marta, Colombia—about a 3-hour drive or a 4-day trek from Santa Marta, the second oldest city in South America and the capital city of the department of Magdalena. To reach the lost city, you need to commit to a minimum 4-day trek on ancient trails that are carved into the mountain and jungles, crossing over rivers and waterfalls.

 

Who populated the ancient city?

The city dates back to 14th century, when it was populated by some 2,000 to 4,000 native Tayrona people and served as their biggest urban and commercial hub, spread over an area of 2 square kilometres.

The conquest of Colombia in the 16th century was delayed, but when it broke out it was particularly violent, and the indigenous Kogi (descendants of the Tayrona) fled up to the lush jungle of the Sierra Nevada mountains. They were miraculously left out of sight, out of mind, so they continued to follow their ritual practices. (Other indigenous peoples in the same general area include the Arhuaco and Wiwa people, but it is not thought that they lived in the Lost City.)

In 1970, a local man stumbled upon the city during his grave-robbing expedition. For about a decade, the Lost City, which at the time was referred to as Infierno Verde ("Green Hell"), was a site of fighting between the grave-robbers (Spanish: quaqueros) until the government finally allocated resources to protect and excavate the site.

 

Did indigenous traditions and values vanish with the disappearance of the Tayrona civilization and the Lost City?

No. Descendants of the Tayrona, Arhuaco, and Kogi people are still ruled by ritual priesthood. They believe the ecological well-being of the planet is in their hands and that their prayers maintain the cosmic balance of the universe.

Arhuaco and Kogis consider themselves to be the elder brothers—they have a moral and ethical responsibility to educate us, “the younger brother,” and they want to do so. They speak fluently in Spanish and in their own languages to articulate with elegance how the rest of the world needs to get our act together and care for the planet.

In Colombia, they’ve emerged as a symbol of continuity and hope. The last five Colombian presidents have visited the Arhuaco communities via helicopter to get their blessing. The point is not going to the Lost City—it is to connect to its surrounding indigenous cultures.

In 1974, my father did research alongside indigenous people in these communities, so our home was often the unofficial embassy in D.C. for the Arhuacos. Working with indigenous groups is delicate because their villages aren’t a theme park or zoo—you want to make sure the people driving and controlling tourism into these communities are the communities themselves, and that decisions are being made by leaders in these communities.

Now we are in the process of working closely with such communities—we have been in key consultations with leaders and we are developing these relationships within the context of tourism.

Based on my father’s long-term relationships with these communities and his book One River, an autobiographical botanical exploration of Colombia, Expedition Colombia is uniquely positioned and uniquely sensitive to the needs of indigenous communities.

We also have had the honor of befriending a very wonderful family who started the aquarium in Santa Marta and have close ties with Arhuaco communities there. My band had the chance to sing songs for an Arhuaco community on the coast, so they nicknamed me Agua Dulce ("sweet water").

 

How do you actually get to the Lost City?

The trail to and from the Lost City runs along the same path, weaving through the thick jungle of the Sierra Nevada mountains and covering a total distance of just over 45 kilometres as the crow flies, or over 75 kilometres if you account for all of the ups and downs. The distance is usually covered in four days, but there are officially three options for the trek.

The 4-Day Trek option includes two and a half days of trekking to get to the Lost City and one and a half days to get back. There is also a 5-Day Trek option, which breaks up the return journey by splitting up the fourth day of hiking into two shorter days. There is also a 6-Day Trek option, which breaks up the second day (the longest and most exhausting) into two days.

 

When is the best time to visit?

The dry season runs from December through to early March and the rainy season from March to November. Treks to the Lost City are offered year round, but if you have a chance to choose when to trek, go in the dry season.

Native Traveler's SUSTAINABLE TRAVEL Show!

 
 

The United Nations designated 2017 the International Year of Sustainable Tourism. Today we take a look at what that means. We explore how our industry is impacting environmental, cultural, and economic sustainability for better and worse around the world. We learn how, for mindful travelers, sustainability and a richer travel experience may start with thinking first of local people and ways of life in the places we visit. For all this and more, our conversation this week starts in Venice...

(Feature Erla Zwingle at 1:00;  Interview Elizabeth Becker at 13:27;  Interview Kelly Galaski at 38:05)

 

Erla Zwingle

Freelance journalist, Erla Zwingle, has written for myriad magazines on myriad subjects for close to 30 years. She has no specialty, unless you consider "anything" a specialty — from sports, photography, education, phenomena, people, places, and things. Her work has appeared over 25 times in National Geographic Magazine, on topics ranging from population to olive oil, Catherine the Great, globalization, the Ogallala Aquifer, Greece, Naples, the Alps, and so on. Sometimes people call her a travel writer, but she's not. She doesn't write about travel, she travels in order to write about things which happen to be somewhere else.  We're honoured to have Erla share with us her take on her hometown of Venice.

 

Elizabeth Becker

Award-winning author, editor and journalist, Elizabeth Becker, has covered national and international affairs as a Washington correspondent at The New York Times, the Senior Foreign Editor at National Public Radio and a Washington Post correspondent. She began her career as a war reporter in Cambodia in 1972, and is an expert on the Khmer Rouge and modern Cambodia.

In her groundbreaking work Overbooked, Elizabeth helps us understand fully the forces of the trillion-dollar global travel and tourism industry behind the glamour pages of travel magazines.  It's not all a pretty picture, but as Arthur Frommer says, OVERBOOKED is “required reading for anyone interested in the future of travel.”   We agree.

 

Kelly Galaski // Planeterra Foundation

Kelly Galaski is Program Manager heading up global programs for the Planeterra Foundation.  Established in 2003, by global adventure travel company G Adventures’ founder, Bruce Poon Tip, Planeterra Foundation is a non-profit organization that has contributed millions of dollars towards projects in areas of social enterprise, healthcare, conservation, and emergency response.  Their focus is on grassroots, community-based projects that empower some of the most vulnerable populations in the places that G Adventures travels. 

 

 

Erla Zwingle's Venice —

scenes from Via Garabaldi and more

Check out Native Traveler's full-length BUDGET TRAVEL show!

 
 

The best part about travel on a shoestring is not always saving money.  Today we learn all the tricks, hacks and insider strategies from the masters, Matt Kepnes (nomadicmatt.com) and Dani Heinrich (globetrottergirls.com).  First though, we head to Spain's Costa del Sol to hear how such budgeting strategies can actually make for a richer, more transformative experience.  Listen in...

 

Jess Simpson // A Gypsy Gene

Jess is a freelance travel writer with bylines for Paste Travel, Mental Floss, UAB magazine, al.com, Bustle, and Birmingham magazine. She loves long runs in new destinations and music-fueled yoga sets. Her mom jokes that when she was a kid and anyone said, "Jess, do you want to go..." she would jump up and down, squealing, "Yes!" before any destination was named. That trick still works.

 

Nomadic Matt

Matthew Kepnes runs the award winning budget travel site, Nomadic Matt, and wrote the New York Times best-seller, How to Travel the World on $50 a Day. After a trip to Thailand in 2005, Matt decided to quit his job, finish his MBA and head off into the world. His original trip was supposed to last a year. Over twelve years later, he is still out roaming around and teaching others how to do the same.

 

Dani Heinrich // GlobetrotterGirls

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Dani's mission is to inspire curiosity about the world and provide the tips and tools she's gained first-hand to help you see as much of the world as you can for yourself. At its core, GlobetrotterGirls remains the first-hand account of a girl exploring the world.

Housesitting in Southern Spain

Housesitting in Southern Spain

Saving money is what drew us in, initially. We’ve been traveling for 18 months, 13 countries, in perpetual motion. We’re experiencing so much but, frankly, we’re exhausted. And grossly over budget.

When fellow travelers suggest housesitting, we shrug it off. After all, we sold our own house to embark on this grand adventure, free and unburdened. The responsibility—caring for a stranger’s home—seems… well, like a step backwards.

But the value equation is becoming irresistible. I care for your home and pets, you provide me with a free place to stay.

A listing for a villa on southern Spain’s Costal del Sol soon catches our eye.

Check out Native Traveler's full-length WALKING CITIES show!

 
 

There's just no substitute for covering the ground, step by step—noting landmarks, feeling the lay of the land, mind-mapping the pattern of streets. I'm a big fan of walking cities to know better both the place and the people. In this show, we learn all the good reasons to lace up and stride out. Come along.

 

Leslie Garrett // Journalist & Author

Our feature contributor this week, Leslie Garrett is an award-winning journalist and author of more than a dozen books.

Our feature contributor this week, Leslie Garrett is an award-winning journalist and author of more than a dozen books.

 

Suzanne Urpecz // Co-Founder & Lead Culinary Ambassador of Savour Toronto

At 34 years old, Suzanne was living the dream—she was her own boss, had just married the love of her life, and was planning on buying a home and starting a family. Those plans came to a screeching halt when, upon returning from a trip to Australia, …

At 34 years old, Suzanne was living the dream—she was her own boss, had just married the love of her life, and was planning on buying a home and starting a family. Those plans came to a screeching halt when, upon returning from a trip to Australia, she was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma.

Read the rest of Suzanne's story here.

Savour Toronto:

Founded in 2013, Savour Toronto is an award-winning company specializing in creating exceptional tailor-made food and drink experiences. They are dedicated to supporting Toronto's food and dining scene with a team of passionate and dynamic local experts.

 

Jane's Walk

Jane’s Walks are free, locally-organized walking tours in which people get together to explore, talk about, and celebrate their neighbourhoods. Where more traditional tours are a bit like walking lectures, a Jane’s Walk is more of a walking conversa…

Jane’s Walks are free, locally-organized walking tours in which people get together to explore, talk about, and celebrate their neighbourhoods. Where more traditional tours are a bit like walking lectures, a Jane’s Walk is more of a walking conversation.

A Jane’s Walk can focus on almost any aspect of a neighbourhood, and on almost any topic you can think of. Walks can be serious or funny, informative or exploratory; they can look at the history of a place, or at what’s happening there right now. Anyone can lead a walk, because everyone is an expert on the place where they live!

 

A Taste of Savour Toronto

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