Rodrigo

I never really thought that I would be a tour guide as I was growing up in Mexico City and Australia.  I went to high school and university in the U.S. and majored in business still unaware of my hidden talent as a tour guide.  After graduation from college I immediately dove head first into America’s corporate world (not realizing it was a shallow pool) and hit my head a little working as an IT consultant and an investment banker.  Having realized that I had sold my soul and become a corporatebot at times never seeing the light of day for weeks in a windowless cubicle, I decided to leave it all behind and travel around the world.  When I returned to reality, I didn’t want to go back to the corporate world.  I wanted to be outdoors with people that are having fun…in other words, a tour guide.

It is funny but when people book our tours, they think that they are purchasing just that, a tour.  Our customers don’t realize (until after the tour) that half the fun of the tours is meeting fellow travelers on the tours.  Often, our passengers have things in common such as liking wine tasting, or nature hikes and obviously enjoy being on vacation in San Francisco.  On tours we have had more than one couple get engaged and I can’t even begin to count the friendships and loves that have flourished on our tours!  We have also had some very interesting groups such as the U.S.S. Blue veterans that came to visit San Francisco on the ship’s 50th anniversary of entering the San Francisco bay coming from the surrender of the Japanese during WWII.  This was truly an honor to share such a wonderful experience with these WWII veterans.

One of my favorite tour groups was a family from Ohio that booked us for a few days for their family vacation.  The group included grandparents, parents, brothers, sisters, nephews, cousins, the whole nine yards.  They were so nice that they incorporated me to their family plans, we had lunch together and they even invited me to dinner after the tours were done at one of our great San Francisco restaurants.  I dropped them off at the SFO airport and I have to say that it really felt like seeing off my own family.  Saying goodbye to our customers is probably the hardest part of the job. OK, sometimes I am glad to say goodbye to some of them but that is really the exception most people on our tours are ready to leave their troubles behind and have FUN!  Because of that, you really do begin to build a friendship since you are hanging out with wonderful people all day long and sometimes longer in Yosemite, the wine country, Monterey, etc.

Combine some of the most amazing places on the planet with some of the nicest people in the world, put them on my tour and I am a happy guy!

For those of you who are still reading, thank you.  I would also like to tell you about our sexual culture tour of San Francisco.  Yes, this is NOT for everyone but it is a fun tour that looks at the history of San Francisco with a sexual perspective.  Believe it or not, during the gold rush only 1% of the population was female in San Francisco!  Talk about a dry spell.  Also, did you know that San Francisco was the first place where we had organized topless dancing!  So this is one of my pet projects because the tour is always changing and improving.  It is basically a city tour of San Francisco but instead of only talking about the hippies in the Haight Asbury area we also talk about the communes and the rules that they had like “polyfidelity” which means you are faithful to a group of people…very interesting but definitely not for all.  In any case, my parents AND grandparents have been on this tour so its not too shocking (although I wouldn’t bring my aunt who is a catholic nun).

I hope to see you on one of our tours soon!

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