121. Sam McManus; Adventure Travel When the World Closes, Costa Rica, Green Northern Spain and the Unexpected Pull of Home

1 rich Libsyn https://www.libsyn.com 90 600 121. Sam McManus; Adventure Travel When the World Closes, Costa Rica, Green Northern Spain and the Unexpected Pull of Home Just as the world was closing&nbsp;Sam&nbsp;McManus&nbsp;from&nbsp;YellowWood&nbsp;Adventures took a daunting gamble and hopped on a plane to Costa Rica. We talk about how the pandemic can change travel (even for the better), tourism being potentially&nbsp;a&nbsp;means for good, eco-tourism and re-forestation, surfing,&nbsp;small pueblos in the green hills of Northern Spain, his wonderful travelogue about his explorations - Wax and Gold Journeys in Ethiopia &amp; Other Roads Less Travelled - and feeling the pull of friends, family and home.&nbsp; &nbsp; On this episode we cover:&nbsp; &nbsp; Second only returning guest&nbsp;&nbsp; His wonderful travelogue - Wax and Gold Journeys in Ethiopia &amp; Other Roads Less Travelled&nbsp;&nbsp; Ethiopia and the inspiration to go there&nbsp;&nbsp; Tribal country and the civil war in Ethiopia&nbsp;&nbsp; Sending money to his business partner to escape the conflict&nbsp;&nbsp; The terrible plight of his business partner in Ethiopia &nbsp;&nbsp; The famine in Ethiopia being caused by the regimes&nbsp;&nbsp; Ethiopia being surprisingly verdant&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Camping out in the remote Tigray region&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Making his business about remote regions&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Touring Oman, Lebanon, Mongolia&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The pandemic putting a stop to the tours&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Booking a&nbsp;one way&nbsp;flight to Costa Rica on the eve of the UK lockdown&nbsp;&nbsp; Adventures during a global pandemic&nbsp;&nbsp; Sleepless nights in hostels whilst people were fleeing the country&nbsp;&nbsp; Studying and surfing Costa Rica for a year&nbsp;&nbsp; Planting trees and ecotourism in South America&nbsp;&nbsp; The positive financial impact of tourism&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Compared to the negative impact of over tourism&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Barcelona&nbsp;going from over-tourism to empty&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Carbon compensation and biodiversity&nbsp;&nbsp; Partnering with a food giving charity in Lebanon&nbsp;&nbsp; Partnering with an animal protection charity in northern Spain&nbsp;&nbsp; Climate change speeding up&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; The opportuning to reset travel after the pandemic&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Feeling a huge shift in investors starting to care&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Al Gore – the sustainability revolution will happen with ‘the speed of the digital revolution’&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Lisa contrasting&nbsp;Sam’s lockdown in Costa Rica to hers at home in the cold with no school!&nbsp;&nbsp; Spending his lockdown in a tropical paradise&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Making lasting friendships in difficult circumstances abroad&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Driving down to the Picos de Europa in Northern Spain&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; National Geographic asking for an article on Beirut&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Writing an&nbsp;80000 word&nbsp;travel anthology&nbsp;&nbsp; Achieving life goals,&nbsp;&nbsp; Living and being locked down in rural northern Spain&nbsp;&nbsp; Falling back in love with the UK&nbsp;&nbsp; Home and friends again&nbsp;&nbsp; Listening to classic music in the car and getting stick for it&nbsp; &nbsp; The Big Travel Podcast http://www.thebigtravelpodcast.com <iframe title="Libsyn Player" style="border: none" src="//html5-player.libsyn.com/embed/episode/id/19929260/height/90/theme/custom/thumbnail/yes/direction/forward/render-playlist/no/custom-color/88AA3C/" height="90" width="600" scrolling="no" allowfullscreen webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen oallowfullscreen msallowfullscreen></iframe> https://assets.libsyn.com/secure/item/19929260