Experience…isn’t that what life’s all about?  It’s our greatest teacher; it marks us and makes us.  Experiences are not only grand adventures and outstanding experiences, but also quiet and peaceful feelings that come to us in different circumstances.  Standing on the summit of El Capitan, imagining other summits I would someday climb – the birth of my daughter, seeing those big brown eyes that searched my soul – the 948 hours spent painstakingly constructing a wooden biplane that would sometime realize my dream of flying over the Andes.  Frustration, hope, happiness, wondering – these are all experiences too.

Creating and building South Expeditions has been an amazing experience in my life.  What started out as a rafting company, full of white water thrills and spills, has changed and grown with me.  Visiting new places, or traveling to familiar places in new ways, are experiences worth the effort.  All of this makes me think much more about how to preserve and protect these precious places. The world changes, and so can we.

At this moment in human history, it has become imperative to make our impact less detrimental on the world around us.  How can the simple act of traveling help? By knowing the world better we recognize more clearly our role as stewards, not as masters, of nature and all it holds. It is our commitment as South Expeditions to be the liaison between nature and human beings.  In tandem with our concerns for the world and its future, it is our innate human desire to gain more experience that drives us to travel.  What is beyond the next bend in the river? What lies beneath the surface of the ocean? How does the world look from above? We don’t want just to see, but to be there, to be a part of the world around us – to truly experience what this world holds for us.  This is why I invite you to join us in South Expeditions and discover another corner of the world, because it is your world, and you should experience all of it that you can.

 

Juan Rodriguez

Founder and CEO