| Sustainable travel has been an issue I have been | | | | like these shaped Danielle's realization how hard life is |
| interested in for a while now and through G.A.P | | | | for so many people and how lucky we really |
| Adventures, the sponsor of the grand prize for our | | | | are.Danielle will tell us how difficult it was to come back |
| soon to be launched Travel Story Contest, I was able | | | | to Toronto and not surprisingly she went back to Latin |
| to learn more about the topic of sustainable | | | | America not much later. Over a period of several |
| tourism.Danielle Weiss, a former tour leader for G.A.P, | | | | years, Danielle lived, worked and volunteered in |
| is now the company's Sustainable Tourism | | | | different locations in Latin America and fell in love with |
| Coordinator. While I was quizzing Danielle about | | | | the countries, the language and the people. She will |
| sustainable travel issues of course I asked her a bit | | | | share stories of survival where she literally survived on |
| about herself and her connection to the adventure and | | | | about a dollar a day. During one of her stays in Latin |
| eco-travel industry. As she started to tell me more | | | | America she linked up with G.A.P Adventures and |
| about her background, I realized that I had a very | | | | eventually become one of their tour leaders. In the |
| interesting person right there in front of me, who has | | | | upcoming interview, Danielle will tell us more about her |
| lived, worked, studied and volunteered in a number of | | | | travel experience and her experience as a tour leader, |
| foreign countries. Needless to say, I needed to find out | | | | continuously on the road for 12 months.Today, Danielle |
| more about Danielle and her background.Danielle | | | | is back in Toronto, and after various positions at the |
| completed a degree in environmental studies at the | | | | head office, she has become G.A.P's Sustainable |
| University of Waterloo and during her college years | | | | Tourism Coordinator. Through her work Danielle |
| she travelled to Guatemala and Costa Rica. In her 3rd | | | | makes a difference in a number of Latin American |
| year of studies she went to Ecuador for two | | | | communities and demonstrates how individuals and |
| semesters. During the first semester she worked on | | | | private businesses can lend a hand to people in |
| academic studies, while during the second semester | | | | need.Susanne Pacher is the publisher of a website |
| she volunteered in a coastal jungle project where she | | | | called Travel and Transitions( Travel and Transitions |
| provided environmental education to local children, got | | | | deals with unconventional travel and is chock full of |
| involved in a tree planting program and worked in a | | | | advice, tips, real life travel experiences, interviews with |
| women's program.That year in Ecuador truly changed | | | | travellers and travel experts, insights and reflections, |
| her life - Danielle came back a different person. The | | | | cross-cultural issues, contests and many other |
| most striking experience was that she had developed | | | | features. You will also find stories about life and the |
| a strong distaste for the materialism that is so | | | | transitions that we face as we go through our own |
| prevalent in our western societies. A key memory for | | | | personal life-long journeys.Submit your own travel |
| Danielle was meeting a family who had walked for | | | | stories in our first travel story contest( and have a |
| four days through the jungle with a sick baby to try to | | | | chance to win an amazing adventure cruise on the |
| reach medical facilities. Unfortunately the family did not | | | | Amazon River. |
| reach the hospital in time and the baby died. Images | | | | |