On this edition of “Travel Influences”, I interview Curtis Bomgaars, the CEO of FLYJOY. FLYJOY is a brand of yummy, sustainable quinoa energy bars. Curtis was living in Ecuador when he was searching for ways to sustainably support the quinoa industry. Inspired to help others, Curtis decided to import the quinoa for his bars directly from a local Ecuadorian women’s foundation, FUNDAMYF. All about his life changing journey to Ecuador and how travel inspired him to build a business.
Where did you go on your first trip as an adult? What were your impressions?
My first trip abroad as an adult was actually to Ecuador. It was through a summer study abroad program offered by Northwestern College, where I was a student at the time. I was playing baseball in the spring and was forced to miss the majority of the pre-trip prep meetings that semester. My team qualified for the postseason tournament and we had to travel to the wide open spaces of North Dakota to a college called Jamestown University. Unfortunately, a number of our players suffered injuries, including myself. Although we were still able to make it within one game of the championship, we lost. Fortunately, however, our study abroad group wasn’t supposed to leave for the Omaha airport until the following morning at 6:00 AM and I drove back to Iowa through the night with my dad. We arrived around 3:30 in the morning and I literally had two hours to pack for a six-week trip.
When our plane landed at the airport in Quito, all of the other students’ host parents were waiting for them there. Apparently, the professor leading the trip thought that I wasn’t going to be able to travel to Ecuador due to baseball. That night I had to stay with another student’s host family until they could find someone else that could take me in for the duration of our stay.
When the sun peeked over the mountains surrounding Quito that morning, I was in awe. The contrast between the flat Dakota fields from the night before and the Andes Mountains the following morning was incredible. I think it was then that I learned that travel may require flexibility and it may be inconvenient at times, but the rewards are almost always worth it!
Which place abroad has given you a completely different perspective on travel?
Again, I’d have to say Ecuador had the biggest impact on my perspective on travel. Not only because it was my first trip abroad as an adult, but more so due to the duration of the trip. Six weeks allowed me to travel within the country, visit different regions, converse with locals, and experience their culture to a greater degree. Our group spent part of a week with a Huaorani tribe in the Amazon jungle, sleeping in wood huts and waking up with giant spiders on the ceiling above us in the morning. We danced with tribe members and listened to a tribe elder tell the story (in Huaorani, translated to Spanish, and then translated again to English) of the plane crash from “The End of the Spear,” which occurred not far from where we stayed. The experience was surreal at first, but became more real the longer we stayed. The experience brought a human element: rather than just being characters in a Fodor’s Travel guide, or statistics from some government website, they became my friends.
I ended up going back to Ecuador the next summer and volunteering at a non-profit food pantry in Quito. It was then, while I was helping to feed and clothe those in need that I started to think about doing something bigger. I wanted to figure out a way I could empower those that we were helping so they could support themselves and their families.
You studied abroad in Ecuador. What inspired you to study abroad? What was your main takeaway?
While my first six-week study abroad trip was initially a way for me to escape small town Iowa for a summer, the following summer’s volunteer stint was a way for me to give back all that I had received from the beautiful country. I decided to take a semester of International Business and Spanish classes at the University of San Francisco outside of Quito (USFQ) during the fall after graduating from Northwestern College in Iowa. I had been inspired during my senior year to search for sustainable methods of helping those in need and became convinced that micro-finance was a worthy tool in poverty alleviation. It empowers the poor to use the skills they have to invest in the dream of owning their own business. Now that I had the tool, I was looking for a way to power it.
One of the best things about traveling is the opportunity to try new food. I had always loved the fresh and exotic fruit I would encounter while living in Ecuador, but it was a tiny seed that would find its way to my heart. Quinoa was new to me before I began seeing it in different soups and dishes while in Ecuador. After hearing about its nutritional benefits and culinary versatility during a class presentation at USFQ, I knew that it would lead me to that power I was searching for.
Later that year, I discovered an indigenous Ecuadorian women’s foundation cultivating the grain high in the mountains. I was inspired to use it in an ancient grain energy bar and donate a portion of the proceeds to the micro-finance organization, HOPE International, to help empower those in need. That is how FLYJOY started.
My main takeaway would be to follow your curiosity. Our world is a fascinating place and it deserves to be explored and appreciated.
Which destination has been the most interesting to explore? Why?
It seems we have a theme here, but really, Ecuador is amazing. It’s such a small country, roughly the size of Colorado, but it’s so diverse. There are the volcanos of the Andes Mountains, the thick Amazon Rainforest and the remote Galapagos Islands. The Galapagos Islands are a special place. I’ve been to Hawaii and the Virgin Islands, both beautiful places, but neither compared to my experience on the Galapagos. It’s a strange and wonderful place.
Photo by atravelerspostcard.com
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Travel light and leave downtime to explore.
Big thanks to Curtis for sharing his Travel Influences story. I am always inspired by how so many entrepreneurs are inspired by travel to create their business. To learn more about Curtis Bomgaars and FLYJOY, check out their website, www.flyjoy.com.
All photos courtesy of Curtis Bomgaars.
