We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Leo Cuesta. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Leo below.

Alright, Leo thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?

I’ve wanted to have my own business ever since I thought about what I want to do for a living. My father is an entrepreneur and I grew up helping out in his businesses. My adventure travel company has nothing to do with my dad’s companies but growing up around his independent businesses is certainly the main reason why I’ve always wanted to be an entrepreneur.

I’m 43 years old. I worked 4 years in a big real estate company after college, and 4 months in a small adventure travel company after graduate school, and that’s all the time I’ve ever spent working for someone else (other than for my dad during summer vacations as a kid). I don’t just love being a business owner — it’s my way of life and all I’ve known for a long time. My wife owns and runs our business with me so you could say we’re married to it.

I don’t really wonder what it’s like to have a regular job because I’ve tried that and definitely prefer being my own boss. When covid-19 hit in 2020, however, I was forced to consider getting employed. To say the pandemic hit the tourism industry hard would be a severe understatement. Covid-19 essentially killed tourism for almost 2 years and many travel companies — including ours — had to shut down. I applied for jobs then, all within the adventure travel industry.

At the time I sort of looked forward to getting employed because it would have meant a regular pay check. As a business owner I never know how much I would earn month to month. More than that, I thought it would be nice to be able to sign off from work. Running an adventure travel company with destinations in several parts of the world means that there are trips going on 24/7 and I’m responsible for all of them. Being employed would have meant steadier income and fewer work-related concerns.

On the other hand, I knew that getting employed would mean a complete change in my lifestyle. I love working only when actual work needs to be done, as opposed to sitting in front of a computer pretending to do something but actually doing nothing but running out the clock. As a business owner I get to go rock climbing, skiing or mountain biking any time I want as long as I have all our trips and customer inquiries in order. I never need to ask anyone for permission to go on a trip; I just need to make sure my business will run properly while I’m away. I knew I would lose that freedom if I got a job, but I didn’t really have a choice at that time.

I had several interviews and got pretty far along the selection process for some positions, but never got a job offer. Looking back, I think the interviewers could sense that my heart was not really into getting a job. Don’t get me wrong — I put a lot of effort into the applications and interviews and put my best foot forward every time; but if I were a hiring manager I would not have hired me either. They could probably tell how much I loved having my own business and that I was only forced to get job because of the pandemic. I’m sure I would have been good at my job if I had gotten hired by anyone, but I would not have been happy and probably would have left before long.

Thankfully in late 2021/early 2022 with the advent of the covid vaccines the tourism industry started to show signs of resurrection. My wife and I reopened our business in 2022 and the rebound has been great. We ended that year with revenues close to pre-pandemic levels and the first half of 2023 has been our best 6 months of sales since I started the company. I’m so happy I never got any of those jobs that I applied for!

Life as a business owner is one of risk and uncertainty. However, the pandemic has shown us that the stability associated with regular employment is a façade. Anyone can lose any job at any time, so are employed people really more secure in their source of income than I am? I’m happy living with the inherent uncertainty of having my own business in exchange for the freedom and self-determination that it affords me.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m the founder and president of Uncharted Earth (www.uncharted-earth.com) which is an adventure travel company that specializes in active nature trips in off-the-beaten-path destinations.

Uncharted Earth’s trips are low profile, low impact, local and authentic. We believe this is the best way to travel and the best way to give our guests an exceptional experience. The places that we go to are special and we want to preserve their nature and local culture as best as possible.

Uncharted Earth has three sub-brands, each focusing on a different country or region:

Uncharted West (www.unchartedwest.com) organizes self-driven tours in the Western United States. The country’s most spectacular landscapes and National Parks are found in the western states of California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Washington, Oregon, and Alaska. Uncharted West puts together customized trips to help people explore and enjoy Yosemite, the Grand Canyon, Zion, Big Sur, the Olympics, Denali, Death Valley, and many other amazing places in the West. Trips include hotel bookings, guided activities, car rental and detailed instructions on how to do self-guided portions.

Uncharted Philippines (www.unchartedphilippines.com) runs guided tours in that lesser-known but amazing Southeast Asian country. The Philippines is an archipelago of over 7,000 islands. It has stunning beaches and rich rainforests and coral reefs. It also has a unique culture that blends Asian, Spanish, and American influences. Uncharted Philippines takes people to experience the best of the country through boat expeditions, mountain treks, rainforest hikes, and SCUBA diving/snorkeling trips.

Uncharted Colombia (www.unchartedcolombia.com) offers guided tours in that geographically and culturally diverse South American nation. Colombia is in the tropics so it has tropical beaches and rainforests including part of the Amazon, but it also has glaciated mountains and lush high-elevation tundras called paramos that are found in only two other countries. Colombia also has many different indigenous people and races, each with its own unique traditions and customs. Uncharted Colombia takes guests to all these different environments and lets them interact with the country’s various people to get a truly remarkable travel experience.

How’d you meet your business partner?

I met my wife Cami in 2009 while we were both in graduate school in Boston. We went to different schools but met through mutual friends.

We went rock climbing on our first date. She had not climbed in many years at that time because she had a traumatic experience (involving her getting paralyzed with panic on a rock wall 300 feet off the ground and demanding a helicopter rescue — it’s a pretty funny story), but I convinced her to try it again. We’ve been climbing together since.

After graduating Cami moved back to Colombia where she’s from. I followed her there and worked for a few months at a small adventure travel company. That company was already in trouble when I joined them, and when I learned that I resigned and moved back to the Philippines where I’m from and set up my own adventure travel business. Cami remained in Colombia and we had a long distance relationship for over a year, seeing each other only a couple of times during that period when we visited each other in our home countries.

In 2012 Cami and I got married and settled in the Philippines. She got a job for a few months before deciding to join me in my business in 2013. We’ve been growing Uncharted Earth together since then and moved back to the US in 2015 be closer to our main market.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

I borrowed money from my parents. I’m not ashamed of it because I devised a business plan that required very little investment and returned it very quickly. Most of what I had to spend on was travel expenses to explore destinations and lay the groundwork for my adventure tours. I wanted to provide authentic trips with a lot of local flavor, so I worked with whatever was available at each destination. That meant using local modes of transport, local accommodations and local activities. I never bought a tour vehicle, built a guesthouse or set up an attraction. My low-profile and low-impact trips meant that we introduced nothing foreign to a destination (except for our guests of course), and left no trace of our visit. My travel philosophy matched perfectly with my low investment business strategy and within a year I broke even on the initial investment and paid my parents back.

To this day I maintain the same business strategy and travel philosophy. I have never borrowed any money for my business and my company’s growth has been 100% organic from the start.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.uncharted-earth.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unchartedearthadventuretravel/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UnchartedEarth
• Other: www.unchartedphilippines.com www.unchartedcolombia.com www.unchartedwest.com