Adventure Travel with David Long - Eko Patagonia

David Long
Founder
Eko Patagonia

A former exchange student turned visionary founder, my journey to creating Eko Patagonia led me to Chile’s pristine Aysén region. Through personal transformation and deep connection to the land, I developed the ALIVE AWAKE AWARE framework that now guides our lux boutique eco-lodge. Our innovative approach to regenerative travel combines world-class fly fishing, cultural immersion, and conscious adventure in one of Earth’s last wild places.

summary
In this episode of the Big World Made Small podcast, host Jason Elkins interviews David Long, founder of Eko Patagonia. They explore David's journey from growing up in Springfield, Oregon, to establishing a luxury boutique hotel in Patagonia, Chile. The conversation delves into David's childhood experiences, his passion for fly fishing, the importance of mindfulness in nature, and the transformative power of travel. David shares insights from his Rotary Exchange experience in Chile and his transition from a long career at Intel to pursuing his dream of creating a unique travel experience in Patagonia. In this conversation, David Long shares his transformative journey to Patagonia, detailing his experiences that led him to leave his corporate job at Intel and pursue his passion for creating a unique travel experience at Eko Patagonia. He discusses the challenges of developing a sustainable lodge, the philosophy of 'Alive, Awake, Aware' that guides the guest experience, and the diverse activities offered to visitors. David emphasizes the importance of personal growth and connection to nature, making Eko Patagonia a destination for those seeking adventure and self-discovery.

takeaways

• Eko Patagonia offers personalized luxury experiences.
• David's childhood in Oregon shaped his love for the outdoors.
• Fly fishing is a meditative and mindful practice.
• Nature provides a unique opportunity for self-connection.
• The Rotary Exchange program significantly influenced David's life.
• Staying with a welcoming family in Chile deepened his cultural understanding.
• Fly fishing connects people to beautiful, remote locations.
• David's career at Intel was fulfilling but he sought a new adventure.
• The transition from corporate life to hospitality was inspired by passion.
• Connection with self is as important as connection with others. David's journey to Patagonia was deeply personal and transformative.
• Encouragement from loved ones can be pivotal in pursuing passions.
• Quitting a stable job can be a significant step towards fulfilling dreams.
• The development of Eko Patagonia involved unique challenges and solutions.
• Sustainability is a core value in the lodge's development.
• Guests can expect a variety of experiences beyond just fishing.
• The 'Alive, Awake, Aware' philosophy enhances the guest experience.
• The lodge offers a communal atmosphere for guests to connect.
• Seasonal variations in Patagonia can affect travel plans.
• The guide staff is passionate and committed to the local community.

Learn more about Big World Made Small Adventure Travel Marketing and join our private community to get episode updates, special access to our guests, and exclusive adventure travel offers on our website.

Transcript

Jason Elkins (00:01.233)
Welcome back everybody to another episode of the Big World Made Small podcast for the adventure traveler. Today we've got David Long. He's the founder of Eko Patagonia. David, did I say that right?

David Long (00:12.931)
You got it. Yeah, it's eko or it could be eco. Some of both, I suppose. But I'd generally say eko Patagonia.

Jason Elkins (00:20.517)
Eko, so not eko, eko. It's pretty close, isn't it? Pretty close. Well, regardless, welcome to the show. We're gonna dig into kind of your story, because I think that's probably super, super interesting, probably more interesting than maybe even what you're doing right at this moment. But before we do that, maybe give our listeners just the quick 30 second, what is eko Patagonia?

David Long (00:22.862)
Well, it could be eko too. guess there's three versions. That's right. Yeah.

Jason Elkins (00:47.303)
what are you doing now just so they can get a quick grasp of what it is you're doing and then we're gonna go back in the past and figure out how we got.

David Long (00:54.71)
Okay. Love it. Yeah. So Eko Patagonia has a Lux boutique hotel in Iceland, Patagonia, Chile. We've got four cabins and a little lodge and we host adventure and transformational or regenerative travel experiences for our guests.

Jason Elkins (01:11.995)
Wow. You've got that. You've got that practice. That's a pretty good elevator pitch. I love it. And you said, yeah, it was really good. That's okay. So now can people have an idea? We're talking about, we're talking about, said luck. How did you describe it? Lux.

David Long (01:15.566)
I can do better.

David Long (01:23.992)
Yeah.

Lux boutique.

Jason Elkins (01:28.187)
Lux boutique. What is Lux boutique and your what's your definition of Lux boutique?

David Long (01:33.676)
My definition of Lux Boutique is we are not luxury like your Ritz Carlton or Four Seasons. We are Lux-ery like Patagonia Chile luxury. And Boutique is that we are very personalized service, smaller property, and spend more time and attention with our people necessarily than we do on our particular property, although it's a beautiful property and all that stuff.

Jason Elkins (01:44.785)
Okay.

Jason Elkins (01:58.579)
All right, very cool. Well, that might be helpful for some of some of the folks listening. So thank you. And Dave, now we're going to go back in time and figure out how did you get to this point? Because this is fairly new lodge. It's new development. It hasn't been around forever. So how far do you think we need to go back to get a better understanding of how you ended up where you're at?

David Long (02:19.412)
Yeah, well, pretty far back, actually, Jason. Should I go? Should I start there when this all started?

Jason Elkins (02:28.243)
Well, you know, what's gonna happen is no matter what time you pick, I'm probably gonna say, let's go a little further because one of the things I've found in these conversations is, you know, people might say, oh, well, it started when I graduated college and I went on a...

backpacking trip to, you know, South America, or went to Europe or something like that. And I find that usually there's something that happened before that, that kind of influenced that, that desire. So I'm just curious. So let's go back, you know, let's talk about your childhood and any, any, any memories that you want to share. what was, what was it like growing up?

David Long (02:52.632)
Okay.

David Long (02:59.826)
Wow. Sounds great. Yeah, yeah. Okay, well, I grew up in a little town of Springfield, Oregon, which is outside of Portland or Eugene specifically, where the Oregon Ducks play, go Ducks. And so that's where guess where my life kind of started. I ended up when I graduated high school was looking for

Jason Elkins (03:18.205)
Mm-hmm.

David Long (03:28.162)
What do I do next? And I'd always been kind of drawn to the world. And so I applied for colleges, all my buddies were going to college and I said, yeah, okay, go to college, but then what? Like, what am going to do? You know, so I applied for a Rotary Youth Exchange and that I got selected. And then you go through a process at Rotary on their youth exchange, international youth exchange programs where you spend a kind of a two day, two, three day in Pensive.

Jason Elkins (03:40.819)
Hmm?

David Long (03:58.186)
with them and they bring in the students that are currently traveling from other countries, plus all the Rotarians and they kind of do interviews and spend time teaching you about how to be a good citizen, those types of things. And they say at the end of the event, they will choose your most favorite country in the world that you'll be spending the next year in.

Jason Elkins (04:20.019)
They will choose your new. What I heard was they will choose your new favorite country. They will choose it and it just OK. Let. So this was this was after high school or near the end of high school or when when was that? OK.

David Long (04:25.934)
They will choose your new favorite country. Yeah, it's a play on words, obviously, but.

David Long (04:33.816)
For me, it was after high school. Yeah. So typically, Rotary doesn't choose students between, they want them to be in high school, but I had just graduated. So I kind of got lucky on that one.

Jason Elkins (04:41.843)
You

Jason Elkins (04:46.547)
Okay, I actually went through probably the same program. They did not choose a favorite country for me. They decided I could stay in the US. Maybe I didn't quite hit the barrier or whatever, but I did go off to a Rotary of Leadership camp thing in Colorado for a couple days and then came back and interviewed for the process. I was not selected, but I want to hear more about that, but I also want to go back just a bit.

David Long (04:57.006)
Jason Elkins (05:15.729)
because somebody that, well, just growing up, I mean, you grew up in Springfield, Oregon, I'm envisioning, I've got my imagination of what you were doing growing up, but I'm curious if it's true, were you kind of already into the outdoors and doing stuff? Were you traveling with your parents at all?

David Long (05:16.085)
back.

David Long (05:32.302)
for sure.

Yeah, we did. the parents, traveled not too much. Well, I guess at that age for me, was still pretty big international trips. We were going to Canada and Mexico, but nothing off the continent, so to speak. And a lot of local travel just around the US. But I used to spend a lot of time summers with my grandparents traveling. I remember getting on a plane by myself at the age of like 12 or 11, getting those little pins.

Jason Elkins (05:46.387)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (06:00.304)
Okay.

Mm-hmm.

David Long (06:03.47)
you know, getting to do all that stuff. Not sure they can do that these days. Well, they probably can. But anyway, I felt pretty special back then. I even remember helping the airline staff hand out candy and things like that on trips on flights. yeah, that was always fun. But back to your other question about the area. So Springfield is a very suburban kind of rural, or sorry, rural town.

And it was mostly the logging slash mill was what kind of made everything go there, but very outdoorsy. So we have two rivers that kind of go right through the McKinsey and the Willamette, plus a bunch of other little tiny streams around there, very close to the Cascade Range. So kind of in the foothills of the Cascades in the Pacific Northwest. And so yeah, I spent a ton and ton, ton of time outdoors and loved it.

Jason Elkins (07:00.347)
You know, you and I have had several conversations now at this point before we ever got to the point of pushing the record button. And I happen to know that you're an avid fly fisherman. So I have to ask, did you fish when you were younger? How did that get started?

David Long (07:10.701)
Guess.

David Long (07:18.174)
Yep, I did. My dad taught me the fly fish very young and he had an interesting strategy. I was drawn to it. was, I don't know, even at a very young age, I was drawn to it. I think just the motion of it, the casting, and I guess now I can say maybe even it was just that the focus that it required and the mindfulness that I see now in fly fishing.

Jason Elkins (07:35.037)
Mm-hmm.

David Long (07:43.33)
But at a young age, what my dad told me was that if I wanted to go fly fishing with him, I needed to practice. And what he did, I'll never forget this. He took an old tire that we had, you know, and he rolled it out in the backyard on the lawn. And he stood me at one side of our property and said, okay, when you can cast and make the fly land 10 times in that tire, I'll take you fishing.

10 times in a row, right? Not 10 times. So it took me a lot of practice. But within, I would say within a couple of weeks, I was able to get about 10 in a row in there, and I think even more than he could. So he was pretty impressed at that point. And so then I got to go fishing and yeah, I did all the fun stuff around the area. I would walk, kind of go across farmers fields and go fish the rivers and had a good time.

Jason Elkins (08:12.421)
Nice. Yeah, that's.

Jason Elkins (08:26.748)
Mmm.

Jason Elkins (08:39.633)
Yeah, I don't. I'm curious if your take on it's kind of the same. Fly fishing is pretty unique and interesting compared to other types of fishing one because it really is something that you can practice and not feel weird about practicing. You can go outside and practice your casting. You can set up a target. You can, you know, it's one of those things that you can get multiple repetitions pretty quickly and pick up a skill and you can see your improvement.

And then, so both when you're practicing, but then also when you're actually out fishing, you mentioned mindfulness, which I think is great because it is kind of like a meditation in a sense. It's hard to really think about many other things when you're fly fishing. You know, I grew up with more conventional fishing, spent an awful lot of time when I was younger sitting there, you know, going cat fishing, there in the middle of the night, just waiting for something to happen. And you just kind of sit there and you think...

Some of the thoughts, maybe you're good. You know, maybe someone could say it's great that you've got time to think, but that's not always a good thing. And what I noticed with fly fishing was the very first time I went, I, you know, I went out for a few hours and I thought about literally nothing other than what I was doing. And I, it felt so incredibly present. I felt so present that I remember I went back immediately and gave all my conventional gear to my brother.

David Long (09:38.966)
So.

David Long (09:56.401)
So.

Jason Elkins (10:06.547)
And I was like, I don't need this anymore. I don't want this. It wasn't a stoppy thing. It was just like, man, I was so present and so dialed in with what I was trying to do that I never wanted. I personally never wanted to do any other type of fishing. I've changed a bit since and I'm a little bit more open minded. I can go do other things now. But is that was that kind of your experience? Has that been your experience with fly fishing? I've heard a lot of people say that.

David Long (10:32.02)
Yeah, I mean, I'm still I go, I'm happy to fish anyway, you know, anytime I get a chance to fish, if there's fly fishing opportunity, I'll lean that way. And probably for the very same reasons that you do for me, especially fly fishing in a river, it is very mindful. Well, you know, quite literally, if you're not paying attention, you can get a hook in the eye or something like that on a back cast. So there's that but

I really enjoy the, just how the river will flow by me. And I found myself kind of being in high school, just sitting there going, gosh, you know, I am focused and I'm really focused on that fly and I gotta be attentive if a fish comes up to grab it, to drive fly fishing. So I'm like completely focused. But at the same time, if I was taking a minute, I don't anymore, I used to smoke a cigar here or there.

you know, and take it some time on the side of the river and just let kind of my thoughts flow down the river. You know, whatever I was thinking would just kind of let it go. And that was, that was super peaceful for me.

Jason Elkins (11:27.741)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (11:34.589)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (11:39.421)
I'm happy you brought that up because I realized as I was listening to you, yeah, I say, you can't really think about anything else, but that's not really true because you're thinking, like you said, the mountains, the river, my gosh, rivers are just, it's like just sitting there watching the river. So you've got these elements. I guess where I was going with it is,

What's not there is preoccupation with my job, with my relationships, with my financial situation, with those things just tend to kind of go away. But you're right. mean, it's like meditation. When you're meditating, thoughts pop in and you acknowledge, that's a thought and I'm going to let that go. It's so much easier to do that when you're sitting in front of a river.

David Long (12:28.338)
Yeah.

David Long (12:33.603)
Totally.

Jason Elkins (12:33.613)
or a bald eagle flies over or you've got these things that you can be super, super present with that are happening now. They're not thoughts about things you've done in the past. They're not worries about what you're going to do in the future. It's like, man, it's here this morning. I am standing in Columbia this morning right before we pushed record on this. I was out front looking at I was watching the big parrots. We've got these big macaws that show up every morning lately.

David Long (12:54.358)
Wow.

Jason Elkins (12:56.615)
hang out in the trees right in front of my apartment. And it reminds me of sitting on the river and watching things. I'm not thinking about anything. I'm just saying, wow, how cool is this that I get to be here in this moment and see this? And that's what fly fishing was always for me because and I remember somebody saying, well, you know, we like to go trout fishing because trout live in beautiful places. You know, there's some truth. mean, I've got some I've got some vision.

David Long (13:09.753)
Go ahead.

David Long (13:19.373)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Jason Elkins (13:22.599)
places that weren't so beautiful. But generally, they're beautiful places, which is why you're probably big part of why you're where you are, which is one of those beautiful places. anyway, enough of of fly fishing unless you want to add to that.

David Long (13:31.782)
Absolutely. Well, yeah, if I can just add, yeah, no, I just want to add one more thing as you're talking, and we tend to do this, Jason, you and I, but I do agree that fly fishing gets you to beautiful places of the world that you might otherwise not go if you were going kind of as a tourist. That's 100 % true. It's also sort of yes, to your point, why I did this here in Patagonia is because

Jason Elkins (13:40.435)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (13:52.434)
Mm-hmm.

David Long (14:00.192)
in a beautiful part of the world that has world-class fly fishing. And we certainly do that as part of our programs. But what I've found is also true for me for fly fishing is that in order to have that kind of disconnection, it's easier if you're in a place where there is nobody else around. Those moments when you really connect are when you're able to completely disconnect, as you mentioned. And then

Jason Elkins (14:03.175)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (14:20.562)
Hmm.

David Long (14:28.29)
just connect to whatever that is, if it's the macaw or if it's the eagle or the otter or whatever that thing is. And that's really what makes it beautiful down here. As I'm looking out my window here at the mountain and while there's no snow on the top of it right now, it's this beautiful mountain and there's just nothing. And so my meditation this morning was beautiful because there was no one around. And I think that's a really key point about fly fishing or just

being out in nature is when you can get away and disconnect, you have an opportunity if you wish to reconnect to yourself in a way maybe that you wouldn't in your everyday life.

Jason Elkins (15:05.361)
I love that you brought that up because so many times in these conversations that I've had with folks here on the show, we talk a lot about the importance of connection in adventure travel or just however you define adventure travel. We talk a lot about the connections that we make with people and our family maybe that we're traveling with, other guests that might be wherever we're going.

the guides that we spend time with, the local people in the community. We talk a lot about connection because I've always believed that connection is, well, for me, it's really why I do it. But I love that you mentioned connect with self because that's a connection as well that frankly, most people avoid like the plague. And that's a thing with fly fishing that's I'm sure there's other activities out there.

David Long (15:33.644)
Okay.

David Long (15:39.694)
Okay.

Jason Elkins (15:58.3)
I could probably come up with a list of a few that might be similar. But fly fishing is one of those things that you can definitely do with other people. You know, it's quite common to go with a fishing buddy or your spouse or maybe you're with a guide, so you're connecting with the guide. But fly fishing also on some level is really a self-connection thing. You can go out fishing all day by yourself. I've done it many, many, many times. Even when I was a guide, I would go on my days off. would...

David Long (16:00.686)
So, thank you all.

Jason Elkins (16:26.707)
go load up the drift boat and I would hop in the boat and I'd float down the river and I'd stop here and there and I'd spend all day out there fishing by myself. And there was that connect, we can say connection with nature, but anytime we connect, I think anytime we connect really it's a way to kind of see ourselves. It's a way to reflect. That's how we see ourselves is it typically in other people, but you can also kind of see yourself in nature. So.

Yeah, that's probably one of the few conversations we've had on here where we've really talked about connecting with self. So thank you for bringing that up. Have you noticed that? Because you've been around a little bit. You've gone fishing with people that have a really hard time connecting with themselves. And I'm just curious. I just want to go one step further. don't know which step. What should we take? I know you've got some sort of experience with somebody or.

David Long (16:59.014)
Source.

It's good.

You know, I mean, can speak to, you know, just kind of speaking to Eko Patagonia a little bit again, back to the place that we have here.

Jason Elkins (17:20.844)
or not, I don't know.

David Long (17:34.894)
One of the things that we do, certainly we offer fly fishing and we can do fly fishing if people want to come and do fly fishing. But I really focus on, again, that connection to self. I kind of coined a term for us as a staff that is alive, awake, aware. And so what you do with that is kind of up to you. And that's really important that we

We allow people to approach it in any way that they want, but the alive comes, you know, we offer little prompts and things like that, but it's not too crazy. It's not like we're just all in, in your, in your face. And it really allows people to make, like I said, make their own decision. and back to the fly fishing thing is we, we do have a day of fly fishing where people have come and they're like, you know, I've never fly fished in my life, but.

It just, gives them a chance to try it and see, and really you have to become more, you don't have to, but you can become more aware of your own body and your own experience in that time and whatever that means to you. And so I have had guests that have said, wow, this is really a different type of awakening or awareness for me, just trying fly fishing. So I think you have to be mentally ready. Yeah.

Jason Elkins (18:50.663)
I'm happy we came back to that. Yeah, but I'm happy we came back to that because if we stopped with my dad said I need to learn how to put the fly in the tire before he'll take me, somebody could hear that and think, man, that's, I'm not gonna enjoy fly fishing. The guide's gonna be pissed off at me all day. So I'm happy we came back to that because father son relationships are a little different sometimes.

David Long (19:10.894)
You're right.

David Long (19:16.27)
Yes.

Jason Elkins (19:18.175)
And I get it and he was encouraging you to probably occupy yourself. There was probably some of that, you know. But anyway, so yeah, and as a guide myself in the past, you know, I've taken a lot of people out that have never held a fly rod. They still catch fish. They still have fun, whether they catch fish or not. So I'm happy, we brought that up.

David Long (19:37.486)
Well, and I don't know if it's true for you, but this is like maybe one of those weird God universe things, I can, I don't know. I think more often than not, the beginner fisherman catches the biggest fish. It just, yeah. So it's like divine intervention or something, but yeah.

Jason Elkins (19:49.971)
I knew you were going that way. I knew it because I've seen it so many times

Jason Elkins (19:59.571)
I will share that oftentimes, you know, in Montana and I've been with people in other places around the world as well. Oftentimes, maybe a guy wants to, you know, he thinks, oh, I want to get my wife into fly fishing. She's never been. And so we get both of them in the boat and she outfishes her. She catches more fish than he does, bigger fish.

There's so much psychology involved. We could probably go all day on that. I don't want to go too far into it, but it's amazing how many times and a big part of is, you know, there's difference between men and women in general. you know, women tend to not think they know everything. So they're a little bit more open to, they're open to coaching as long as it's not from their husband. You know, that's so many times I'd have the guy in the back of my drift boat. You know, you've got one person in the back, one person in the front.

David Long (20:30.318)
Excuse me.

David Long (20:49.324)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (20:54.907)
and maybe I'd put her up front so I can kind of help her and coach her. And at the beginning of the day, it's like, hey, need to keep your mouth shut, no matter what you think she's doing wrong. Or don't say anything other than good stuff. Every once in you're like, hey, that's awesome, great job. You can do that, but nothing else. And then we'd be floating down the river and he'd chime in. you need to wait longer on your back cast. And I would just turn around and give him the stare. Shut up. Because I've also seen many times that,

David Long (21:19.426)
Yeah. Yeah.

Jason Elkins (21:23.837)
their partner just whether it's man or woman, doesn't have to be. But I've seen many times the partners just sits down, reels in the rod, reels in the reel, sets the rod down. I think I'm going to take a break for a while. And then and then it's it's over and he doesn't understand. He's like, come on, we paid all this money to go fish. And what are you doing just sitting there? I'll explain it to you. So.

David Long (21:42.99)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's a yeah, exactly. It's interesting. In my kind of guide, I don't guide officially, but you've been around a lot of guides. And what I what I hear more often than not is in those situations with the husband or wife, the at some point, the

Jason Elkins (21:54.909)
Mm-hmm.

David Long (22:06.926)
And we could just say partners, right? I think that's a, let's not say husband and wife, but one of the partners will go up and say, hey, I really, when the other partner isn't looking, right? You know, they're off the way doing whatever. And they'll go to the guide, hey, man, I'm going to give you an extra big tip if my, we'll just go with wife. If my wife can catch this fish, right? And then at the same point, you know, some other point in the trip, the wife will say, hey, man, I really want my husband to have a really great time. Can you make sure he catches a lot of fish?

Jason Elkins (22:09.159)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (22:19.251)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (22:25.394)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (22:34.98)
Yeah, yeah, that's cool.

David Long (22:35.138)
And it's super interesting to me watch that where they both want the other one to be catching the biggest fish. Anyway, I just thought I'd point that out. One thing that we do here that I try and really talk about is while we have fly fishing, we can offer it for couples. And then we've got our little cabins that are kind of these romantic cabins as well. So that's nice.

Jason Elkins (22:44.211)
It is cool.

David Long (23:02.286)
you know, have those moments to connect with your spouse maybe differently or your partner. But we also do other things other than fly fishing. you know, we can have amazing fly fishing days and then we go and we hike to an incredible glacier, you know, or we go spend time with the family and do, you know, a farm stay where we actually have a lunch with them and go pick the, you know, or harvest whatever's growing that day and come back and make a meal. And so there's a kind of a balance for the.

let's say feminine and masculine in what we're trying to do here as well.

Jason Elkins (23:34.385)
Right. And based on my conversations with you in the past, I absolutely understand. And I want to make sure our listeners are clear. This is not a fly fishing lodge in Patagonia. Right. So I know I got into the fishing because I was curious about your childhood and I know you like to fly fish and, you know, I come from that background as well. So we can let's set that aside for a moment because there's a lot of other cool stuff going on. I know you do and I do too. And I know you and I could probably talk about it all day. And we've also had conversations around how

David Long (23:43.618)
That's right.

David Long (23:54.338)
Hey, I love the fly machine.

Jason Elkins (24:04.179)
Well, I managed to fly fishing, scuba diving, eco resort in Belize for a while. I know I've had, know, in one conversation with you, I was talking about, know, I used to have a lot more fun with what we, don't like the term non anglers, but just for the, for the sake of conversation, the non anglers, the people that weren't there to fish were oftentimes lot more fun. And we could, we could go into that, but we're going to save that for a minute. Cause I really want to get back to.

What country did the rotary decide was her favorite country?

David Long (24:37.829)
Oh, yeah, right. Yeah, so was a funny, so they actually now remember they tell you on so it's a Friday, Saturday, Sunday program. And they tell you on Sunday evening, what your what your favorite country in the world is going to be. In mind, it was Chile. And so, you know, like, oh, awesome, going to Chile. Yeah, right.

Jason Elkins (24:55.315)
Okay, there's a connection. And how long were you in Chile? Wow, okay. And you'd already finished high school, because I think traditionally we think of kind of those types of programs as you go to school, either as an exchange student in high school, maybe we call it exchange student in college, we call it a year abroad or semester abroad. So what were you doing while you were in Chile?

David Long (25:00.406)
So I went to Chile a year. Yeah. Yeah. So were they?

Jason Elkins (25:25.637)
if you weren't going to high school because you'd already finished high school.

David Long (25:27.598)
Well, these are great, great, great questions, Jason. I did go to high school for a couple, three weeks or something like that. And then, but exactly. No, yeah. Hopefully Rotarians don't hear this, I, so I broke a lot of rotary rules. Yeah, cause you're supposed to go to school, but I'd already graduated and I didn't have,

Jason Elkins (25:38.068)
but you'd already finished high school. None of my business. don't want to.

Jason Elkins (25:48.893)
That was part of the deal, huh? Was he had to go to high school? okay.

David Long (25:57.494)
Yeah, just, you know, was nice to be there and be with the kids, but to be in school for eight hours a day when I'm learning something that I already know and it's not translating to credit. and so I just kind of followed my passion at the time, which was basketball and, and ended up being really good friends with a gym teacher. And I would just go to the gym every day and skip class.

Jason Elkins (26:17.639)
Was this a like an expat school like an English school or was this where you full on Spanish submersion?

David Long (26:22.914)
No, Spanish immersion. Yeah. I mean, so was Spanish school. Sorry, Spanish.

Jason Elkins (26:29.075)
Okay, and had you taken Spanish in school back in Oregon?

David Long (26:29.592)
Yeah. I took, I took, yeah, I took four years in high school. So.

Jason Elkins (26:37.307)
Okay, all right, okay, All right, so very, cool.

David Long (26:40.216)
Fairly, fairly, got to be fairly fluent. Yeah.

So.

Jason Elkins (26:45.521)
So you went to Chile and practiced your Spanish, practiced your basketball, and you obviously are back in Chile now, so it must have been a pretty good year. What transpired during that year that you think might have influenced your decision to come back? Because I'm sure it wasn't just basketball, because you do that anywhere.

David Long (27:03.512)
Yeah.

Sure, no, wasn't basketball. In fact, it was the family that I stayed with. that's another kind of nuance, I guess we'll call it a nuance, that happened for me with the Rotary Exchange program. Typically you're changing a minimum of three families throughout that year. So like three months, three months, three months or something like that. guess that would be, anyways, three to four families. I ended up staying with one family the entire year.

Jason Elkins (27:28.85)
Mm-hmm.

David Long (27:35.982)
It was just one of those connections that right from the day I kind of landed and they picked me up at the airport, I was like, this is a cool family. I really want to learn about what this culture is. And they're inviting me in. They invited me to participate. They invited me to come alive. And so it was staying with them that really

Jason Elkins (27:36.304)
Okay.

Jason Elkins (27:55.741)
Mm-hmm.

David Long (28:05.469)
made the difference for me and and they allowed me to do the basketball and so on and so forth so yeah it was it was pretty amazing.

Jason Elkins (28:12.967)
They weren't getting upset with the school, the schools and calling them saying, hey, David's not in class. He skipped class again. And that just didn't come up. So. I've spoken with quite a few people that have done this type of, you know, year abroad, semester abroad type of thing. Stay with the host family. I have not. I've stayed with people. I've traveled quite a bit and stayed with people. But for those listeners that have never done that.

David Long (28:18.007)
No.

Jason Elkins (28:39.923)
I'd love it if you can just take a moment to paint the picture. You you arrive, you've got a family, like what does the family dynamic look like? What is that like the first night and anything else that might, that came up for you that maybe someone that hasn't done it wouldn't realize.

David Long (28:51.884)
Yeah.

David Long (28:57.006)
I mean, it's not unlike just traveling anywhere in the world as far as the feelings like, I'm in a new place. You know, can I drink the water, those types of things.

Jason Elkins (29:08.851)
Which by the way, where in Chile were you?

David Long (29:13.92)
And at that time I was in a town called the Roncagua, which is an hour south of Santiago.

Jason Elkins (29:19.719)
Okay.

David Long (29:23.109)
And so yeah, there was definitely a lot of the just kind of, you know, typical, you know, as we say, maybe blocking and tackling kind of questions that I would have like that, you know, how, where do get money, those types of things. And then it was, yeah, like, you know, I was staying in, I remember that my host mother, Patricia, said to me, the first thing I need you to do is come into your bedroom. So I went into the bedroom and my host sister was still there. So she,

She was flying out the next day. So I was staying in her room. anyway, yeah, no. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. But the cool part of the story was, and I think this is really indicative of how that family is to me. But she said, I'm really concerned that you're not

Jason Elkins (29:56.147)
I'm not gonna ask any more questions about the first night there in Chile. All right. So you're taking over her room. She is she's got to leave the next day. That's interesting. Okay.

David Long (30:19.672)
going to be comfortable in the bed because you're so tall. And so she had me lay down on the bed and it was a twin bed. And sure enough, I'm six foot four. So my feet are hanging off the end of this bed. And she was really concerned, but I told her, at 18, I didn't care. could sleep on the floor. didn't matter, right? So I told them not to worry about it. And that just kind of became the way.

Jason Elkins (30:32.275)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (30:43.805)
Mm-hmm.

David Long (30:46.562)
You know, we, we rolled as a family, like, well, you are a family. And so we took to my host sister, the airport the next day and I came back and I, they said, our house is your house. And they really meant it. And so I changed the room around to be like my room. I didn't leave, I just moved the bed. I moved the furniture. did everything. So it was my room and they came in and they're like, it looks so great. That's so awesome. And so I think they felt like I felt at home. I did feel at home. and yeah, so was my host mother, my host brother.

Sorry, my host father, and I had a younger host brother at that time, he was five. So yeah, and that just really became the glue for me. It's what really introduced me to Chilean culture and that family that I'm still very close with today.

Jason Elkins (31:22.276)
All right.

Jason Elkins (31:33.523)
Do you know or do you remember if they had had, had they hosted other students prior to you? Do you know? Okay. So new for them, new for you. Do you remember where their daughter was going? I'm just curious, was she going? So was this part of a swap exchange? Was she doing a rotary thing as well? I'm just curious, right? Was she going off to college or she was, okay.

David Long (31:41.942)
Never. No. This is the first one.

David Long (31:50.424)
Stuart to New York, Stuart is in Long Island.

David Long (31:58.668)
He was. She was doing a rotary exchange as well.

Jason Elkins (32:03.953)
That's cool. Did you cross paths with her again or was she gone pretty much the whole time you were there?

David Long (32:09.646)
She was gone the whole time I was there. And I left like a week before she came back. So we never really crossed paths until later when I went to go see her in, well, I went back. Yeah. I mean, like it was 15 years later or something. went back and I got to meet her.

Jason Elkins (32:29.117)
feel like that would be an interesting conversation. Like at the end of you spending nine months a year with her family, I recognize she wasn't with your family per se. But I think that would be an interesting conversation. Like if she came back a week before you left and just like, so how was it living with my parents? And what do you think of Chile and your experience? And then you can have conversations with her about what it was like to be in New York.

David Long (32:50.295)
Yeah, exactly.

Jason Elkins (32:58.821)
And in very real sense, you guys were doing a parallel type of thing. You're kind of doing the same thing at the same time. Anyway, I told you when we started this, I don't have a script. don't have planned questions. Who knows where we're going to go? And here we are. So all right, so you bonded with the family. You did? OK, all right. That's very, cool. By the way, did you grow up with siblings?

David Long (33:09.452)
Yeah, we talked on the phone. Yeah.

David Long (33:18.112)
Yeah, we did talk on the phone.

David Long (33:27.34)
I did. A younger sister.

Jason Elkins (33:28.357)
Okay. All right. Did she get inspired to go do outdoorsy type stuff and travel or I'm just curious.

David Long (33:35.404)
You know, she wasn't much of an outdoor person or travel person actually. More so now, yeah, but growing up not so much. She did come to visit me for two weeks in Chile though when I was on exchange and that was really fun. Yeah, that was really fun.

Jason Elkins (33:42.578)
Okay.

Jason Elkins (33:49.44)
that's cool.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. All right. That's very cool. So anyway, so you went to Chile for a year, hosted by a fabulous family, obviously created a connection with Chile. What did you do next? Just kind of get us up to speed because I still want to kind of go through the key points until we get back to where we are. No, I don't. I'm seeing the connections. I think we got that covered.

David Long (34:08.514)
You don't want to go back anymore? Making the connections. Yeah, so after Chile, I to school and did the college thing. Ended up working for quite some time for Intel Corporation. Did business development and sales for them for 20 plus years. Yeah, 20 plus years.

Jason Elkins (34:35.45)
okay. So that's a big chunk. What did you actually go to school for?

David Long (34:39.841)
International Studies.

Jason Elkins (34:41.683)
And then OK, international studies. So when you started when you declared OK, I'm going to do international studies. What was the goal at that time? What were you going to do with that? I'm sure your parents asked you.

David Long (34:51.276)
I didn't know. I mean, I knew I wanted to do something in business, but I just, knew because of my international experience, I wanted to finish the language degree. I got my minor or actually I got a minor, but I'm one credit class, one class short of a major. Cause I started working early in Spanish. And then I have a yeah, international studies degree and a minor in business. So I knew I wanted to do something.

Jason Elkins (35:10.521)
in Spanish. Okay.

Jason Elkins (35:17.807)
Okay.

David Long (35:19.918)
in business, international, didn't know what that was, but ended up not doing much international and working for Intel Corporation, was kind of a, I don't know how I ended up at Intel actually through networking and I guess being a good salesperson. Yeah, ended up at Intel. Not many people go there without a tech degree. Yeah.

Jason Elkins (35:41.661)
So 20 years with Intel, 20 years at Intel, just in a nutshell, I mean, I'm sure that changed over the course of 20 years, but just to give our listeners and myself, because I'm curious, if I say, what were you selling for Intel? How would you answer that question?

David Long (35:54.307)
Yeah.

David Long (35:58.35)
I was selling our chips and not the chips with salsa, but our chips that go into the computers. Yeah.

Jason Elkins (36:05.267)
OK, so you would obviously be to be. So you're going to companies that are making computers and helping them see the benefits of using your chips and their new systems and stuff like that.

David Long (36:11.874)
Correct.

David Long (36:15.864)
Yeah, exactly right.

David Long (36:20.192)
Yeah, the Cliff Notes version is I started out, well, I actually started out managing our Intel Inside program for North America. But that was more of a marketing program. And then I moved to sales and the sales, I mean, quickly to sales and spent most of my time in sales. then sales, was, yes, selling to people who were building their own computers, but it be smaller guys that were building their computers. And then

Jason Elkins (36:31.611)
David Long (36:48.226)
From that, it moved to servers, people that were building their own servers. So like all the cloud stuff that you see now, we were kind of way in the forefront of that, people that were building servers for offices or those types of things. And then through that process, I covered the Pacific Northwest and got a call from someone that wanted to buy some more of these products from us. And so I ended up helping them out.

Jason Elkins (36:52.326)
Okay.

David Long (37:17.554)
and became part of the team that helped Amazon. that was my, yeah, that's where I spent a good chunk of my time. Probably the most fun for me then. Moved very much more into business development and new business development. And that was pretty awesome. Internet of things, those types of things.

Jason Elkins (37:23.941)
Okay.

Jason Elkins (37:41.469)
So did you actually leave Intel to go to work for Amazon or you just worked with them? How did that look?

David Long (37:45.774)
No, they were our customer.

Jason Elkins (37:51.087)
Okay, got it, got it, got it. So 20 years doing this, was the part that kept you going for 20 years? What part did you like?

David Long (38:00.886)
Ooh, that's a great question. I mean, it's funny because all my friends are like, you keep talking about Patagonia. Why aren't you going to Patagonia? When are you going to Patagonia? So definitely Pati... Yeah.

Jason Elkins (38:09.053)
That's why I wanted to ask this question. I'm just curious what not what not necessarily what took 20 years. Maybe it's like, man, that was fascinating opportunity and the time was right. But sometimes we there might be someone out here listening to this right now, for example, that's working at Intel that's been there for 20 years and is listening. Man, I want to I want to go do what David's doing. And so just curious, what was it that kept you there?

David Long (38:33.198)
Well, what kept me at Intel at that time was my family. And so, and I would say not only my family, but the Intel family, there's really, really great people. Some of my best friends are from Intel. So it was a great company and we had a great time when I was working there. And so there really was no, I would say, yeah, there was just no reason to leave. And also, yes, the family made it kind of hard to

to move internationally, so.

Jason Elkins (39:05.619)
Got it. So I asked you what kept you there. Now I'm going to ask you why'd you leave?

David Long (39:11.406)
Why'd you leave? Well, I got a little bit of a push actually from someone that I'd met who suggested that this would, you know, they'd been hearing about it for a long time and encouraged me to go do it. So I did.

Jason Elkins (39:31.901)
So what I heard you say was somebody in your life was like, man, David, you've been talking about this. You've been talking about this. You've been talking about this. What's getting in the way? Basically, what's keeping you at Intel? All right. OK, so what did that move in that leap look like? Whatever you'd like to share with listeners, because I know people are listening to this that are in this. You and I, part of why you and I have had so many conversations is because we've got a lot in common.

David Long (39:42.892)
Yep, exactly.

David Long (39:53.794)
Yeah, for sure.

Jason Elkins (40:02.225)
You know? Yeah, so I'm curious to have you share with the listeners.

David Long (40:02.338)
We do. We do.

Yeah, well, I'll step back a little bit and say that so my first so until I used to give I don't know if they still do a sabbatical every seven years. That was an eight week sabbatical and you could tack on your vacation. And so for my first sabbatical, I knew where I was going. I was going to my favorite country in the world and I went back to Chile. Thank you, Rodriguez. And at that time, my

Jason Elkins (40:27.89)
Thank you, Rotary.

David Long (40:33.74)
my Chilean family had moved to the Patagonia region. And so, and I guess I should even step back before that. You you asked me about when did I see or get a chance to meet with my host sister. And the first time I saw her was in 2007. And actually my host father. So it had been, you know, years. We don't need to do the math, but many years.

Jason Elkins (41:01.521)
Mm-hmm.

David Long (41:03.982)
It was interesting because there was a tragedy that had happened in 2000, which is when I just started working at Intel. My host's mother and host's brother died in a plane crash and were lost in the Andes for two weeks in August of 2000. And so I had almost flown back to be there for the family funeral and those types of things. But in talking to my host father, he said,

Jason Elkins (41:20.305)
Cheers.

David Long (41:33.778)
I can't process this right now and I'd rather you, you know, don't come at a different time. So anyway, that 2007 was the first time I had met my host sister again, overall that time and the family dynamic had completely changed. It was really interesting how that all changed. So I became much closer to my host father. My host sister and I stayed in touch, but she was also obviously dealing with a lot of things.

Jason Elkins (41:39.763)
Hmm

Jason Elkins (41:47.091)
you

Jason Elkins (41:51.623)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (42:02.483)
Mm-hmm.

David Long (42:03.246)
with the trauma of that accident. anyway, I just thought I'd share that. So in 2007, when I was spending that time with my host father here in Patagonia, that's when it became really clear to me that I wanted to share this experience that I'd had of, you even at a young age, yes, I transformed for sure. I became a different person because of my experience in Chile. I wanted to share that with

people as much as possible and then the Patagonia and then the adventure and then the fishing. And so that's what happened in 2007. Fast forward to, okay, how do I do this and go and be at Intel and what's it look like and so on and so forth. And so I started kind of having, I guess a notebook writing down my ideas and talking with people about it.

Jason Elkins (42:35.901)
Hmm?

David Long (42:58.168)
But then I, just my life kind of worked out the way it did and I was single and I met a girl who was also single. And so we started dating and then she kind of encouraged me, right, hey, this is a good time in your life to go do this. And so she, yeah, it was very, a very big part of getting this off the ground.

Jason Elkins (43:20.337)
It's great to have someone in your life at some point say you can do what it is you're passionate about and to just encourage you because, and I'm not knocking anybody, I don't know anybody in your world. I mean, we have some mutual connections, but I know in my world, I love all the people in my world, the people I've been with in the past and...

David Long (43:28.302)
Absolutely.

Jason Elkins (43:45.779)
Most of them were pretty good at telling me what I should do. Very few of them would tell me that I can do what I want to do. That it's OK to be a little different. It's OK. I'm not going to use your example at Intel, but I'll use my example in real estate. I had plenty of people that told me I should be real estate agent.

David Long (43:57.073)
All right.

Jason Elkins (44:11.623)
You you'd be good at that. You'd make money and your family would be supporting all these things that I should do. And very few. And, know, I could say I'm miserable. And maybe I might have people in my life say, well, it's a job. You're supposed to be miserable. You know, and when you meet somebody that's like, well, you know, they say, well, what's your dream? And you tell them your dream and say, why, why aren't you doing it? Well, because I should do this instead.

David Long (44:27.001)
Right.

Jason Elkins (44:40.087)
And when you run into somebody that's like, that's bullshit. This is your life. Figure out how you can do the things that you want to do. And I'm not saying that means abandon everybody and say to hell with you, everybody, but to have that person that comes along and says, it's OK. Like just saying it's OK that you have this dream. You know, I remember sitting on the couch watching videos of people sailing around the world on these little sailboats. I was like, man, that's fascinating. And.

wish at the time that I'd had somebody that could say, you know, that's cool that you're watching this. You ought to figure out a way to do it instead of why do you keep watching that? You're not going to go. You can't go. You've got responsibilities. And yeah, so it sounds like maybe you had a similar similar experience. So once once you had that voice say, you know what, you can do this. This is a good time. What was what was the first big?

David Long (45:17.392)
Yes.

David Long (45:27.086)
Absolutely.

Jason Elkins (45:36.243)
Because oftentimes it's like about taking a big step that once you do this thing, everything else gets easier, kind of, or the gets the ball rolling or whatever. What was that step for you?

David Long (45:47.978)
Boy, I think there's been various steps and I don't know that anything got easier, but.

Jason Elkins (45:51.355)
Yeah, well, what was the one what was the one was like? Well, I guess I'm doing this because it's like, you know, I'm thinking about doing I'm taking notes. I'm I'm thinking about it. Somebody says you should do it. Oftentimes there's that that one thing that's like, OK, once I did that, there's probably no going back or at least the wheels are in motion.

David Long (46:02.786)
Yeah, well, I've

David Long (46:10.446)
Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of that for me was just, again, the timing. When I was here in 2007, I also came, I was dating a different person at the time and had the opportunity and she was encouraging as well. But, you know, it was too early in my career. My kids were too young. It wasn't really an opportunity for me to do that. So I think the big change for me was when there was an opportunity for me to leave Intel. And so I wasn't sure I wanted to.

Jason Elkins (46:26.343)
Mm-hmm.

David Long (46:39.768)
kind of put my name in the hat and say, I want out. But I had the partner at the time that would support me. And so that was, I think, the big decision was like, OK, I'm going. then it was, yeah. then quitting the job is a big one. And then, but I had some, I'd built up some resources at that point. And so it was just a little bit easier. think the next big step was when I came down here, we were looking for.

Jason Elkins (46:50.131)
It sounds like it. Quitting your job is a big one.

David Long (47:09.23)
property for gosh, we were, think it was a 10 day trip because I was still working at Intel. Um, cause they had to, you know, that runway or whatever, but, you know, the first five, six days of that were, uh, we're in a very, very, very, let me start with our very, very, very remote part of Patagonia. We're not in the Torres del Paine Patagonia, which is also remote, but we're in the ICEN region. Um, and so the,

Jason Elkins (47:18.355)
you

Jason Elkins (47:28.145)
Mm-hmm.

David Long (47:35.458)
publications and those types of things didn't really exist. mean, you had one platform at the time that was, I don't even know if it still exists. Correct. No Zillow, no real estate agents. Exactly. So we ended up traveling with my host father and my partner at the time trying to find these properties and no joke, it was like, okay, yeah, we have a property for sale. Great. Step one. It's here's the directions. You go through town.

Jason Elkins (47:38.611)
Mm-hmm.

You didn't just have Zillow. You weren't sitting on Zillow reaching out to the listing agents. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

David Long (48:04.758)
Once you cross the bridge in town, take your first left. You'll come to a wire gate, move the gate, keep going until you see, not kidding, the black horse. When you see the black horse, go through that next gate, take a left till you get to the chicken coop, go down. And it's like, what the heck, you know? And so we had a really, really hard time finding properties. And then ultimately in the end, actually we tried to find the property where I'm at now on the first day, couldn't find it.

Jason Elkins (48:15.303)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (48:20.563)
Mm-hmm.

David Long (48:33.528)
called the people back and they said they would meet us and show us the property. Ooh, novel idea. And so on my way out of town on the final day, we found this property. And so I made the offer that day and flew out of town and signed the documents actually all remotely. that was kind of crazy.

Jason Elkins (48:39.898)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Jason Elkins (48:56.167)
That's pretty massive action. I'm happy to ask that question because saying, OK, I'm going to take the early out, retirement, whatever that looked like at Intel. 10 day, I mean, as I just mentioned, I worked in real estate for a while. Not all people can make a decision that quick. I used to have people come into town all the time. Well, you know, we're not sure. We're going to come back in six months. We'll try again.

He took some massive action, so congratulations on that. So when was that trip? How long ago are we talking? That was in 2007? No. No, yeah.

David Long (49:29.144)
That was... No, no, no, no. No, that was 2018.

Jason Elkins (49:36.435)
28, okay, 2018. So you bought the property, then what'd you do? You went back and started figuring out how to make all this work. mean, did you have a business plan already lined up or what did that look like?

David Long (49:46.86)
Yeah.

Sure, I had a business plan and the business plan didn't work out exactly the way I wanted it to. mean, the core of it is still there,

Jason Elkins (50:00.221)
Well, now I have to ask David, what was the original business plan?

David Long (50:06.038)
The original business plan was to, and we're not going to go back there, Jason, but the original business plan was to start a fly fishing lot.

Jason Elkins (50:13.075)
Okay, all right, all right, cool. But then your eyes opened up to the possibilities and you realized that there was so much more opportunity, right? Or something along those lines, yeah, so.

David Long (50:14.592)
No, right. So yeah.

David Long (50:26.272)
No, that's exactly right. mean, as we started, you know, as I started coming down and we started kind of the build process, which is a whole nother story, probably a whole nother podcast. But, I realized there's so much more to offer here than just fly fishing. And like I mentioned at the beginning of the episode that yeah, fly fishing gets you into amazing places that otherwise you wouldn't go. But I think there's an opportunity to connect to yourself in ways that if someone just gives you a little bit of, help or encouragement.

Jason Elkins (50:34.311)
Mm-hmm.

David Long (50:55.5)
that you can connect yourself in a way differently. And so we changed our program up a little bit and started going that direction where we will still absolutely fly fish. And I would like to do more of it. So if people want to do that, we can certainly move, you know, put more days into our typical package. But yeah, we're very much focused on the regenerative and transformational travel, like what happened to me when I was here as an exchange student. And so.

Jason Elkins (50:55.613)
Mm-hmm.

David Long (51:23.554)
Yeah, it's, it's been really nice.

Jason Elkins (51:27.197)
Pardon me. I want to I want to I need to cough. Hold on a second. This is unedited real conversation, right? A couple things one. So I want to touch on what that kind of new business not new business, but your current business plan and what that looks like as far as you these packages that involve a variety of things. I want to make sure people when they're finished listening to this have kind of an idea what that looks like and.

David Long (51:39.374)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (51:55.591)
I also want to touch on just the development. Okay, hey, we're doing this. You know, there was nothing there when you bought the property, right? So you built this lodge and the lodge is different. You know, it's, you've used some interesting things that it's a podcast. We can't show pictures and videos and this and that. So let's talk about your development strategy and what you guys did and describe kind of what the end result looks like, if you would.

David Long (52:04.348)
Just land.

David Long (52:10.09)
So.

David Long (52:23.032)
For sure. So from a development perspective, I knew that I wanted to do something that was going to protect this area as much as possible and be kind to the environment as much as possible. And I also had a sustainability eye, meaning that if we can use wind or solar or recycle differently, those types of things, we wanted to do that, which we are doing.

or striving to do. And then I came across actually a gentleman in Portland, Oregon, who's building homes out of shipping containers. was like, that's kind of a novel idea. And they're very sustainable in the sense that, you you're taking something that was otherwise destined for landfill, ultimately, or someone farmers feel to rust away, and you're upcycling it. So we did that.

and I spent a lot of time with him, just kind of understanding his business model and you know, he's saying these things can last for like 50 years or more. You know, they're, very, yeah, I guess I think that maybe it was the roof. Anyway, they last a long, long time. And so that was important to me too, that we put something in place that wasn't going to have to be rebuilt or torn down or have a ton of maintenance to it. and so that's what we ended up doing. We bought a bunch of shipping containers.

and converted them into the...

Jason Elkins (53:53.213)
What is a bunch? What is, first of all, what is a bunch? Because I have not had the opportunity to visit your place yet. So you bought eight of them, 18 of them. So I'm envisioning just one day you've got these trucks show up and you've got 18 shipping containers spread all over your property and trying to.

David Long (54:00.494)
18

David Long (54:11.586)
Well, as I said, it's another podcast, but no, we, one of the things I learned from my, my process is that we are so remote that if, I tried to build them on site, it would have been a challenge, but because they're kind of like modules, we built them off site and then finished putting them together here.

Jason Elkins (54:23.759)
Okay, all right.

Okay.

All right, very, cool. So for anybody listening to this, it's like beautiful Patagonia scenery views. Well, I'm just going to go there. The traditional, especially the guy that would think fly fishing lodge and maybe other people as well, they think, you know, the traditional fishing lodge, which are not. I know we've discussed that, but they envision this log cabins, huge windows, all this stuff. I know you've

David Long (54:45.027)
Awesome.

Jason Elkins (55:00.029)
thought about this a lot more than I have. So help our listeners understand how do they reconcile with, I'm going to this beautiful place. I don't want to be in a shipping container where I can't see anything. And I know it's not like that. So help them understand that.

David Long (55:12.199)
Yeah, no. Yeah, so we, you know, we were really kind of mindful about where we put each cabin. Each cabin is built out of two shipping containers and facing the lake. And actually there's a waterfall that you can't quite see from the cabins, but you can hear from the cabins across the lake. And then it's full of windows. So the whole front of it is all windows.

So.

Jason Elkins (55:41.147)
Are you in, are you the cabin you're in right now? Cause I can see you were doing a video call. Is that one of the shipping container cabins basically?

David Long (55:47.178)
Yeah. I'm, no. This is, I'm in a shipping container above the lodge that is the office slash my bedroom. And this is small.

Jason Elkins (55:55.932)
Okay.

Okay, and the only reason I wanted to ask, but the building you're in right now, the space you're in was at one point a shipping canary, right? Okay. Well, that's, yeah, that's why I wanted to mention that because I've been having this conversation. You look like you're in a fishing lodge. I mean, I shouldn't say fishing lodge. You look like you're in a lodge in Patagonia. So I'm not, you know, you and I aren't sitting around in this conversation with, you know,

David Long (56:07.086)
Absolutely, yeah, I mean, you can see the roof.

David Long (56:16.428)
Yeah.

David Long (56:20.227)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (56:26.151)
Navy sheet metal blue like color behind you. mean it looks very sophisticated so I just wanted to share that because our listeners can't see it. But anyway so you've got these nice places you said two shipping containers per cabin nice view.

David Long (56:29.517)
Right.

David Long (56:41.698)
Yeah. And then the Lodge is a bunch of shipping containers that we kind of made more of a big open space slash like a big communal table that we can sit 12 people around and a fireplace and that kind of stuff. Definitely not the big Montana Lodge that you think of, but again, that Lux boutique that I mentioned earlier on is what we really, really go for. So yeah. And they're very nice. Yeah.

Jason Elkins (56:53.587)
All right, that's cool.

Jason Elkins (57:02.097)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and you've got some nice, nice pictures. Yeah, and you've got some nice pictures on the website. We're going to have a link to the website. So anybody that wants to kind of get a better feel for this, I definitely encourage encourage you to go through to David's website. So all right. So we talked about that and let's make sure that everybody's clear on like what is it? Could you imagine we we've got all these these things and we can.

You know, we oftentimes do maybe fishing one time when you're there. You can do more of that if you want. But what is the kind of? I don't know, typical package look like, like give me give people an idea of if they wanted to come there for a week, what type of stuff would they do and why are those things important?

David Long (57:45.966)
Okay, sure. So typically we have people arrive on a Monday, and they'll arrive mid, mid afternoon on a Monday, we'll bring them back to the lodge, we'll get them all settled in and kind of do a reception dinner here and kind of educate them on the area and some of the cultural. I don't want to give away all my secrets, but we have we have things that we do here the first day and then and then people

Jason Elkins (58:08.133)
No,

Now real quick, I heard you say tickly on a Monday. So most of the time, whatever guests are staying with you that week are all kind of arriving on the same day, which has some real benefits, right? So people kind of, if they're their guests staying there, they kind of have some level of consistency and kind of get to know people, right, as well. Yeah.

David Long (58:23.532)
Yeah, Fair.

David Long (58:32.428)
That's right. we, we, so this is our, I guess our typical program is a seven, six night, seven day program. and that's all inclusive. Gives the guide plus the experiences that I'll run through in a second. You get a guide per cabin and then transportation and all the food, all like you just show up with your bag and we take care of everything. and so that's, that's what I can.

Jason Elkins (58:58.715)
Nice tip and typically the same guide throughout the course of week type of thing.

David Long (59:03.352)
Well, yeah, I mean, but there's opportunities for more, there's more sharing, I guess. If you want the same guide, sure, but, and that just depends on if people want to kind of, actually hasn't worked out that way, but that is the plan that you can do your own bespoke kind of store if you want. But much to your point, I think when people get together, they're like, let's all go together. It's more fun to share. Yeah.

Jason Elkins (59:09.157)
Okay, all right, just curious.

David Long (59:29.078)
And then, you know, and then when you're sitting down at the dinner table at the end of the day, you all can talk about the experience you just had. So yeah, so we do that the first night. It's just kind of this welcome reception. The second morning, people are generally tired if they've come in from an overnight flight, but we still get up pretty early and we drive and hike or some version of hiking Cedocastilla, which is the large mountain here with the glacier at the top, glacier lake at the top. It's fairly strenuous hike.

Jason Elkins (59:34.873)
Okay, got it

David Long (59:58.846)
absolutely beautiful, wonderful, makes people feel really alive, which is great. The next day, and then you come back and we just kind of, you know, are exhausted and call it a night. The next day would be our farm to fork day, where you wake up, you go spend time with local family in the morning and have breakfast with them. And this is a traditional

just eating in their house type of meal, which is really pretty special actually. After that, we then transitioned directly, it sounds like a lot of eating, but there's actually space in between, but you transition directly to our farm, not family farm, but their neighbors, and we go to their farm and they host a lunch. And it's...

It's a hosted lunch, but it's a typical hosted lunch in that it's what are they eating that day? What do they want to share with us? And then we quickly transitioned to what do they have to do on the farm that day? And so we've done planting potatoes. We've done fixing fences. You know, we just helped them out as a family. Actually, there's been days when they didn't need to do anything. And so we just kind of played with the farm animals and did stuff like that.

Jason Elkins (01:01:18.355)
Mm-hmm.

David Long (01:01:20.565)
But the cool part about that day too is that we actually harvest something from the farm. So we've got cherries or we've got cilantro and whatever we end up picking from the farm. We've come back to the lodge and usually we come back a little early that day because people are still tired from the day before and give them some time off to just enjoy the lake. And then we do a cooking class here with the things that you've just harvested and make a traditional Chilean dish.

Jason Elkins (01:01:37.341)
Mm-hmm.

David Long (01:01:48.946)
We do have a chef and a sous chef on site, so they make something pretty amazing for us for that evening. There's a few more days. I feel like I'm kind of getting long-winded, but I'll just try and make the other ones a little bit faster. The next day is fishing.

Jason Elkins (01:02:02.803)
Or just just just to give kind of a little bit of flavor. mean, I'm getting hungry already. This is I love the farms. I love the farm stuff, but go ahead.

David Long (01:02:07.981)
Okay.

Yeah. So the next day is our fishing day. And so that's where we'll, you know, if you haven't ever fished before, we'll get, get a rod in your hand and have a guide kind of teach you how to cast. you know, the fishing is good down here. So there's a good chance you'll at least see a fish come after your fly or, but even better, like we talked about earlier, that the newbies tend to catch more fish than anybody else. So that's often happened.

Jason Elkins (01:02:34.343)
Mm-hmm.

David Long (01:02:36.822)
And then it also turns into just kind of sometimes an amazing boat ride where you get to see, like we talked about earlier, gets you to places that you otherwise wouldn't have gone. So that's a fishing day.

Jason Elkins (01:02:42.461)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (01:02:48.221)
So potentially, even on the fishing day, because this was a question I had is if someone just has zero interest in fishing, they've got just their their things. They just don't even want to see it. Or maybe you mentioned like the first day is fairly energetic long day. So if you've got people that are just like, I appreciate what you guys want to do tomorrow, but I don't really want to do it I don't think I can do it. Do you have the resources and other things to go take them and go do something different?

David Long (01:03:18.462)
Absolutely. like there's been, yeah. So for the, specifically for the, the big hike, can do portions of the hike if they want, or we'll just mix it up and do hikes around that area because it is a beautiful area and kind of iconic for the region.

Jason Elkins (01:03:19.525)
Okay, I figured you did. I just want to be sure.

Jason Elkins (01:03:32.231)
Okay. And if you've got one guide per cabin, you've, know, if one couple's like, yeah, we're not walking up there. The other guy can take them on an alternate route. Okay. Great. Cause I know sometimes that's something people are concerned about. If they feel like, we're with the group, we're all going to go do the same thing. Some people won't want to put themselves in that situation. If they feel like they are going to be pressured, it's like all or none type of thing. So I wanted to get.

David Long (01:03:37.3)
Right, so if somebody wants to go, we take them up.

David Long (01:03:42.584)
Correct. Yep,

David Long (01:03:59.212)
Exactly. Yep. No, we definitely have options. And, like I said, it hasn't happened yet. Most people seem to follow kind of the, the package and the program that we have that we can adjust. well, that's not true. I do have a fishing guy who wants to come down and fish most days. So instead of, although he said most, right. So he didn't say six days of fishing. He wants to do like four days of fishing and two days of experience. So we got that. but yeah. And then the last.

Jason Elkins (01:04:09.019)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (01:04:16.403)
you

Jason Elkins (01:04:25.191)
Yeah, yeah, all right. Very, cool.

David Long (01:04:29.026)
The last two days, we do another kind of, we do a really big road trip up to a hanging glacier and some hot springs. And that's really fun. It's a long day in the car, but it's, don't even feel like it because it's just ooze and ahs everywhere, everywhere you turn. And then the final day is an open day in the morning. So you can sleep in, or you can ask us to do many things. I've had people ask us to go rock climbing. And so we put together a rock climbing course in the morning.

Jason Elkins (01:04:41.202)
Yeah, yeah.

David Long (01:04:54.33)
or horseback riding or kayaking or whatever, that's kind of a choose your own adventure. And then in the afternoon, we do an asalo apalo, which is the typical Chilean barbecue with a bunch of entertainment, let's say. And so that's a kind of a fun day as well. And then we're kind of at the end of that, wrapping it up. And Sunday is typically the departure day for most people.

Jason Elkins (01:04:59.335)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (01:05:11.612)
you

Jason Elkins (01:05:19.101)
Very, very cool. Now, I think we should touch on this. The lodge has not been around a long time. A lot of this is still, well, I don't want to put words in your mouth, but the reality is lodge hasn't been around that long. So what is that like for guests? What should people know if they're considering a trip to Ico Patagonia?

David Long (01:05:27.542)
no.

David Long (01:05:39.02)
Yeah, haven't, the lodge is new this year, actually. So yeah, as far as expectations, there's still some construction going on. Not anything that the guests would notice, actually. It's more for guides and staff. But yeah, mean, that may happen. But no, we're ready to go. It's a pretty amazing little place, but it's all brand new. So guess they should expect that, too.

Jason Elkins (01:05:55.123)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (01:06:05.459)
very cool and the staff that you have, know, I guess specifically the guides. So if somebody's hearing new place, where are these guides from? Are these a bunch of American friends of David that are hanging out at the lodge that are trying to be Patagonia guides? Because who knows, you know, I've seen some crazy things happen, especially with new businesses.

David Long (01:06:06.958)
.

David Long (01:06:22.691)
Yeah.

David Long (01:06:29.294)
It happens.

Jason Elkins (01:06:32.115)
I've had enough conversations with you to feel confident to bring you on the show and talk about this, but for people that are listening to this, what should they know about your guide staff, your chef, your sous chef to give them a little bit more of confidence like, okay, yeah, it's a new place and.

David Long (01:06:33.262)
For sure.

David Long (01:06:48.479)
It's an yeah, it's a new place and that's really good. Our guide staff is amazing. Actually, they're just so so good. They all live here in the region, although I don't know if they're originally from here. I think they were born in other parts, so they don't get that credit. It's like a lot of people in Portland, Oregon, who like to say they're Oregonians, but they moved there, you know, 20 years ago or something. So they're probably.

Jason Elkins (01:06:51.709)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (01:07:09.991)
You

But what's great sometimes when you get people that move in, especially the guide type of person, is they're there because they want to be there generally, right? They didn't become a guide because that's the only job in town. It's the best job in town. They like, if they're from somewhere outside and they come in and they're guiding, it's probably because they want to be there. It's like a fishing guide in Montana. I know enough about this that...

David Long (01:07:20.078)
Exactly.

David Long (01:07:34.606)
Absolutely.

Jason Elkins (01:07:40.411)
If I was gonna book a guided fly fishing trip in Montana and I had to choose without knowing anything else other than, let's say option A was born and raised in Livingston, Montana, we're gonna fish the ulcer, he was born and raised in Livingston, Montana, has never lived anywhere else, never done anything else. Or I've got option B is,

Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but he's been living in Livingston for six years, guiding fishermen for six years. I'm going with the one that came. Honestly, I'm going with the one from Milwaukee because he's there because he wants to be there. He's excited about being there. And he's, you know, so I don't know. But anyway, just want to mention that.

David Long (01:08:17.868)
Yeah, no, I mean, so I appreciate you saying that. I think there is in our case, you we're really I'm looking for guys that want to be here for sure in the region and they want to but they also align with our values. And so everybody here is very aligned with our values in terms of how we want to protect the environment, how we want to invest in our our local community here. That's why we go to the local farms and the local lot of local stuff that we do here.

So they're invested in that. And then they're also invested in the transformational part. And so they really buy into the Alive Awake Aware and how they can either look at that through a whole week or look at it in every day or even moments within each day, you can go through these phases of Alive Awake Aware. And so they're amazing. They're really great guides. We have all of them speak English. One of them is learning English, I guess I should say. He's our fishing guide, but he's amazing.

And our chef is actually, he's been a teacher in town and so, or teaches chefs in town. And so he's really amazing, does really, really good food. Our sous chef is, actually she grew up just up the road too, or her family is just up the road. So, and she makes the best, best desserts. I've probably gained a few pounds eating her desserts here.

But she's great. And then the other one that I think is super important is we have two of them, my host brother. So after the accident, my host father remarried and she had a son and her son is Diego. And Diego is one of our guides here as well. And he's like our head of host experience. He's really, really good dude.

Jason Elkins (01:10:04.73)
That's cool.

David Long (01:10:09.368)
And then my, a general manager here who also wanted to be here. and he's, he's doing a really great job as well. So we've got a really good stuff.

Jason Elkins (01:10:09.597)
That's very, very cool.

Jason Elkins (01:10:16.455)
That's very cool. You mentioned something because I think some of our listeners, because there's business people, there's other tour operators, any variety of people may be listening to this. You mentioned something a few times that you clearly have given some thought to. was, I wrote it down, alive, awake, aware. Give us the what, what is that? I think I know, but you tell me.

David Long (01:10:40.376)
What is that? Yeah, well, it's an evolving thing. For me, it was just like, how do we help people to really have a sense for what Patagonia is? Because this, and specifically this place in Patagonia, there is nobody around. And so if you give yourself the opportunity to look at yourself differently, to disconnect, to reconnect,

Then you can go through these stages or the stages that we call which are alive. So the alive is when you get here and you may be for some people it's just being around nothing. And so they feel differently. They feel alive differently. For some people it's, you know, the incredible hike and they're really starting to breathe. And so that becomes the alive for them. And so that's the alive is just more about you and how do you connect to yourself and maybe your breath.

The awaken is, or the awake is when you start to see things differently and it can sort of land differently, I guess. And so that begins to awaken different parts. And again, these things can all happen in a moment or over a period of time or during a day, whatever. It's not fully, I just came up with it, so I don't, you know, it's not like a, yeah. Okay. Yeah, good.

Jason Elkins (01:11:51.505)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (01:12:03.889)
No, I like it. like I'm happy we're having this conversation because my mind is rolling. I love it. Yeah.

David Long (01:12:10.56)
And so that's the awake. The awake is different. Yeah, you're just like, whoa, okay. That's really cool how they drink mate, I don't know, however it is for you. And then the awareness is just how you can take that to be more aware for yourself, but also for your community and your community that you're in right now when you're at Eko Patagonia and maybe that community when you go back to your home, how can you make change

Jason Elkins (01:12:21.021)
Mm-hmm.

David Long (01:12:40.396)
and micro changes in your own community back at home if that's important to you.

Jason Elkins (01:12:47.473)
I'm hearing kind of like a, like you've got your program, day one, day two, day three, and this is like the sub program. This is like the foundation, right? Is that, you they arrive, that you mentioned the first day you go up that mountain, you maybe feel, my gosh, you know, I'm alive, but do I want to just be alive? Who wants to just be alive? It's a good start. It's an important start.

David Long (01:12:56.545)
Way some. Correct.

David Long (01:13:13.826)
Yeah. Yeah.

Jason Elkins (01:13:14.919)
But then if you can process, if you can kind of move through that in the course of a week, maybe arriving alive and leaving aware. I don't know. I'm guessing that's kind of was the thinking. I love it. I think it's pretty cool. for your staff, if that's your room. Because that's when you brought it up was when we were talking about your staff. So I'm envisioning you reminding them alive, awake, aware. Yeah, alive, awake, aware.

David Long (01:13:27.746)
Yeah, I think you're spot on.

Jason Elkins (01:13:43.155)
That's the goal, right? The goal is getting from alive to aware. And so for your staff, maybe the staff's there for, you know, I don't know if you have kind of a seat. We should discuss the season here in a second, but maybe, you know, from the it's just a good reminder for the staff. So I love that. So, yeah, let's talk about the season. What do people need to know about the seasonal? Yeah, please.

David Long (01:14:01.582)
just want to touch on that. The Alive Awake Aware things, the alive part isn't like you're in a safety standpoint necessarily. It isn't that you're alive versus dead. That's not really where we're going at all. It's alive as in you feel alive. You feel like you're in this space and you...

So, well, for me, guess an example of being alive is when I left Intel and I got to make the decision to come and do this. That's what makes me feel alive. Right. So it's that feeling of, you know, maybe you're taking time from Intel or taking time from your big job and you come down and you're to do this. And it's like, you have a chance to reflect on what makes you feel alive. That's really what we're talking about.

Jason Elkins (01:14:49.531)
So, okay, great. So I think I interpreted it as almost a process I get from point A, you know, from alive to aware. But what I hear you saying is more of all three things in harmony, right? Okay, that makes sense. Yeah.

David Long (01:14:58.539)
No

David Long (01:15:03.96)
Correct, yeah, I was gonna say that too. So it's not that we don't have a goal that anybody achieves any of those.

Jason Elkins (01:15:10.675)
doesn't have to happen in this order. It's not a strategy. It's just, but that in a sense is how do we create that sense of aliveness? I'm not going to say wokeness. That woke is a tough word right now. Or where, but it's just creating those three core elements of connection, mean, whether that's self-connection, connection with nature.

David Long (01:15:26.488)
Yeah, right.

David Long (01:15:36.524)
Yeah, that's connection to self, it's connection to place, and then connection to a greater whatever that is, I think is the way I would look at it.

Jason Elkins (01:15:45.501)
Very cool. Real quick, what should people know about your season?

David Long (01:15:51.05)
yeah, so we're going for an all year round, although it's, you know, so we do have seasons, but they all happen in one day in Patagonia. So it could be raining one minute, it could be snowing the next day. Exactly, exactly. Yeah, really, it's so funny. Huh, exactly.

Jason Elkins (01:16:00.371)
So our season is from 7 a.m. till 11 a.m. And then shoulder season is from noon to 2. Okay.

David Long (01:16:13.026)
We, I'm not joking. mean, the last yesterday was sunny. was nice, but for the 10 days before that, was cold. It was like raining cold and blowy. It's still beautiful, but we're in the middle of summer. And so I'm like, what's happening.

Jason Elkins (01:16:23.621)
And we're yeah, we're yeah, I should mention we're recording this kind of end of January, which is the where they call it. Austral summer. Am I is that a term? OK, it's summer down there, summer in this other Namas here by the this episode will probably be released in April or May. So that's why I wanted to kind of mention that. OK, so back to it's it's cold. It's the summer, but it's been a little bit chilly lately.

David Long (01:16:32.802)
Yeah. I said, it works for me. Yeah. Let's go with it.

Jason Elkins (01:16:53.937)
Chile in Chile.

David Long (01:16:54.146)
Yeah, right. Chile and Chile. Yeah, no, I mean, we do have, you know, the high season for most travelers is they want to come in the summer. So it's kind of December, January, February. And then the shoulder season, I would say, is kind of March, April or October, November. And then the low season would be more from like May to September.

Jason Elkins (01:17:18.631)
So in the winter, what does winter look like there? Because you're working on a year round program. So if someone has a summer break and they think, it's August and maybe we should go to Chile, what would they expect?

David Long (01:17:26.806)
Right. Yes.

David Long (01:17:34.252)
sure. Yeah, they would expect it will be cold, know, like winter anywhere else it will be cold, but beautiful.

Jason Elkins (01:17:40.507)
Okay. Cold, cold like Alaska cold or cold like Houston in the winter cold? What is cold? Okay. okay. All right. And people, people go to Alaska. So, okay. Yeah. Why not?

David Long (01:17:46.796)
Probably, no, probably like Alaska, probably like Alaska. Yeah. And yeah, no, it's beautiful. I mean, there's way less people than there already are less people. So there's no one, which is kind of crazy. And, you know, it's harder to kind of do it on yourself because a lot of places closed down. They are kind of seasonal. So yeah, I think we'll do a lot of

Jason Elkins (01:18:11.955)
Mm-hmm.

David Long (01:18:15.154)
In fact, one of the guys really wants to do some backcountry skiing. So we'll do some backcountry skiing. He's also an ice climber. So we might work in some ice climbing and some of these other winter type activities.

Jason Elkins (01:18:19.986)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (01:18:23.739)
Okay, all right.

Jason Elkins (01:18:29.341)
snowshoeing, maybe ice fishing. Is that your fishing day you go ice fishing? you thought? Okay, all right.

David Long (01:18:32.246)
Yeah, the lake doesn't freeze too much, so, but yeah, and actually there wouldn't be fishing during that time of year because the season's closed.

Jason Elkins (01:18:39.761)
The season's closed, okay. All right, cool. Well, if that's something that somebody's interested in, I don't wanna get too focused on that time of year because I know that majority of our listeners probably would go during the more peak season. I shouldn't make any assumptions, but obviously they can go to your website and they can reach out to you and have those conversations. David.

David Long (01:18:59.022)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (01:19:01.907)
You and I have had several hour long conversations already before we ever hit record. I know that we're going to have more. We could probably keep recording more, but we've covered a lot and I want to be respectful of your time. Tell me what did I forget to ask you? What should I've asked you or what do you want to make sure that we cover for our listeners before we wrap up?

David Long (01:19:25.74)
Yeah, no, I think we hit on the major points, even some points I didn't think we were going to hit on. So this has really, really been great. Thank you so much, Jason.

Jason Elkins (01:19:35.071)
Well, it's been great connecting with you, getting to know you, and I look forward to you had extended an invitation to come down and visit. I will be taking you up on that at some point when we get down there. Maybe we'll do a spin off episode and record one in person, which would be fun. But just really, really appreciate you super excited about what you're doing. I'm going to be honest. I love the fact that your business plan changed from fishing lodge. If you were.

David Long (01:19:42.732)
Yes.

David Long (01:19:50.583)
Yeah, for sure.

Jason Elkins (01:19:59.587)
I have no issues with fishing lodges. And if you were to go back through my list of guests, I have not interviewed a fishing lodge manager, not saying I won't, but I was actually much more excited about speaking with you when we kind of got into that. Like, no, we've got all this other, other cool stuff. It's not about coming down and fishing for six days straight and, you know, getting pictures of big fish. So I appreciate that about you and other fly fishermen that,

is open to those other things as well. anyway, enough on that. David, appreciate you. Look forward to chatting with you soon. Bye bye.

David Long (01:20:28.642)
Thank you.

David Long (01:20:34.232)
Yeah, thank you so much for having me, Jason.