Episode 146 - Rebecca Braak, Rebecca Adventure Travel
Like a magical ride on horseback that connects you to the earth, community-based travel creates opportunities to make new links, connections, and meaning.
In the final episode of Soul of Travel Season 4: Women Influencing Change, Christine hosts a soulful conversation with Rebecca Braak, founder of Rebecca Adventure Travel and EcuaFina.
Rebecca Adventure Travel’s mission is to create authentic and adventurous experiences for every world-minded traveler. Rebecca leads a multicultural team to create experiences designed to be as socially, economically, and ecologically responsible as possible, paying close attention to the well-being of the local community and working with community-based tour operators, restaurants, and hotels.
In 2019, Rebecca opened a travel concept store in the Netherlands, offering artisan handcrafted blankets, ponchos, and home decor exported directly from Ecuadorian indigenous weavers and makers. Rebecca is in direct contact with the weavers and artisans, visiting the communities multiple times a year to ensure the high quality of the products and to design new products together with the Ecuadorian craftsmen and women.
Rebecca Adventure Travel is the recipient of the World Travelers Award for Ecuador’s Leading Tour Operator and a finalist for Agency of the Year in the 2023 Regenerative Travel Impact Awards.
Trusting Your Intuition
When intuition often gets wrapped up in wanderlust and this idea that something is waiting for us, we feel a pull to a place, a time, or an event. This was the same experience Rebecca shared; she was working in technical and business development in the commercial space and was very happy doing so. But when she traveled to Ecuador and rode horses, she began to recognize a part of herself that may have been hidden.
When she serendipitously went to train and ride horses, she ended up meeting her husband, who is also a horse lover and passionate about racing and raising horses.
“It’s so strange how your gut feeling gives you things you should do. And then, life will bring you opportunities.”
Immersive Community-Based Travel Brings Connection and Change
While mass travel might portray the experience of travel as us being ourselves somewhere else, truly authentic, challenging, and even uncomfortable situations can push us to become a new version of ourselves.
As Rebecca shares: You must immerse yourself in the experience.
As a mom, business owner, and founder of her companies, Rebecca finds it essential to find the time and space to rest and reenergize. She also found it unsustainable to go at an endless pace for too long.
When she visits travel shows, for example, Rebecca is thrilled by the experience and energy exchanged in those spaces. Whenever she returns to Holland, she finds her friends stuck in their everyday lives – stuck – and needing the opportunity to reset, evaluate, and recharge.
When entering into community-based travel with the intention of opening your mind, heart, and soul to people in a heartfelt and authentic way, opportunities to change the world begin to emerge.
Rebecca shares the experience of recognizing how a partnership with the artisans she met in Ecuador could result in a tangible bridge between these two communities that simply needed to connect. This company, Ecuafina, imports handmade Ecuadorian handicrafts, such as blankets, all over the world, with a physical shop in the Netherlands.
Rebecca shares that this work drives her differently, inspired by the pride her partners share in sharing culture and exchanging ideas, to bring storytelling and cultural connection into travel.
“You have to immerse yourself in this local culture and leave who you are behind.”
Soul of Travel Episode 146 At a Glance
In this conversation, Christine and Rebecca discuss:
How a love of horseback riding led to a horse ranch into the Andes, a move across the world
Creating horseback riding trips in Ecuador
The evolution of Rebecca Adventure Travel
Meaningful and community-based tourism in Ecuador, Colombia, and Peru
Connections to the Adventure Travel Trade Association
The road to following your passion and heart and leaning into the unknown
Join Christine now for this soulful conversation with Rebecca Braak.
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Related UN Sustainable Development Goals
Sustainable Development Goal #4: Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.
Sustainable Development Goal #8: Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.
Sustainable Development Goal #11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.
Resources & Links Mentioned in the Episode
To learn more about Rebecca Adventure Travel, visit the website!
Check out Rebecca Adventure Travel on TripAdvisor!
Learn more about EcuaFina, and visit upcoming trip itineraries to Ecuador and the Galapagos and this nine-day trip to the Amazon specifically designed for women.
Follow Rebecca Adventure Travel on your favorite social media network!
Connect with Rebecca on LinkedIn or find Rebecca Adventure Travel on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn,YouTube, and Pinterest!
About the Soul Of Travel Podcast
Soul of Travel honors the passion and dedication of people making a positive impact in the tourism industry. In each episode, you’ll hear the stories of women who are industry professionals, seasoned travelers, and community leaders. Our expert guests represent social impact organizations, adventure-based community organizations, travel photography and videography, and entrepreneurs who know that travel is an opportunity for personal awareness and a vehicle for global change.
Join us to become a more educated and intentional traveler as you learn about new destinations, sustainable and regenerative travel, and community-based tourism. Industry professionals and those curious about a career in travel will also find value and purpose in our conversations.
We are thought leaders, action-takers, and heart-centered change-makers who inspire and create community. Join host Christine Winebrenner Irick for these soulful conversations with our global community of travelers exploring the heart, the mind, and the globe.
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Credits. Christine Winebrenner Irick (Host, creator, editor). Esme Benjamin (Guest). Original music by Clark Adams. Editing, production, and content writing by Carly Oduardo.
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WE WON A BESSIE AWARD! The Bessie Awards recognize the achievements of women and gender-diverse people making an impact in the travel industry. To view the complete list of 2022’s winners, visit bessieawards.org.
Soul of Travel Episode 146 Transcript
Women’s travel, transformational travel, sustainable travel, women leaders in travel, social entrepreneurship
Christine: Rebecca Braak is the founder of Rebecca Adventure Travel, where she leads a multicultural team to create experiences that are designed to be as socially, ecologically, and economically responsible as possible. She works with local family owned hotels and transportation and strives to have a positive effect in the country. She works in. Her dedication has been acknowledged this year as finalist for Agency of the Year in the 2023 Regenerative Travel Impact Awards. In our conversation, Rebecca shares how her love of sport horseback riding led her to a horse ranch in the Andes, a move across the world, and eventually to creating horseback riding trips in Ecuador. She shares what her business looks like today offering experiences in Ecuador, Columbia, and Peru. I loved bringing Rebecca to the podcast where we could follow up on our connection that we first made at an adventure Travel Trade Association event in Denver.
We clicked right away and here we get to explore that connection a little bit more with you. This is such a perfect way to end season four of the Soul of Travel podcast, where we've been exploring how women are influencing change in the industry. Rebecca's journey shows how like many of our guests, when you follow your passion and heart and lean into the unknown, you might just end up right where you need to be to create change and love the work you do. Love these soulful conversations. We rely on listener support to produce this podcast. You can support me in amplifying the voices of women by making a donation on PayPal. The link is in the show notes. Join me now for this last soulful conversation of the season with Rebecca Brock.
Christine: Welcome to Soul of Travel. I'm so excited today to be joined by Rebecca Braak, who is the founder of EWA Horse Rides Aquafina and Rebecca Venture Travel, and we got to meet in person here in Denver a few months ago. I guess it's been now with an event with the Adventure Travel Trade Association. So it's always nice to be able to have met in person and have a little bit of that connection before we have one of these conversations and it doesn't always happen. So I'm really excited that we have that touch point and also excited to share about the work that you do in Ecuador with my listeners. So welcome to the show, Rebecca.
Rebecca: Thank you so much, Christine. I'm very happy to be here.
Christine: Thank you. Well, to begin, I would just love to turn it over to you to let you introduce yourself and tell our listeners a little bit more about who you are and what you're doing in the space of travel right now.
Rebecca: Yes, definitely. So I am from the Netherlands. I was born in a small village in the eastern part of the Netherlands. Then I had a very nice youth with a lot of horses. We always went competing eventing show, jumping versa every single weekend. We were somewhere in the country. And at the age of 18, I went studying in Amsterdam, did my master's degrees, M B A, and then I started working in K L M in the e-commerce department as a project manager, which was an amazing job, an amazing company. But I felt that something was missing and I think the thing that I was missing were the horses because it always has been such a big part of me in Amsterdam, in the big city in this corporate life, you don't really have any chance to be with horses. So that is when I decided to take three months off and to find a volunteering job with horses somewhere in the world.
And you know that there are tons of them in Australia, in America, in Canada, but I wanted to do something a little bit more exotic. So I found one branch in South America and that branch was located in Ecuador, and that's when I decided to al to Ecuador and to work there on the ranch for a couple of months. It didn't really work out well because the ranch owners were a little bit complicated. I had other expectations and everything, so I loved the part of being at the ranch in the mountains with the horses, training them day in, day out. But with me and the managers, it didn't really work out that well. So after a couple of weeks I had to go back to keto, started to learn Spanish, and that's when I decided that I wanted to do horseback riding trips myself. So I bought an old Jeep and I started to do horseback riding trips for the K L M crew.
They have two hours or two days a layover in keto. So I just went there every single afternoon when they would arrive from Holland, offer my horseback riding trips around keto, and that is how everything started. The company was called ema, horse Rights, Ecuador Horse Rights, and I always made sure to use the best CNA to make sure to use only horses that were on were taken care of very well. I brought my own helmets, all safety measures, the western way of tourism implementing an Ecuadorian country horses culture. So that's when it started actually in thousand 13.
Christine: Wow. Thank you for sharing that. I think it's interesting how something that's so important to us in our childhood can become the thing that is so important to us later in life and we maybe don't foresee that connection or understand how important that's going to be. And as you were talking a little bit, I was thinking about, I just went to Montana, which is where I'm from in the US and my parents had just bought horses and I took my daughters and they were learning to ride for the first time and they kept saying, oh, you can't do this with us. You don't know anything about horses and all these things that they perceived about me because the person they know has no experience with horses or anything. And my dad was telling them, oh no, your mom rode horses before she could walk. She was sitting on horse in her diaper and bare feet and they were like, no, not our mom.
But just that kind of connection I think for them to see that part of me and then that part of my parents, they also had not known them as horse riders, they have a ranch, but it was just something really special. And then to see them ride a horse and that fear they had initially, because horses are huge and impressive and they didn't know what to expect. And then two days later coming out and seeing them with my parents and they're trotting around the corral and they're like, we're trotting. And it was such a powerful experience. I imagine that when you tie that into travel, there's something really special. I know I've taken been really lucky to take some beautiful horse rides in the world and it's such a slow way to move through. And then also there's this element of trust that is being created between you and the horse, which also kind of extends to the place. There's just this beautiful relationship. So I would love to talk to you a little bit more about maybe some of that magic a bit, and this seems like it would've been a perfect fit for you as a gateway into tourism, but was it a bit of a surprise?
Rebecca: Well, actually it was completely because I never thought I would do anything in tour. I was working in the e-commerce department and I really loved it to be able to create websites, mobile applications, making the link between all those technical developments and business needs. So yeah, I'm actually quite commercial. I really love that point of KPIs. But then I came here to Ecuador and I tapped into a different part of myself. Again, it was whenever you're riding on a horse, what you were mentioning as well is that you're part of nature, the animals or the birds. And in the national parks, we do have a lot of wildlife and they're not afraid of you. You are just there. You just have to completely trust in your horse and then go and you see and you're visiting nature and they're not afraid of you. That has something very magical and something that I also really like because I have this, what I told you, this commercial part with more competitive part, I used to compete every single weekend in Holland, and when I came to Ecuador, that was something that I was missing a little bit because whenever you go on trail rides, it's lovely, but it's kind of slow as well.
So you go on a very low pace sometimes. I was guiding these trips with people that didn't have any experience, so you would have to be very, very slow and careful and everything. So that is when I decided that I also wanted to do something more competition wise. So I started to train horses, show jumping horses here in one of the country clubs. And while doing that, they also invited me to train other horses, cross country horses. I had to go on a competition on a cross country competition in the middle of Ecuador. Not everyone was like, they just spoke Spanish to me. Nobody had a clue what this foreigner was doing in this very remote place, but that's where I met my husband. That is where I met Andres, who is also a horse lover, very passionate about horses, and he was also competing there as an inventor. So it's so strange how your gut feeling gives you things that you should do. I don't know what it is, it's just like your feeling that you should do this or you should do that, and then life will bring you opportunities or bring you the moments that you to meet your husband. Yeah, that's beautiful.
Christine: Yeah, I love that you mentioned kind of trusting your intuition and your gut feeling. That's definitely something I think also gets wrapped up in wanderlust or the idea that we need to travel, but I think it's because there's something waiting for us. And so it's not so much that you need to travel, but you need to literally be somewhere else in the world. And I think that's, so many of my guests are like, there was just this thing that just kept pulling me to this place that I had no idea why I'd be drawn to Laos, Ecuador or all these places that maybe growing up seemed maybe you hadn't even heard of them, I guess. And I think that's just such a cool thing that I feel like I really believe that the universe has this kind of story for us and gives us these clues.
And again, not ever imagining you would've landed in Ecuador to do this time in the horse ranch, and then of course probably never imagining that you're going to be doing this crazy horse experience riding and then meet your husband in this rural area. And I mean, I love people's stories and I love witnessing that come to life for you then you started to really be attached and grow roots in Ecuador. So how did you go from the offering these horse tours into really knowing that tourism is a place you wanted to create an impact and start to build a business outside of just horses?
Rebecca: That also went very through little paces because the K l m employees, so the pilots and the flight attendants, they were not all into horses. So they would tell me, I would like to go zip lining. Do you know a place where we can go zip lining or I want to go hiking, want to climb some mountains, I want to go biking. So that's when I created different experiences and I always would go to a place first to meet the community, to test the food, to go to these very special places where you have this local experience. So I wouldn't go ever to this very big restaurants or whatever because it doesn't give the feeling of Ecuador to authentic feeling. To me. I was always trying to find something authentic, special that our travelers couldn't find without me. So yeah, that's when I created the day trips.
And then from day trips it went to a little bit longer because sometimes they would have a week or so to stay in Ecuador and then Galapagos as part of Ecuador and it's very, very special place. So from day trips it went to a little bit longer and then also to the Galapagos Islands, the K people would come with their families or with their friends, and we would arrange the whole trip fromto to the Amazon, to the coast, to the Galapagos, and always keeping in mind this authentic experience is this thing that makes it a little bit different than traveling on a normal way. And to give the local experience, to have this contact with the community, to have your special moment instead of just following the crowd, going to the top 10 places and then go home. I always want to have this connection with the locals.
And that's when Rebecca pinch Travis started and I started it myself of course, because it was just me. But then I was riding a horse and people would call me, I need a cruise to the Galapagos, can you please help me? Yeah, of course. But I'm riding a horse right now. So it was kind of difficult. And then I had to people and yeah, little by little we started growing. A lot of my travelers really helped me by riding res and Trip Advisor. So yeah, we started growing. I made the website myself in evenings because yeah, that's what I learned of Galen. So I knew a little bit about how to create a website with e-commerce, that stuff. And yeah, it was little little. And before the pandemic we had almost 20 people at my office just designing very special trips and nothing, everything between in the company.
And we also have a very nice base of guides, local guides. So I have one special guide, his name is an angel. He is from a very rural community, about three hours from keto. He didn't know any English before he came to keto and he started to learn little by little by cleaning a hostel. So he found a job cleaning a hostel, and then while he was there, he was talking to Trevor was coming in and he was so passionate about his whole tourism area and this way of showing his country to the travelers that he started to learn English. Now he owns a car, he got his guiding license and he's one of our main guides actually. So to be able to give these passionate people a chance to work and to make that connection between foreign travelers and Ecuadorian locals, that really gives me a lot of passion.
Christine: As you're explaining that kind of, I guess, intimacy really of travel that you were trying to create. That's, I was thinking about how I try to put that into words as well. And it's really such a feeling that it's so hard. So I love that you have this passion for also the marketing and website building and have that skillset. Because for me as a business owner, bridging those two things is very difficult. But going back to that feeling of travel and what you were trying to allow people to experience, I think that's what so many of the people that I really resonate with when I talk about travel, it's that thing and it really is hard to put into words, but it's the thing that you most want other people to experience. So it's really important, but that connection and that slow moment of finding yourself actually where you are, and I think the way that mass often portrays us traveling is kind of having our same experience somewhere else.
And so it's like we have this backdrop of Ecuador, but we're still being who we are there. And I think then what some of us have discovered is that you can push that away and then actually become a different version of yourself where you are when you really lean in and get maybe a little uncomfortable because you might not have all of your conveniences or all of your comfort met, but you're really able to be somewhere else and enjoy it and embrace it. And I think that's so important when we travel, I think more and more people are leaning into that. They don't necessarily crave an all inclusive experience somewhere where everything's super curated for them. They want to be able to explore and connect and really be a part of the destination. So I would love to talk to you a little bit more about that. I think both you and I would hope that this is what travelers are seeking in the future. So how does that land with you and how are you working to create the experiences that you think people who are seeking that type of travel are looking for?
Rebecca: Yeah, I think what you're mentioning has a lot to do with immersive. So you have to immersive yourself and it's local culture and just leave who you are behind where you're coming from. And whenever you get to Ecuador, you leave the plane, just get in with a blank paper with just make sure that you perceive everything that you see and in a different way and not especially with the reference that you already had because you were doing this or you were doing that or you had a certain type of family or no, just try to get in as blank as you can to be able to absorb all these different kind of experiences, this different kind of culture and all the lessons that you can have in a certain destination. And I think Ecuador is a very special country because it's small, it's very small, it's three times the Netherlands and you have four different regions.
So you have the Amazon rainforest, the and the mountains, the Pacific Coast and the Galapagos. And in all of the regions you have a very different type of culture as well. So if you go to the Amazon, you can be together with the shaman and you can be together with these cultures. Also, a lot of times led by ladies because the women in those Amazonian cultures are very strong. They are the ones who would take care of the family, would take care of the village, would take care of the food and the men, they would go out for hunting for weeks. So yeah, it's a very different type of community. And then whenever you go to the region, to the nan region, you have Dunno if you've ever saw these pictures of Kera people. So you have the typical beautiful ladies with the dresses and with the long hair and also the men, these very beautiful long hair, they're making this certain type of music like the mountain music and there are different energies going around there as well because they believe a lot in the solar system in nature.
And you have these celebrations where you would celebrate the harvest of a certain year, the et I meets. And then whenever you go to the Pacific coast you have another culture and then whenever you go to the Galapagos Island, you have again another, it's not so much culture over there, it's a lot more wildlife. So I would say you have this energy of being together with the animals of being just a visitor in the kingdom of the animals, in the kingdom of evolution. So all these different surroundings, they really give you another perspective on your trip. Maybe sometimes we have these groups and then we send also an holistic coach or we send life coaches. So in this way you experience the destination, but by talking about it or by journaling or combining yoga or combining a bit more wellness experts, nutrition aspects in these trips, it gives you a different perspective. And I think that's where traveling is all about. It's not about what you're saying of mass, mass tourism trip going to Cancun or so because everybody can do it and it doesn't really matter if you're eating and you're steak in your hometown or in Cancoon. For me, traveling is more about this whole transformational experience to dive into these new cultures, to try to learn something from it.
Christine: I couldn't really agree more. I love that. And you did mention just really briefly adding in the elements of bringing in life coaches and bringing in wellness and kind of that inner journey, which is my happy place. That's when I set out to create my company, that's what I wanted to do was really kind of bridge in my mind at that time was kind of like a retreat and adventure travel. So I wanted that kind of inner excavation that you get in a retreat as well as the connection and the sisterhood because often those things for me were done among women as well as the kind of power of adventure travel, the overcoming fears that kind of already bring you into that space where you can learn more about yourself. For me it felt like a really natural fit. So when you mentioned bringing a life coach or some sort of guide for that emotional part of the journey, I think that's when travel can become really, really powerful. So what about that really drew you in? And I know you also create some trips that are for women as well. What have you seen is the benefit of adding those elements to travel, especially in Ecuador?
Rebecca: Yeah, I think it also comes from my background because whenever I got my children, Jose Miguel was born in 2019 and so in 2021, so it was around the pandemic and we just had a new house and it was such a strange, I heard somebody say in your podcast, it's like a trauma for the whole world. And it also felt a little bit for me like a trauma because from one day to the other, I didn't have any income anymore. We had a lot of problems with all those travelers that were about to come, but they had to change their trips because they couldn't fly. The airport was closed for four months here in Quito. Then my mom got sick in the Netherlands, so she got covid, she was for six weeks, very, very bad. And I had this fear that what if something goes wrong with my mother?
What if I have to go there and I cannot fly anymore? And I just gave birth to Miguel. So yeah, I had a small baby at home and new house, so it didn't have anything very well arranged. And so it was a very hectic time. And I have the feeling that as a mom and as a founder of my company, as a business owner, sometimes I just really need to have time for myself to be able to digest and to put everything into order again and to take me out of a certain or my day-to-day life and have somebody to talk to me in a different way and to, how would you say that? To get my things back on track. And what really helps me is when I go to travel shows, for example, I love that because I can talk about my passion, I can meet new people and traveling.
When I went to Colorado to this travel show where we met, we went to Boulder the weekend before so we could go out into the mountains. And that type of energy is something that is really important to me. And I notice that my friends have the same, so whenever I go back to Holland and you see that they're kind of stuck in their own day-to-day life and their own thoughts, their own way of living. And I think whatever we need as women, my generation especially I think before this, a couple of generations before me, we didn't have time to think about how we would like to live or what are our priorities or we just have to go and do it through our day to day. But right now we do have the time to evaluate, to think about whatever we're doing and if that's okay, if that's aligned with your values, if that feels okay, if that gives you a good, if your intuition is okay with that part, yeah, maybe you should look for something else or different types of roads.
And so in a pandemic, we had a very big problem with Rebecca, change travel because there wasn't anybody traveling. And I saw all these communities around us, the local communities that they were also struggling and yeah, well, my husband has a good job, so we were fine financially, but all these communities, they weren't fine because they would need tourism to be able to sell their products to get the tourist statement for restaurants or for local Ries or for the markets. And that's when I decided that I wanted to help these communities because they've been so good to me before bringing all those travelers there and always giving this lovely authentic experience there that wants to do something back. And that is where I could build a bridge between my background. So between the Netherlands, between my knowledge about e-commerce and these local communities that really needed my help. So I started a company which is called efin, and what we are doing there is that we create Ecuadorian handcrafts, but beautiful ones, often handmade, you see one of they're one the blankets behind me. And with that type of art to maintain that type of art in the communities, we create these products and then the products we can ship all over the world. After the pandemic, we also opened the shop in the Netherlands. So physical shopper, you can go and buy these products. And I really have the feeling that it drives me on a different way because whenever you see those people, those communities being able to sell their products, they're proud, their culture into my culture, it gives a very nice view.
Christine: Yeah, I love that. And I think as you were kind of sharing that experience, and thank you for doing so of what the pandemic was emotionally and really resonating with that sense of trauma. I mean I think it was such a powerful force that so many of us can tap into that same feeling no matter what our experience was. I think many of us were having that same feeling and that emotional response. And then having a business like tourism, so much like I had fully launched my business in February of 2020, so I had the same thing happening basically the next month canceled all of the trips that I had finally had planned and I had now what do we do now? And really for me, I think because maybe the way I've traveled so much in my life, I started thinking about all the people you were mentioning who I've connected with when I'm traveling, these not big hotels and airlines and cruise companies, I'm like, they're fine, but these people who really rely on each tour that comes to their village and how that changes their entire trajectory of their life and their ability to have an income and how impactful that was.
And for me, that was really where Soul of Travel came from because I knew I had this kind of group of colleagues, if you could call them that, that all have companies who move through places the same way. And I knew that they were going to be thinking about those people as well. And that's why I wanted to start having these conversations is to really understand what that impact was like and what these people were going to do. And there was so much innovation happening so quickly around how to support these communities that I just thought, oh my gosh, whatever happens, however we get through this on the other side, something really special is going to be being created by deepening these connections with the people on the ground that we're working with. And so I love that your response to this was Aquafina and creating another business that really involves local communities.
And for me, I think working with artisan groups and especially women, this is something I build into all of my itineraries as well. I think it's such a great way going back to connection, to tap into a place because especially with weaving, it's so unique to every area, every village, every piece is a story. And so when you meet with the artisans, you can understand how they get their local dyes and what their patterns mean and what that represents. And it's all really important. And I think it's easy for us when we see something like, oh, that's beautiful. It seems like really high quality and I really appreciate it. But going that next step further and understanding why it's important, I think is so powerful. And it also really empowers women to preserve their cultural tradition. So I would love to talk to you a little bit about why that was also important as an extension of what you're trying to create with connection and cultural preservation and bringing that storytelling into travel.
Rebecca: Because a lot of times I have the feeling that whenever we were doing the trips or when we're still doing the trips, people go home with so many experiences, with so many, sometimes even life changing experiences. And there are also a lot of people that cannot ever travel to Ecuador due to maybe economic situations or family situations, or they're just afraid of flying so long to certain country that they don't know of. So that is when I wanted to give something of Ecuador, something this product that is very rich in terms of culture and creativity because what you're saying is true. Every piece has a different story. Every region has different symbols and different ways of weaving different colors. So I wanted to give the western world because that is my perspective, that's where I'm coming from, a piece of Ecuador, so that they would at least understand a little bit what you would find here, the rich culture, the rich colors, the bright colors for all of the YouTube viewers, I'm going to show you this beautiful blanket behind me.
I have these blankets, you can put it in on the floor, on the wall, and whenever you see it, it's like, wow, it gives me energy, it gives me these bright ideas, this Ghana, you would say in Spanish that you just really want to do something. And that feeling is something that I want to share with my community in Holland worldwide, everywhere that people are interested in ethnical design or native design because it means a lot. A blanket like this is made with a beautiful family. The guy, his name is Inti. And we went there a couple of weeks ago to do a shooting to take some pictures and he was so proud on his family business because it's often family. The Ry itself, it's mainly done by men because it's very hard. It's physically very hard to do. But then women, they would finish the product so they would make sure that all the details are fine.
They would pack the products, they brush it because it's also a way of brushing to get the final touch of a certain product. And this proud or this feeling that Inti gave me, he's the son of his parents. And the parents were making this and telling me I was willing to go into the city to study something else because I knew that the RY would not be anything very positive for the future. It wouldn't give me ait future. But whenever my parents are doing well, whenever they find some good clients, whenever they can continue practicing their art, I can maybe also do the same and I might be able to stay here in my village. I might be able to also learn how to make this beautiful products and then also contribute and not having to say goodbye to my family because nobody wants to leave.
Especially in Ecuador, they have such a strong family relation and they prefer to stay together every single day. So whenever you see Ecuadorians abroad, sometimes with the music or sometimes with their product, it's not because they want to, it's because they have to sell those products abroad to be able to pay their bills, to pay for their children, to pay for their parents, their parents. So whenever we can help them to buy the products in their original village, in their surroundings, in their community, and be able to ship it to our communities, then I think you would save a lot of problems. You would, they don't have to go abroad anymore, they can just stay in their own villages. They can be happy together, they can preserve their cultures. It's way better for the children as well, because imagine these small kids, they would have to stay with their grandmothers and grandfathers because their parents would've to go abroad to work. It's a big trauma that you're generating there. It's very hard for them. So whenever can make the bridge, use e-commerce, make sure that you have the communication, tell the story from their village, from their authentic community, bring it to our community, bring it to our western world where we appreciate this type of stories. Yeah, it's a win-win, I would say.
Christine: Yeah, and I think thank you for mentioning the process of what it looks like to sustain that business because I think that's something else that unless you've traveled and you are kind of understanding these great distances that many families travel to bring artisan goods to markets, even within their own country, let alone anywhere else, it's very challenging. And I think that was something when I first started traveling and witnessing that was something that I thought, gosh, there's something else that we could be doing here. And I remember being in this village in Uganda that it had taken a tremendous effort to get to this village. And we walked into, this woman invited us into our home, and she had just mountains of these beautiful handmade baskets. I mean, just so many of them. And you could smell the needles and the grasses that had made the baskets and it was kind of dark in there, but she would pull them out and they were just stunning.
And I thought, where on earth are these going? Because there's maybe a dozen people in this village who all probably also know how to make these beautiful baskets. And I just thought, how are these getting somewhere else? And in that moment, I was trying to figure out again, how to get adventure travel involved in this. And they're coming, they're the only people probably coming to some of these communities that are very to, and the travelers would be very interested to actually meet these men and women that are making these and understand how they came about and then would of course want to purchase these products. And so for such a long time, I've been trying to think about how does that commerce happen? So I love that you are really helping to create that opportunity and like you said, allow families to stay together because it really is important and it becomes really difficult to try to figure out how to do this.
And then also, like you said, younger generations are leaving, and so not only are they leaving their families, but it's people that it's this skill that's being lost through these younger generations. So I think there's so many reasons why supporting artisans and connecting them to travelers I think really is important in this larger ecosystem of preserving cultures. So thank you for sharing that. Before you go, I wanted to talk to you about one other project that you shared with me about working with a local school and that that's been really important to your brand and to your community and what you want to create. So can you share a little bit about that?
Rebecca: Yes, definitely. I think all change should come from the younger generation and whenever you want to get this change going on, you have to support education. So I'm very small, so what we can do is just almost nothing, but at least it is something. And if we can make the life better of a couple of children, then I'm already happy. So there is a school, a local school next to our house, actually in the same village. There's about 400 children between four and 16 years old, and they have classes there and everything is fine. But whenever we started to come there, the bathrooms weren't working well, they didn't have the library, they didn't have any computer. So we signed a collaboration with the Ministry of Education that we are long-term partners for the school, you call it. And so what we try to do is every three months or something, we do an event.
So before the school starts, we would help them to get everything in order to make sure that the bathrooms are working, make sure everything is clean, paint it, make sure that the playground is working to make sure that the kids have a good place to go, that they have a safe place to go and to learn. And then we had Dia de Nino, which is a very important day in Ecuador. It's like the children's day. And we donated a mini library, so about 500 books we got from different libraries here in keto, also from private sponsors who donated those books. And we gave them together with a computer. So they had their own mini library right now. And to see the look on the faces of these kids is just, no, I cannot explain it to you because some of them, they didn't see a normal nice children's book in their lives.
So whenever they open the book, it's like, is this mine? Can I read it? Yeah, this is yours, please use it. Please read. It's amazing. Wow, there's a world going open for them. And the school director, she asked me, because there are so many things that we have to do because in Ecuador there are these public schools and there's money for anything. You should be happy if you have classes of about 30 people, but it's all mixed, so you don't know what they actually learn. The teachers are usually not that into it because they are almost nothing. So yeah, it's not a great system, but it is what it is. So we have to deal with this and we just have to make it. If we can try to make a little bit better, we should do it. I would say, so the school director, she asked me, she told me one on every four children, 25% of the kids, they go to school hungry.
They don't get breakfast at night. Whenever they go home, sometimes there's food, but sometimes there's no food at all. So she asked me my help to create this food program to make lunches for the kids, make sure that the moms of those children come into school to prepare good lunch. And there's even a program from UNICEF here, so we could do something together. And that is what I wanted to share with you to see if there's somebody listening who would like to help us to start this project, to create lunches for these 400 children every single day. The one part and then the other part, I just wanted to invite you to read about these kids, to read about their progress, to read about everything that we can do for them, or maybe their teachers that want to come over to teach 'em some English, anything. We're involved in these 400 kids and we try to do make little steps to create a brighter future for them. So every single piece of help, every idea is very much appreciated.
Christine: Yeah, thank you. And thank you again for sharing that. And I also love where you started with that idea that you mentioned that you're small and that your impact can only match the power that you have behind you. And yet I think also acknowledging that that's okay is really important because I think sometimes when you're looking at impact driven work, the scope of what needs to be done and what change needs to happen can kind of stop us in our tracks. And I think it's really important that anybody who's interested in working to create a positive impact just starts where they can start. And so that will probably be small. And I think looking at that in the context of being a more sustainable or responsible traveler, or having a business that is operating in a more sustainable or responsible way, it's okay to start where you're at and build from there. And so I love that you mentioned that because I just think it's really important to that. And also I think we do draw in the people that we need to if we're going back to the magic of the universe to help us bring these things that are really important to life. So I appreciate you sharing that. Rebecca, before we go, I'll just have you share how my listeners can find you, and then I have a few rapid fire questions to end our conversation.
Rebecca: Great, thank you.
Christine: And what would be the best, what's the best website or way for them to reach you?
Rebecca: Well, we have Instagram, we have LinkedIn, we have Pinterest. So anyway, searching for, searching for Rebecca, trying to travel or just searching for my name, Rebecca Braak. You'll find a lot. We also have very nice videos on a YouTube channel about the artisans, for example, this from family of Inti, what I was mentioning about, you can find him a YouTube channel, and I hope that that way you can identify yourself a little bit with what Ecuador is all about.
Christine: Yeah. Thank you. Okay, first question is what are you reading right now?
Rebecca: Nothing.
Christine: Maybe your favorite children's book. Oh
Rebecca: No, I'm sorry. I have two children, three businesses. So no, right now I'm listening to podcasts. I love podcasts. So whenever I'm driving, there's some podcasts about traveling of course, but there's also podcasts about female only and entrepreneurs. And that's really something
Christine: I like. Yeah, I love podcasts. And also Audible, I resisted it because I was a true, I felt my worth came from my reading, but I also have three children, so I realized that sometimes my information and my entertainment and education has to be given to me and I can't always read it myself. So I can,
Rebecca: And you have to accept that as well. It's fine for now. It's fine. I heard it's on your face, so yeah,
Christine: I'm coming out of it. So if that gives you any optimism, I'm at the point where I finally feel like I have a little bit of time back in my life, but I Okay, the next, what is always in your suitcase or backpack when you travel?
Rebecca: My journal. So I always bring my journal, my notebook, and I make sure that I write everything down
Christine: To Sojourn is to travel somewhere as if you've lived there for a short while. Where is a place that you would still live to Sojourn?
Rebecca: I really want to go to Australia and to new this way, how nature, I've never been there, but I have the feeling that how nature is involved in their day-to-day lives is something that I'm really curious about. And also the way that it's still very western, but also with kids. I'm looking forward to that. And actually we're going to Australia and New Zealand in January for two months with an rv.
Christine: Excellent. Oh my gosh, that's going to be amazing for you. I'll have to be in touch with you because that's a potential place on my trip. I mentioned to you with my three girls around that time, but everything is still very much in motion for that section, so I'll have to let you know if we might be there. What is something you eat that immediately connects you to a place you've been
Rebecca: Ceviche? So I've never had ceviche before in my life, but when I came to Ecuador, that was the first really local dish that I had, and it's so delicious. It's like a cold fish soup. It's starting to become more popular as well in US and Europe, and every region in Ecuador has its own type of ceviche. So yeah, that's what I really,
Christine: Who was a person that inspired or encouraged you to set out and explore the world?
Rebecca: Charles Darwin.
Christine: That was a good nod. I love that. If you could take an adventure with one person, fictional or real, alive or past, who would it be?
Rebecca: With Jackie Kennedy.
Christine: Oh, I love that as well. Thank you. The last one, soul of Travel is a space to really recognize women in the tourism industry, who is one woman you admire and would love to mention here.
Rebecca: This is such a bad answer, but I'm just so focused on my own. I have the feeling that I'm just living under a stone and I cannot come up with a single lady right now. I really have the feeling that we are part of this women travel associ, women travel leaders, and there are so many inspiring women that have done so many positive things in tourism. So for me, it's impossible to choose one and to have ever my example or something. I really enjoy to talk with all different type of women. So I can, from every interview or from every chat, you can learn something.
Christine: That's what
Rebecca: I like.
Christine: I agree. It is hard to choose one person. And you mentioned women travel leaders. So for our listeners, if you're not familiar, they're one of our amplification allies and Janine Cohen and Catherine Gallagher founded that community. And it's been a really great place to be, not only just to be surrounded by a community of incredibly passionate and talented women, but also to just learn all of these different things about the industry. And I kind of mentioned before, this is not my strong suit, this is where I am. And obviously all of us have that, and within that community we can pull one another as resources. And I think it's been so great to just see how collaborative and valuable community is. So thank you for mentioning that space. I think it's such a great one. And for people listening that have their own businesses, women who are in the industry, if you aren't a part of it, definitely you can reach out to Rebecca and myself and I'm sure we could tell you more about it, but well, thank you so much for being here, for sharing about Ecuador and for sharing your passion, for connecting people really to the true essence of the country.
And I hope that our paths cross soon there.
Rebecca: Definitely. I'm sure. Yeah. Thank you so much. It was lovely to talk together and then a little bit more deeper level than the usual podcast or usual interview. And I really have the feeling whenever you are a female entrepreneur, sometimes you can feel a little bit lonely because you are so focused on your own things to manage your home, your kids, your work, your everything. So whenever you can relate to women like you or yeah, what you were mentioning, women travel leaders really helps. And yeah, we have to be a bit more like sisters and grow together. So thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
Christine: Thank you. I appreciate it.
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