Roaming the Earth with Drea Castro DREA CASTRO

Welcome to the Roaming the Earth podcast. In this short introductory episode, Drea Castro discusses her love for the outdoors, her passion to find other explorers with a similar need to roam the Earth and why she decided to start a podcast that delves into the lives of these nomads. The episode opens with one of her adventures at the Grand Teton National Park.  

Special Guest: Amado DehoyosYou don't have to be a rocket scientist to travel the world, but sometimes it helps. Having spent 8 years building a career testing rockets with SpaceX, Amado DeHoyos decided to leave it early in 2015 and spent the last 5 years circling the globe on a seemingly never-ending quest - the desire to see the world. A friend made the fateful decision early in that trip to gift Amado a book called "100 Wonders" and he would sweep the globe, attempting to visit as many of those as he possible could (currently at 97, those last 3 are going to be tricky…). The checklist of 100 Wonders would expand to the checklist of UNESCO world heritage sites and would then expand to just being and living in the moment among the cultures of the world.
Show Notes:1:04 Amado discusses the book that changed the course of his life.
Dehoyos has traveled to a 117 countries (including Antarctica), alongside 430 UNESCO sites. 
5:33 A former engineer for SpaceX, Amado discusses the transition to following his dreams to explore the world. He discusses his travels to Rome and Machu Picchu.
Amado discusses the history, culture, nature, and people of Iguazu Falls, Manaus, Ataturk dam and the Amazon river
97 of the 100 wonders and what's left
12:40 Amado shares his secrets to get to Antarctica.
Wildlife in Antartica and the Polar Bear Plunge
Discusses his love for New Zealand and some tips and tricks
21.15 Find out how to cover the trail while en-route to Santiago de Compostela in Spain.
Discover what it feels like to be connected.
Interesting stuff to carry during travel.
The desire to travel to Iran and visit the man-made and god-made beauty out there. 

Special Guest: Dominique RitchieDominique is a full time vanlifer with her blue heeler, Kaia. She travels the world in her van sharing her stories through her blog and her own podcast, Roaming Roads.  
She wanders earth hoping to make a difference by empowering people to live a meaningful life, spreading awareness, kindness and love to each community she connects with. She is focused on sustainability practices and purchases products with an eco-conscious mission. Her goal.... is to spread awareness, kindness, and love with each community she visits.
SHOW NOTES:2:13 Drea discusses how she found Dominique when she was searching for a Solo Female Van Lifer. 
2:57 Dominique shares her passion for travel and van life living
4:00 Dominique discusses exploring her own country, Canada
4:39 Dominique tells us the life transition that pushed her to move into her van. She speaks about the documentary “Minimalism”
 9:27 Dominique discusses some of the terrifying moments of living in a van/car and a few tips on how to stay safe
11:37 Dominique talks about feeling safer with Kaia, her dog by her side
12:30 Some challenges of living in a van. Dominique provides solutions on how to mitigate these challenges
14:12 Free Camping and the importance of keeping the budget low
15:21 Tips and Tricks for how to live in a van and avoiding dangerous situations like bears and people. 
18:53 Dominique tells us her recent terrifying moose attack while she was hiking and a tips on how to try to keep safe
27:28 Dominque talks about what she does in order to support herself on the road
30:39 Dominque tells us advice she would give to her younger self
32:03 Dominique shares her favorite trails with us: The three sisters & Pearly Rock in Glacier NP in Canada
34:08 Dominique shares her favorite places that she has traveled to in her Van 
The Oregon Coast and The Kootnays
37:14 Dominique tells us her most meaningful person that she has ever met on the road and how this person reignited her love for van life. 
41:59 Dominique shares her plans for the Canadian winter after her plans for coming to warmer areas in the US has been derailed due to Covid and the border restrictions
44:45 Tips and Tricks to Dominiques favorite destinations, Kootnays and Oregon Coast
The importance of booking ahead in British Columbia The Okanagan Wineries
47:20 Dominique shares the thing that she purchases when she travels
49:14 Dominque shares with us what her podcast “Roaming Roads” is all about

Special Guest: Soyla FlorSoyal was born San Diego, California and raised in Los Angeles. She has traveled to countries, lived in Paris, France to study Art History, and in Rishikesh, India to study Hatha Yoga. After working in the fashion industry and marketing as an entrepreneur, she made a very big career change. In 2015 Soyla was hired as a flight attendant for Delta Air Lines, where she discovered aviation. Since then her love for travel and adventure has married perfectly with aviation. She took my first ‘discovery flight’ in November of 201 8, and in February 2020 became a private pilot. Soyla is currently working on her instrument rating and commercial pilot license, and her goal is to become a Certified Flight Instructor and eventually an airplane pilot.
SHOW NOTES:Introduction: Soyla shares her experience in Cuba when she decided to give back to the local community
1:50 Soyla Bio
7:10 Soyla tell us about her aviation journey and getting hired for Delta
12:28 The challenges of being a pilot and finding “The 99’s”
16:37 Soyla shares her love for india during her spiritual awakening, Hatha yoga training course she attended.  
19:09 Tips and Tricks for traveling to India
23:05 An adventurous trip to Honduras and a near death experience on a boat
29:00 Soyla talks about her next adventure, Dubai
31:22 Soyla’s favorite items to travel with
32:30 Soyla shares the advice she would give her younger self

Special Guest: Vitnija SaldavaVitnija (pronounced as Whitney) Saldava is a true world citizen, born in the small Eastern European country of Latvia, but now living and working all over the world. She speaks 6 languages and has lived in 6 different countries, now residing in the UK. For the first half of her career she worked as an international news journalist covering news stories all around the world. At the moment, she works as a communications officer at NATO by day, and as a career adviser and a masters student at Harvard University by night.
SHOW NOTES:Introduction
1:10 Whitney shares her family's history with wanderlust
4:55 Whitney shares her first solo trip to Finland at a really young age
7:30 How Whitney chose to go to North Korea
8:35 Whitney shares her experience sneaking around and getting caught in North Korea.
17:55 Whitney shares her FAVORITE places that she has traveled with a few helpful tips on how to make your way over to these special places.
19:30 Whitney shares her tips on traveling to Cambodia
21:00 Solo Traveling and why
29:05 Whitney shares her experience in Albania shooting Kalashnikovs
36:30 How has Covid affected Whitney
39:00 Feeling connected
41:30 Whitney's favorite item to buy when she travels
www.instagram.com/whitneytheexplorer

Todd Snyder is the Founder / CEO of Lost Faces of Humanity Foundation, an NGO focusing on the refugee crisis in East Africa. Todd has traveled to over 90 countries as a businessman, trailblazing photographer, and father, whose socially conscious work sheds light on what many choose to ignore. His passion for capturing struggles and triumphs of the human spirit is the foundation of his unique artistic style. Todd leverages his relationships with over 20 years working in the international capital markets and finance to create pathways for significant change to assist the global refugee crisis while using his photography of over 5,000 refugees and thousands of internally displaced persons to create awareness of humanity.