Travel is with all of us as a fundamental part of being human. On our journey we occasionally come to bridges. We stop in the middle sometimes and look around, watch the water flow by, gaze at the trees and the sky, and look to the other side.  This "Intermission" Episode lies between what was and what will be.  We look to the side where we came from during Season 1.  We look to the horizon on the other side.  As much as we like to think we know what it will be like, we don't. Stay to the end...

A few random moments walking in Africa.  From the tent to the main dining area unaccompanied by a Maasai guard makes you look extra closely for any sign of movement. Hornbills in Kileleshwa.  A Maasai Warrior discusses the process of taking on another wife. And another.  And another.   A chance meeting at Ace hardware (although it's hard to meet a Maasai Warrior there). This 35th Episode of the Metamo Podcast is a bridge of sorts - like the monkey bridges over the Lunga Lunga Road near Diani...

Do you have a spirit animal?

The winds of travel can blow you all the way around the world and back again. And again and again. They can take you to a cafe in Uttar Pradesh or on a wild rickshaw race from Rajasthan to Kerala in India.  It can take you to a fashion show in Nairobi where you have to piece together your 'best' traveling clothes into the best combination you can comically muster up. You end up on a boat off of Lamu Island fishing with string line for lunch along the mangroves and getting sea sick only to...

When travel gets in your blood, watch out. Life will never be the same. 9 to 5's exist in that other world far away - you toss up grass blades to test the wind more often. If the wind  is blowing toward the southern hemisphere, you may travel in that direction. When it blows north, you are inclined to follow it back. The wind might even blow you to a German bakery in Varanasi on the banks of the Ganges River in India. You heard about this bakery from other travelers also following the wind....

Pool is like life in many ways.  You can make a great shot but if you aren't planning for what comes next, or use the wrong or too much 'English,' ... watch out.  🎱   On this episode we travel from the smokey pool rooms of yesteryear to a most interesting room in India. We find a rich landscape of characters as we find ourselves in places and circumstances we were not supposed to be in but in reality we were.  The hidden depths are like the pool balls that drop into the pockets and disappear...

Have you ever accidentally  left a restaurant without paying your bill? Only to sometime later and quite unexpectedly have the unintended discrepancy righted without expecting it?  Life can be that way. The best moments we don't always recognize until years, if not decades, later. We have a lot to learn.  From a booth in the lost in time 'Eff' Restaurant in Nairobi off of Tubman Road (which no longer exists), we begin a story that one would never imagine being a story in the first place.  If...

Hospitality goes back to our primordial roots - welcoming strangers who brought news from the distant lands.  Today it can seem like a lost art - a transaction rather the sparkle of humanity.  On this episode we explore hospitality's roots but also go to where it is thriving today, in East Africa.  Some say it's not something you can teach.  If that is the case, those in the safari industry at the lodges, tented camps, resorts and hotels, are born with a great gift. As a traveler to Africa,...

We travel. We love life. We get up in the morning and walk outside. We go through our day in wondrous ways.  When we pack out bags for a journey out into the world - whether it's to our job or on a great adventure beyond our borders, do we consider what non-material things we need to pack and bring along?  Of  course we don't want to forget our passport or our underwear but we also don't want to miss out on the richness that lies below the surface of the material world that we want to bring...

Have you ever got mugged but didn't know it?  How about ending up in a Russian hospital and being told you might have to find a different way home to America other than how you got there? From a small abode in El Salvador to the birthplace of the Beatles, we have some fun and mix it up with our regular co-host Bob Spoerl about his travels and life lessons learned.  Even Bob is surprised at how travel has almost unwittingly influenced everything from his work to his music. To shake it up even...

In this episode Greg flies solo for the first time and gives us an overview of where we are on our Metamo Travel Podcast journey now that we have passed 25 Episodes. We take a look at the concept of travel, with all of its twists and turns presented to us along the way.  The episode gives us a forest above the trees look at why we travel and how it can add quality and perspective to our our lives.  For good measure and to keep our bearings, a few stories are sprinkled in along the way. ...

In our 25th Episode, Greg describes a "typical" ride on his journey across Africa which was full of surprises.  We learn how to make a certain kind of traveler's stew, seasoned with a spattering of languages, thickened with a certain ingredient, and thrown against the wall until it sticks. We meet the wives of a certain and forgotten Zaïrois owner of a flatbed truck, experience light inside a glowing pumpkin, and come out the other side of night into a magical scene.  Hold on to your seat (if...

John Wanyokie spent four years at the Nairobi National Museum but his mind and heart are in the forests of Kenya listening to the magical sounds or out guiding on safari in the bush. John shares with us today his passion for conservation, wildlife, and how birds affect his life.  John discusses the importance of travel and how following his Mom to work one day when he wasn't supposed to opened up new pathways.

Deep in a bustling and vibrant market in Nigeria, Jenna Adeleke shares a transformational moment in her life.  In an instant, she knows just what she will do.  The humanity, the energy, and the vibrant colors permeate her very being.  Jenna would never be the same.  The story really begins in America when she first meets and makes an instant connection with the love of her life, "Leke." In this episode, Jenna travels to Nigeria to meet her African family for the very first time. She is blown...

In this episode Bob and Greg probe the waters of the topic of transformational travel.  At the heart transformational travel is the realization that the journey we are on is not so much an external journey but an internal one.  One goes out into the world to explore and seek exciting experiences but transformation cuts both ways:  the people you meet can be influenced by you as much (or more) than you are by them.  Metamo's mission is to provide a more fulfilling way to travel and to...

Each wildlife safari has its own magic to it.  You never see the same scene twice.  In this episode Bob asks Greg to share an example of a memorable safari he has been on. They end up on safari on the floor of Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania, patiently...

In this episode we continue our discussion with Maan Alyagout.  Maan describes how he was able to escape from Kuwait during the invasion by Iraq in 1990 into Saudi Arabia. A great storyteller, Maan continues to describe his journey that led him from the...

Our interview with Maan Alyagout takes us on a journey from the deserts of Kuwait, to the redwood forests of Humboldt County California, and back again. A great calamity befell the Kuwaiti people in 1990.  The invasion of Kuwait ensues and Maan finds...

Today, we have a very special guest. Debbie Archangels is the host of The Offbeat Life. A podcast where she interviews travelers who ditched their 9-5 to become remote entrepreneurs and digital nomads. Debbie is also the founder of...

On this episode we welcome back two special guests, David and Ronah Saunders.  David and Ronah share with us just a few of their favorite stories in the wild.  Ronah describes coming across a den of baby hyenas (she really wanted to bring one back...

Ryan Libhart Pereyda & Nathan Wirt push the boundaries of travel to the outermost limits. As they describe their wild adventures riding motorcycles from South America to California, across the US, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, there seems to...

Ryan Libhart Pereyda & Nathan Wirt push the boundaries of travel to the outermost limits. As they describe their wild adventures riding motorcycles from South America to California, across the US, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, there seems to...

When traveling off the beaten path it’s pretty easy to misread the most obvious. Sometimes we trip and fall down. Sometimes we just look foolish. And once in a while we learn something from it.Like this podcast? Subscribe and leave us a five-star review...

Up in the hills of California's Coastal Range late at night in 1984, Joey Raspo and Skid draw out a plan on the back of an old napkin to travel to Egypt and climb to the top of the pyramids. Danny Puccinelli joins the escapade at the last hour and the...