United States
-
Leo Cuesta
Cofounder & President
Many of the most important things in Leo's life had their beginning in Colombia. This is the country where he learned technical mountaineering, where he adopted his dog, and where he got married. Colombia, with its raw natural beauty and surprisingly few tourists, also concretized in Leo's mind what adventure travel should be like.
Leo grew up paddling canoes and riding water buffalos in his dad's farm in the Philippines. He spent his early twenties hiking, diving, traveling and working in leisure real estate development. In 2006 he decided to follow his passion for adventure travel, but he wanted a method to his madness. The following year he was in Boston, Massachusetts getting his MBA from Babson College, a business school known for entrepreneurship. While studying Leo worked with Earthwatch Institute and gained valuable insight into sustainable travel. After graduation he moved to Colombia to work with a company that ran summer camps and nature tours and there he learned the intricacies of running adventure trips in a developing country. In 2010, feeling that he had learned enough, Leo moved back to Manila and established Uncharted Philippines, the country's best adventure travel company.
Leo now runs Uncharted Earth in Las Vegas, Nevada. He lives twelve minutes away from Red Rock Canyon and spends his free time hiking and climbing with his wife and keeping their dog out of trouble with roadrunners and ground squirrels.
-
Cami Sarmiento
Cofounder and Vice-President
Cami may look like a fifteen year old but she has seen a lot of the world. She grew up in Bogota, Colombia in a family that loved to travel and had seen most of the country by the time she was a teenager. Cami has lived in four countries, moved six times and worked in five industries. She got an industrial engineering degree and spent her early working days in the finance and insurance industries. In 2008, looking to shift to strategic consulting, Cami moved to the United States to get her MBA at HULT Business School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Towards the end of her studies, however, several unexpected things happened. The global financial crisis hit. Cami met a Filipino who reacquainted her with her love for climbing and the outdoors. She spent a semester in China and fell in love with Asia, traveling and chow fan. Four years later these unrelated events proved to be factors that steered Cami towards an Uncharted career path. After getting her MBA Cami moved back to Colombia and spent two years working in business development, human resources and marketing. During that time she went on several adventure trips with her Filipino boyfriend before they eventually got married and moved to the Philippines. Cami's passion for traveling and experiencing new things made her realize that a desk job was not for her. In 2013 Cami joined Uncharted Philippines and her talents helped develop it into the best adventure travel company in the country. Her work indulged her passion for new experiences, discovering places, and learning about different countries and cultures. In 2015, with the Philippine business well established, she moved back to the United States to help run Uncharted Earth and expand its offerings to Colombia. She makes regular trips to her home country to meet with partners, develop new trips and eat as many morcillas and arepas as she can. When she's not running all over Colombia she also gets to spend some time with her family and friends in Bogota.
Cami is an experienced diver, hiker, rock climber and backpacker. She is also an aspiring connoisseur of photography, Chilean wine and apple cider.
Colombia
-
Rafael Avila
Trip Leader
Rafa is a civil engineer, climber and mountaineer. In more than 20 years of climbing experience he has scaled some of the highest peaks in Colombia and the world. In Colombia he has summited all of the mountains in Los Nevados and El Cocuy National Natural Parks. At the international level, Rafa reached the top of Mount Everest on May 16, 2010. He has also summitted Mount Aconcagua (the highest mountain in the Americas) in 2003 and 2013, the two volcanoes Cotopaxi and Chimborazo in Ecuador in 2004, Denali (the tallest mountain in North America) in 2004 and 2012, and has joined expeditions to Mount Everest North Col (2007) and Mount Manaslu (2008) in the Himalayas.
Rafa has climbed in Patagonia Argentina, in the Cordillera Blanca in Peru and on Mount Kilimanjaro, the tallest mountain in Africa. In Colombia he has opened many traditional, sport, big wall and bouldering routes.
If Rafa's climbing resume does not impress you, his trip organization, attention to details and Bolognese sauce made from scratch over a camping stove surely will.
-
Antonio Henao
Trip Leader
Antonio is a climber and mountaineer. His climbing history began more than 15 years ago in Suesca, a municipality an hour away from Bogota and the center of rock climbing in Colombia. His passion for climbing led him to open more than 40 climbing routes in different parts of the country such as Machetá, Sutatausa and El Cocuy National Natural Park. These routes are among the most difficult in the country. His passion also led him to climb various big walls and to open, together with 5 friends, a new route 500 meters high on the wall of Pan de Azucar with pitches ranging from 5.11c to 5.13+.
In 2010 Antonio climbed Mount Aconcagua, known as the colossus of America with an altitude of 6,962 masl, solo. He also joined an Everest expedition where he got up to 7,900 masl.
Antonio’s appetite for climbing is matched only by his appetite for food. Not a believer in packing light when it comes to nutrition, he will always offer more snacks than you can finish.
-
Paulo Salazar
Trip Leader
Although Paulo comes from a family of city folk, he has a natural affinity for the fields, forests and mountains of his region, and for hiking, camping or riding his bike to explore. He is interested in many things but he is especially curious about everything there is to know about all types of animals and plants, and all the processes and phenomena in nature. Paulo feels more at home in forests and páramos than in cities. When he is out exploring in the mountains Paul feels that he is his true self.
Paulo takes pride in having the ability to easily make friends in any place and situation. He likes spreading his joy to those around him and these opportunities abound as a trip leader, making his work very enjoyable for him. Paulo studied Veterinary Medicine but since 2004 has been captivated by tour guiding, a profession that he came across by chance and now is his passion.
Among Paulo's other passions is mountain biking, which he does when he is not trekking or crossing one of the glaciers of Los Nevados National Natural Park. At home Paulo likes to read about history, culture and nature; he also listens to salsa since because of his work he doesn't have many opportunities to go out and dance. Of course, there will always be a good excuse to celebrate.
-
Jairo Bogota Benavides
Trip Leader
Jairo is an environmental engineer, climber and mountaineer. For more than 20 years he been promoting rock climbing, mountaineering and competition climbing as professional activities. In recent years he has made countless ascents of the highest difficulty in different areas in Colombia and around the world.
Jairo is a chief route setter for national and international climbing competitions, a trainer for kids and adults in climbing gyms in Bogota, and is the president of Technical Committee of the Colombian Federation of Sport Climbing. In 2016 he was certified as a Wilderness First Responder.
-
Cata Aponte
Dive Instructor
Cata is a Biologist and Dive Instructor and has been teaching others how to dive since she was very young. Her passion led her from an early age to get started in this wonderful underwater world and leave her native Bogotá to be near the sea. With more than 15 years of diving experience and 12 years as an instructor Cata has become a passionate leader in her profession. Thanks to her virtues as an instructor more and more people choose to discover the great world of diving with her.
Her commitment and dedication gave Cata the privilege of diving and working in different parts of the world. St Marteen, Bahamas, Tobago, Indonesia, Panama, St Thomas, Anguilla, Amalfi Coast in Italy, the Riviera Maya in Mexico, Colombia and South Africa are all part of her experience in the activity she enjoys doing the most.
Specialties like EFR Instructor (Emergency First Response, RCP and First Aids), Specialty Instructor Digital Underwater photographer, Specialty Instructor Night Diver, Specialty Instructor Wreck Diver, Specialty Instructor Deep Diver, Specialty Instructor Aware Fish Identification, Cavern Diver and Intro to Cave diver, complement her broad curriculum as a Master Scuba Diver Trainer PADI # 199168.
If you want to discover the beauty of the Colombian Caribbean there is no doubt that Cata will be your best guide during this great experience.