CT in “A Distintive Style” Magazine!

Crooked Trails is featured in the newest issue of A Distintive Style magazine!

“Our Holiday issue is full of Inspiration from cancer surviors, to children with Down syndrome that have a valuable lesson for us all. “Gifts with a Legacy,” celebrities that are giving back, including Susan Sarandon, Fran Drescher, Ed Asner, Sting and Trudie, Allana Pratt and Oprah herself. Artful ideas for your holiday gatherings, great gift ideas with proceeds going to charities…”

The full issue is right here: http://www.adistinctivestyle.com/ 

CT is featured on page 81 in a feature about creative and charitable gift-giving. Why not give the gift of a life changing travel experience? Check out our website for 2010 travel programs!

Save the Date for Venice is Sinking!

Party with a purpose is back!

Don’t miss the best Carnival party in Seattle!
Check out Photos from last year’s event!

Tickets go on sale Nov. 1 – stay tuned on this blog or on Facebook for ticket info!
$50 Early Bird price until Jan, 31st
$60 After January 31st

LIVE Performers include:
Darek Mazzone- KEXP World Pop DJ
Geoffrey Castle; violinist extraordinaire
Opening band with samba dance music
Circus troupe performers, aerialists, burlesque and more.

Carnival Mask and dress required for entrance. Masks sold at the door.

This event benefits two non-profits, Crooked Trails and Namaste Children’s Fund!

Crooked Trails Autumn Newsletter

Welcome everyone to our Autumn newsletter

Every year, about this time, as I watch the leaves turn colors and fall to the ground I cannot help but think of our friend Moi, the Haorani leader from the Ecuadorian Amazon. During a visit to Seattle one autumn, Moi and I drove along a particularly colorful tree lined street. Moi yelled out “Stop the car!” As we came to a halt, he jumped out and danced under the falling leaves. Watching him brought a huge smile to my face. He returned to the car, looking more peaceful than he had in days. He turned to me and said, “I can’t wait to return home to tell my mother that the trees in Seattle sing.”

For many people around the world, autumn is a time to harvest, and to celebrate. It is a time to offer thanks for earth’s bounty. We at Crooked Trails are also celebrating and offering thanks for all that we have been given, and for those who supported us. We are also grateful being in business for 10 years.

We are thankful for our community of friends abroad who have made our lives and the lives of our travelers so rich. We are thankful to those who participated in our Three Summitts climb to raise money to build a school in Nepal and to Kakuta, our Maasai friend who has made Crooked Trails their sole partners in cultural exchange. And we are most thankful to all of you for sending messages of encouragement.

If you are still feeling the travel bug this fall, it’s not too late. We have groups leaving in November and December for Nepal and Guatemala. And as promised, we have brought back our open programs to Peru, India, Kenya, Nepal and Bhutan for 2010.

Tammy Leland
Co-Founder

In this issue: Upcoming Travel Programs, Maiti Nepal X-Mas Fundraiser, Honors from the Maasai Tribe, and MORE!

Telling a Tale from Kenya

Crooked Trails participant Christine Frederickson returns to the Maasai village of Merrueshi to reconnect with her friends

I awaken early in the morning, to a silence and darkness unfamiliar to my western way of living. The electrical power is off. In Washington State, it’s a strange thing to be jarred awake by this blackness. Yet not more than 48 hours prior to this moment, silence and darkness was the peaceful norm in my cozy little hut nestled in the Kenyan Maasailand community of Merrueshi. I wonder what time it is in Kenya, where my Maasai family and friends are.

Festival in Peru

By Kris Parfitt –Crooked Trails traveler

Stepping through the doorway, I noticed my friends were no longer in the courtyard, yet music trailed down many of the narrow streets beckoning me to follow. There were drums in the plaza far off to my right and brassy horns echoing off the cobblestones around the corner to my left. Not knowing which direction my companions had taken added depth to this simple experience – I spoke just enough broken-Spanish to confuse the locals and too much English to be able to quickly remember which words they wouldn’t understand.

It was late afternoon in Chinchero, Peru and my friends and I were visiting during the village’s annual Patron Saint festival with one of Crooked Trails’ founders, Tammy Leland.  We had been invited by the Paulima and Vilma, founders of Minka Chinchero Weavers Cooperative, to be their guests of honor during the festival.  Tammy, and many years of Crooked Trail’s clients have been instrumental in helping to support weaving cooperative and the newly finished girls boarding school, La Casa de Las Ninas.  Mama Fagustina, the elder Quechua grandmother and mother of Vilma who was sponsoring this year’s festival had invited us to join her at the cemetery to honor the life of her late husband Juan.

Volunteer Travel Q&A on Facebook with Shelley Seale

Writer and travel junkie Shelley Seale will be a guest on a Q&A discussion about volunteer travel this Saturday, May 16 from 10 am to 4 pm.

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=86033206565

The discussion will be hosted on Facebook by The Voluntary Traveler Book Project. This is an anthology of volunteer travel tales that is coming out this fall; Shelley is a contributing author to the book (more info below).

About the Book
The Voluntary Traveler is a travel anthology penned by writers from all over the world. Focused on inspiring volunteer vacations and/or encouraging adventure-minded people to see volunteer work as a part of ones longer journey, the book will also include a volunteer guide section, listing charities needing volunteer assistance, plus organizations that coordinate service orientated travel.

The Voluntary Traveler is being published by Dog’s Eye View Media. The book’s creator and content editor, author Nola Lee Kelsey, has a goal of producing a title that helps people see the best aspects of making a positive impact through “voluntourism” and dispels the perception of volunteer vacations as a sacrifice. In other word, we focus on the good, the amusing, the mind-expanding and the adventurous facets of this type of travel.

This book is designed with the hope of:

Opening up new worlds to readers with intriguing and inspiring stories by real-life travelers who have walked the walk, not just talked the talk of volunteer travel

Illustrating the fun/adventurous side of volunteer vacations

Giving publicity to smaller charities world-wide who can benefit most from your help, but have the least budget for networking and recruiting assistance

Presenting an intelligent/interesting option to mindless tours and mankind’s innate travel practices.

Offering tips, advice and options to people considering making a difference along the way

Inspiring an army of volunteer-minded travelers to lend a hand, helping charities large and small meet their goal of making the world a better place

Fall Bhutan program: new price!

THIS JUST IN: The Bhutanese government has just lowered their daily travel tariff to encourage visitors to Bhutan and so we are passing that savings directly on to you!
The fall trip price is no longer $3800; it’s now only $3420. (Single supplement is still $300)
We will be booking this program soon, so if you are interested to join us contact Chris Mackay at chris@crookedtrails.com before the end of May.

Click here to read about this fantastic program.

Venetian Carnival is SOLD OUT!!!

Hope you got your tickets, because the ticket sales were swift this year and we are now officially maxed out!

For those of you who missed the cut-off – we’re sorry we can’t welcome you to join us (fire marshals must be obeyed) but hope to see you at one of our next events.

For you lucky ducks who will be partying with us, see you Saturday!!!

Lonely Planet guidebook: help or hindrance?

Our intrepid co-founder shares her expertise and Crooked Trails gets a shout-out in this article about the right way to use the “Backpacker’s Bible”, the Lonely Planet guide book.

Every Backpacker’s Bible: Unpacking the Gospel According to Lonely Planet

We Came, We Chatted, We Drank

Crooked Trails staff, board and volunteers had a blast hosting the March GreenDrinks at Ecohaus. A huge thanks to all of you who came out!

Folks from all over the green spectrum came out to connect, learn about our work, share a drink and get to know each other.

Besides holding a bingo game and drawing for door prizes, we also gathered GreenDrinkers’ nuggets of wisdom from their own travel experiences. A few of the highlights:

What’s the most exciting means of transportation you have found abroad?

“Green Sea Turtle, Galapagos, Ecuador”
“The top of a bus for 4 hours. Pig behind me in a bag – alive. 2 chickens, many bags of coal + me = fun in Palawan!”
“Free bike share in Amsterdam!”

What is your favorite food experience traveling?

“Hot peppers while vegetarian in kurdish Turkey but forgot to wash my hands before hitting the head for a whizz.”
“Whatever’s available in the Sahara”
“Breadfruit over an open fire, Tuamotu, FP”

Seattle Supterfuge was there too – read their account.