As I type this, I’m sitting on an airplane flying back from Costa Rica. I just spent the past week working with many of the amazing people that make up our company Amazing Vacations USA and Costa Rica.
Just over a year and a half ago Walter and I were talking about what would be needed to start a company in Costa Rica. Our original goal was to help the incredible people and friends we had made in Costa Rica to have a better life for their families.
What has happened over the past 18 months has been one small miracle after another. Time after time we have had people cross our paths who have been key to our growth. These events have happened with such frequency that I don’t think I can call them coincidences.
Whether those coincidences have come from random emails, phone calls, purchases of corn dogs at a food truck or random meetings with a kayaker 8 hours north of the US border that I ran into when our family was lost and looking for a bathroom for one of our kids to use.
As Walter and I sat together 2 nights ago at “Jungle Camp” in the same rocking chairs where this crazy idea to start a vacation company in Costa Rica began, we talked about the growth we’ve experienced. We talked about the fact that we have trips scheduled every single day for all but 3 of the next 120 days. We talked about the importance of our team members and how we can help them to not burnout and have time with their families. We talked about how to help them grow and how to help ensure they have the support they need to continue doing their job well.
We talked about the current growing pains we are experiencing and our plans to continue growing our team with the right people.
What we thought would be a small kayak and rafting company in Costa Rica has blossomed into a company that is providing dozens of custom trips for travelers from the USA and Canada each month. We are working on building what we are confident will be one of the most impactful High Adventure Youth Camps that will rival the well known LDS EFY (Especially for Youth) programs and impact the lives of hundreds of youth this coming summer.
We talked about the growth of our USA travel agency and how the travelers who book cruises and other vacations with us are able to be introduced to Costa Rica through our company. Through AmazingVacationsUSA.com our family travelers will have the option to have guided family trips fully planned and will be able to share human experiences together.
We talked about the vision of focusing our trips on Education, Family and Adventure and how by working together we make each other stronger.
Our future is bright and while the bank training I’ve been trained to focus on wants to tell me that the numbers are what should be celebrated, the biggest payday I’ve had through this experience has come from the relationships I’ve made and the new brother Walter, whom I’ve come to love as family.
As we sat around his dining room table this past week and at together with our entire Costa Rica team, I was reminded once again that the reason we started this business was to give people a better life. After this week, I have one more major goal for our company.
I hope that each team member will feel the love I’ve felt and become part of our extended Amazing Vacations family. That family bond will be visible and result in each of our guests feeling that they are part of a big extended 2nd family in Costa Rica.