Bad@ss Travelers - The Travelin' Chicks

Helloooo Viva My Yoginis ~ adventurers ~ explorers everywhere!

I want to welcome you to Bad@ss Travelers, a new Viva My Yoga offering that will introduce you to bad@ss travelers that I've met along my adventuring way.

These are people who have inspired many, who live the life they love, who dare to adventure and be bold, who take the reins of their own beings and manifest their own dreams & realities.

They're travelers who live life to the fullest, through its ups and downs. They're bad@ss people who make venturing into the unknown happen regularly. They also give back along the way.

Let this inspire you. Living the life you love is not for just some of us, it's for all of us. 

The Osborn sisters rockin the Salt Flats in Bolivia

So without further adieu, it is my pleasure to introduce you to Chelsea & Kinsey of 
The Travelin' Chicks!

I met Chelsea back in 2009 when I was living in a hostel in Buenos Aires. She came looking for a place to stay and it was an instant connection, one to last a lifetime! She was filming for her travel video series and hilarity ensued as we romped around local markets, danced alongside Uruguayan drummers, and went to a ridiculously wild Couchsurfing party or two. Oh, and not to mention the empanadas; we must've tried every empanada variety made in all of San Telmo. Yummm.

Chelsea and Kinsey live life to the fullest playing and working in Massachusetts, that is when they're not off spending New Years in Brazil or making promotional videos for orphanages in Cambodia. 

Check out their Bad@ss Traveler interview here:

What does the word travel entail to you?

Travel means freedom to us, the freedom to go where you please at the drop of a hat, the freedom to explore every crack and crevasse of a new place and most of all the freedom to discover new sides of yourself.  It lifts the soul to new heights!  

How have you created your life around your travel & your travel around your life (and made it sustainable)?

Travel consumed us when we first got a taste in college.  Independently we traveled and studied abroad.  Once we came home we knew we had to keep rockin’ and rollin’.  That was when we created our travel website and focused on teaching ourselves new skills, video production and website management, to do all while traveling.  We have been banging out content ever since!  It has become our work, our play and our life!

What’s one travel memory that had a truly lasting affect, a total life changing or ah-ha moment?

This might sound morbid but it was an accident we were in while in Luang Prabang, Laos.  It was a total wrong place, wrong time scenario.  Our tuk tuk hit a telephone pole going about 40 mph and we both got seriously hurt.  So hurt that we were home within 48 hours of the accident.  Bummer, yes, but we wouldn’t take it back for anything.  To first realize your own mortality is a huge life and attitude-changing event.  Couple this with having it all go down in a third world country and you have two extremely thankful and grateful travelers.  The driver got hurt the most.  His only access to health care was the hospital they took us to after the accident.  It looked like it was straight from a horror film!  Not only that but he no longer had his tuk tuk, which is his income and how he supports his family.  We got to go home and recover at ease but this man lost his way of life with a family to support.  Who really suffered from this accident?  Us?  Not so much.

What’s one thing that you love to do in any new place?

Put the map down and get lost. Oh, and buy magnet! 

What was a travel situation you found very trying & how did you pull through it?

Working at S.H.C.C.  We were making a promotional video for Self Help Community Centre outside of Siem Reap, Cambodia.  We lived in this village for 10 days shooting with the founder, Sambath Chourn.  It was difficult hiding our surprise at the conditions in the village and learning all the while that this is the reality for 90% of Cambodians.  We pulled through by letting it out at night in our room, rehashing the day and what we learned released tears and anger like the mighty Iguaçu Falls over us.  We pulled it together during the day and kept our eye on the prize; a promotional video that would help Sambath get funding for his school. You can check out the school and the video here.  It’s a great cause if you can donate too! http://www.shcccambodia.org/

These girls are *magical*!

How do you feel you inspire others?

Because we hustle for what we have and do.  People always tell us we are lucky, but it has nothing to do with luck and everything to do with hard work.  If you want it, go and get it! We do!

What’s something that inspires you to keep exploring?

The friendships you make along the way.  Someone you know for three days can and will be an ever lasting friend!

What’s one piece of advice you would give to someone who feels stuck in their current life or afraid to take that first step?

It is never as difficult as you think it is going to be and your mistakes are what you learn the most from.  Making changes is not easy; it can be like going against the current at times.  But if you stick with it you will learn that the tides can and will change and once they are in your favor you will never regret doing what you love.

Chelsea & Jess @ a Couchsurfing Fiesta in Buenos Aires

*A question from The Travelin' Chicks for all you Viva My Yoginis out there!*

How much do you think about your impact as a traveler on a people and the country you are visiting?  Travelers can keep to themselves quite often and portray a certain stereotype while on the road.  How do you avoid this?

Follow them at: thetravelinchicks.com. 

Like their FB page at: travelin chicks 

Tweet them!: travelinchicks