WHO WE ARE AND WHY WE LOVE TO TRAVEL

Murielle is Mexican, born in Belgium. After finishing her degree in Roman Letters, she worked as a Spanish teacher in Brussels. Her love for the Hispanic world and culture became her great passion. For many years she combined her exploratory travels in Latin America with journalism and volunteer work, according to her, the ideal way to discover and get to know another country is from the inside.

Since 2005, she has been living and working in her “México lindo y querido” as a travel agent and certified guide. In 2020 he studied a diploma course in “Sustainable Business Creation” and in 2023 he obtained a certificate in Regenerative Tourism. She has designed very diverse itineraries for several agencies in her native country and directly for clients. All her trips are focused on bringing visitors closer to this complex, diverse, and beautiful country that is Mexico so that they return to their place of origin with new knowledge about other ways of living and with the hope that they can contribute to a better intercultural understanding.

From 2020, she followed various Yoga trainings to become certified as a Yoga teacher and to deepen the journey into the inner self.

“For me, traveling is walking a new, unknown path, with a lot of intersections that always lead you back to yourself. The encounter with other cultures raises many questions, and contributes to a better understanding of the world with its different ways of living. Every journey undertaken makes the traveler a more tolerant and open-minded person. Every encounter with nature is an encounter with the essence of life and with your inner peace. Traveling is both forgetting and creating, letting go and giving. To travel is to remove inner and outer impediments”.

Barbara is originally from the Netherlands. During a trip through Central America, she visited the small colorful city of San Cristobal de Las Casas in the mountainous area of Chiapas, Mexico, where she immediately felt at home. After completing her studies in Cultural Anthropology and International Development, she returned to Mexico and worked for twelve years in a human rights organization, where she hosted people from thirty countries who worked voluntarily in local communities. Connecting people from different worlds is her passion. Through visits to local communities, she learned countless stories, mostly of hope, culture, pride, solidarity, strength, and dignity. Staying in the communities has shown her what hospitality and family mean to the Mexican people. At Malinali Travel, she is in charge of marketing and communication, and sales. 

In 2020 she studied “Strategic Marketing of Sustainable Tourism Destinations” at the Research Center for Sustainable Development (CIDES). She also accompanies groups as a guide. 

“For me, traveling means getting to know other ways of living, feeling alive and free, and filling myself with energy. Letting myself get caught by sounds, colors, people, aromatic smells, and enjoying really living in the moment. I marvel at the beauty of nature. I enjoy the beautiful sights so much that sometimes they overwhelm me, and I don’t even know where to look because I want to see everything at once. Traveling is an opportunity to get to know other cultures and to open your mind; the world is so big and diverse, traveling gives us the opportunity to open our horizons”.

Addy is Mexican, Chiapaneca, and proud of her roots. She is indigenous Mayan Chol. She has worked with women of her ethnic group since she was very young to raise awareness about their rights. For fifteen years, she was part of a non-governmental organization that fights for the transformation of gender, class, and ethnic inequalities, which allowed her to grow professionally. During that time, she was responsible for the administrative area.

Since 2016, she has been working at Malinali Travel doing various tasks, such as reservations, trip tracking, payments, invoices, and contact with suppliers, among other activities.

“For me, traveling is to recharge my energy but also to fill my soul, to find myself, and to grow. It fills me with positive things, and I disconnect from my daily routine. Traveling is one of life’s pleasures; you learn many things, such as cultures and histories, you know places, and people, you live with nature, and you learn to be more patient. The negative things you encounter help you to generate awareness that nothing is eternal. Traveling helps you to value life and it shows you that you have to enjoy it to the fullest because there is only one!”

He was born in Mexico City and a biologist by profession, but a traveler at heart. After more than 10 years of working experience in social projects in Chiapas related to access to drinking water, he began his journey into the world of travel in 2024. He combines this with his broad interests in working with a drone, taking photos, filming and 360-degree movies.

At Malinali Travel, Ramón works as a tourleader/driver and contributes to the travel agency’s marketing and social media.

“For me, traveling is addictive. Wherever you go, you always come home enriched with an extra dose of experience and knowledge. When you travel, you can forget everything for a moment. You just LIVE in the present and enjoy the journey: it makes you much happier! I also like to see a lot of nature and animals on my travels – after all, I’m not a biologist for nothing.”