Thomas has run a café in northern Mexico, lived on a Honduran island, guided tour groups throughout Spain and worked for the UN in Santiago. But it was in the mid-nineties that the seeds for Pura Aventura were sown, through a chance meeting with fellow co-founders in Chile's Torres del Paine and his experiences hitchhiking up through Patagonia along the Carretera Austral. So beautiful were the landscapes through which he passed, and so warm was the hospitality he received, that he decided to start a tour operator primarily dedicated to sharing these special places, no matter how unknown they were at the time. ​

​ 20 years on, and many more special places later, Pura Aventura is still dedicated to protecting and benefiting their destinations and partners overseas, enabling clients to experience both the ‘bumpy beauty’ and iconic highlights of Spain, Portugal and Latin America.

Pura Aventura has been recommended by The Independent, Wanderlust and Condé Nast for innovative sustainability initiatives, is trusted by BBC Radio 4, The Financial Times & CNN as a voice for certifiably responsible travel, and praised by Which? for commitment to fair and open customer service during the Covid-19 pandemic. Handpicked as the official European launch partner of Patagonia's Route of Parks, the world’s most ambitious conservation tourism project, in 2020 Pura Aventura became one of the first UK travel companies to achieve B Corp certification. ​

I fell in love with Costa Rica at 21 when I volunteered there at a rescue centre. In amongst playing with spider monkeys and trying (too hard) to make friends with the jaguars, I adopted a small furry daughter with three toes and a very slow gait, and spent my weekends roaming the country by bus to the places still legible in my bedraggled 1980s Lonely Planet guide. I flew to Costa Rica with no knowledge based on one photograph, and it did not disappoint - even 13 years later the amount of colour, the sound and the life crammed into this tiny country still amazes me.

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