Pop Quiz: What do the Athabasca Oil Sands, the Peruvian Amazon, the lush forests of Rwanda and the raw nature of Newfoundland all have in common?
Answer: Each has provided B&R with a unique opportunity for exploration and education.
Under the guidance of B&R co-founder George Butterfield and Trip Designer Tom Abraham, B&R launched the Destinations at Risk (DAR) program in 2008, veering slightly from its traditional model in order to focus on educational travel experiences that highlighted species, cultures or habitats at risk.
Though a new venture for B&R, these trips were in keeping with the things we value most about travel: immersion, education and a broadened perspective on our planet.
“I just think there are a lot of travellers out there who, like me, are increasingly interested in learning more about the world around them—about really connecting with it and educating themselves so that they can actually effect change,” George Butterfield said at the time.
As it turns out, George was right. (Spend enough time with George and you’ll realize this tends to happen.) Trips to Canada’s Athabasca Oil Sands and Peru’s Amazon rainforest succeeded in expanding travellers’ horizons, but it wasn’t long before we realized that the Destinations at Risk program had two notable limitations: the words “at risk.”
By expanding the program’s criteria to include any region facing environmental or cultural change, if not necessarily risks, we could bring people face to face with the complex challenges facing cultures across the globe. The Places on the Verge program was born.
The inaugural Places on the Verge trip to Rwanda in 2011 brought travellers into the heart of a country that’s made incredible strides since its virtual implosion in 1994. A place with tremendous natural beauty and resources, Rwanda is also home to a young and ambitious population with a steady eye on a promising future, and the trip provided travellers with an immersive introduction to a people both resilient and resurgent.
“We have said several times to ourselves that even though we’ve been to a lot of different places in the world, I think it was maybe our best trip,” B&R traveller Joan Gilroy said of the experience.
Having since explored the recent cultural resurgence spearheaded by the Fogo Island Inn in Newfoundland, in 2015 we’ll explore the verdant countryside of Colombia—a true explorer’s paradise.