Hugh Yarbrough

What places and activities do you specialize in?

"Ecuadorian Amazon tour and jungle expert; Galapagos Islands cruises and land-based tours and LGBT individual and group travel"

How did you get involved in travel?

"I came to Ecuador in 2008 to be director of development of a foundation working in education, conservation and sustainable development in the Amazon region. One of my responsibilities was to develop educational programs for an ecolodge that economically supported the foundation’s projects, the most important of which was a boarding school for students from indigenous communities throughout the region.

Our students studied ecotourism and were able to get practical experience working at the lodge. From there I went on to found my own agency that eventually became part of Andando Tours. "

Please share a unique travel experience you will never forget.

"Many years ago I visited South Africa and had an amazing time on safari. I returned the following year with the idea of renting a house on Lake Kariba that belonged to a friend. This lake is on the boarder of Zimbabwe and Zambia and in order to get there during the fuel crises that year in Zimbabwe, we had to start in South Africa and carry our own fuel with us in a trailer all the way across the country since no service station in Zimbabwe had fuel at that time. (Can you imagine driving across an entire country without seeing another car on the road?) In the trailer we also carried food to eat along the way.

When we arrived at the house we discovered that one of the fuel containers had opened and fuel had spilled all over the remaining food including some bananas so we had to throw it out and left the bin outside the front door.

Later that evening, it was so hot we could not bear the heat indoors so decided to eat dinner on the back patio. About 10 minutes into the meal my guide suddenly looked very alarmed and told me not to make any sudden moves but to take my food and go slowly go back into the house. I then noticed the dark profile of a very large elephant walking quickly toward us.

Apparently they can smell bananas from very far away – even when they are soaked in fuel! We were trapped in that house for hours as the elephant continued to look for food after destroying the trash bin by the front door to get to the bananas.

The next day I decided to bungie jump off the Victoria Falls Bridge in a quest for some stress relief. At 111 meters, the jump was at the time the second highest in the world. It was such a thrill (and I have to admit – my nerves were so shot from the night before I wasn’t concerned about the rope breaking!) that when they pulled me up I jumped off the bridge again – this time backwards!

Now that’s an experience I probably wouldn’t have had if a hungry elephant hadn’t trapped me in an unbearably hot house the night before! "