By Sandy McKay / Special to Sound Publishing

During her lifetime, Indianola resident Pam Perry has traveled extensively to interesting, exciting and exotic locations around the world. Her parents, Linc and Fredi Perry, were “big travelers”, as she puts it.

“They always inspired me with the with stories of places they had been,” she said. “They would also ask us — my brother Ken, my sister Andi and me — what we wanted from their travel destinations, their ports-of-call.”

Pam and her siblings were always motivated to by their parents’ stories to learn about where they traveled.

“It forced us to a lot of research to learn about those countries and what they produced that we might want,” Perry remarked.

She has had a travel visa from the age of 12. As a family they went to Mexico, Japan, Hong Kong, and to Hawaii three times.

“I have always had wanderlust,” she said.

“We had a great family unit with weekly family meetings, organized by my dad, to keep up to date with everything that was happening to each of us,” Perry said. “I always  felt loved and supported by my parents and siblings, and that continues to this day.”

She had an extended family, as well.

In her early childhood she was “adopted” by close friends of the family, Paula and Hal Hubbell.

“Paula didn’t have any daughters, and her silliness made me laugh. And somehow I made her laugh,” she said. “We just really connected. I went to see them several times at their home in Santa Cruz, California, and they came up here for class reunions. Paula and I were pen pals in those days and we often sent involved letters to each other. Paula’s love for travel also inspired me. In fact, on my first solo trip that I took immediately after college, I planned it to begin in Costa Rica because I knew she would be there.”

Perry worked from 1994 to 2008 in public relations for Parsons, a  local ecological company that specializes in home, garden and green building, and for the EcoTeach Foundation, a Kitsap-based organization whose purpose is to save the Leatherneck sea turtles of Costa Rica. It also offers tours to that country.

She helped EcoTeach set up five tours and as a result part of her payment was a trip to Costa Rica with her then-business associate. While they were there on that eco-tour she learned about the plight of the turtles. Their numbers had declined 85 percent in the past 20 years, she said, mostly due to fishing practices and poaching.

On that trip, they discovered that in order to build an education center it would be necessary to raise $50,000. At the center, locals could learn about the many threats to the turtles, and the Costa Rican students sent to the United States could learn to spread the all-important ecological message of a threatened species.

That dollar amount seemed small to her, and it was rapidly decided that the goal was easily achievable. They came back to the U.S. and raised $60,000 by holding two separate auctions. The money was not only to build the center, but also to fund conservation efforts at Estacian Las Tortugas, a sea turtle conservation center located on the Caribbean coast of that country.

“Our funds were tremendously useful to the center,” Perry said, “and since that time poaching was reduced from nearly 100 percent to around 10 percent, a remarkable achievement.”

She is still involved with fund raising for the foundation as a board member. She also leads tours to the South American country during the Leatherback turtle nesting season to help raise awareness of the serious decimation of the reptiles, and helped to raise additional funds to help support conservation efforts.

Next year’s tour will take place from May 30 to June 11. Cost is $2,495. Of that money, $500 goes directly to support the efforts of EcoTeach. More information about this can be found by logging on to www.groups.ecoteach.com/foundation.

When working for Parsons, Pam Perry became unhappy with her job. She had always dreamed of world travels and so, after giving a year’s notice, on Sept. 14, 2008, she departed — alone — on a flight to Nepal. She had always wanted to trek in the Himalayas, her primary reason for starting her trip there.

She later volunteered with an organization — ANSWER Nepal — that finds American sponsors for Nepali children in order to pay for their private school education.

Also, in Nepal, she met a woman from The Netherlands. They decided to travel together for a while. The “while” turned out to be for five months, and their acquaintance resulted in a lifelong friendship.

After that, Perry toured India.

“I was just drawn to the colors, flavors, history and the people,” she said. “It was a remarkable experience. I’ve returned there several times.”

Southeast Asia came next.

She started in Thailand, proceeded to Laos, then Cambodia where she did more volunteer work. She spent the last week of the trip in Saigon with a friend, enjoying the delectable food of Vietnam.

Perry also visited Poland — the land of her ancestors — with her mother whom she met there.

“That was a wonderful experience,” Perry said. I visited the grave sight of my great-grandfather with my second cousin and just felt connected to the world, and especially my history in a way I never had before. It was remarkable.”

She stopped briefly in Holland to meet her Dutch friend, then spent the final three months of her trip in Guatemala. She lived with a family there and studied Spanish with a private teacher for four hours every day.

“It had been a dream of mine for years and finally I had time to do it,” she said.

During the last month of her trip she also spent time at a meditation retreat at Lake Atitlan in Guatemala.

“It gave me the chance to ‘be still’ and focus on my new life when I returned home,” she said. “I’d had so many experiences, knew that I had changed, but hadn’t been able to consciously incorporate the changes, or to think what my new life would look like.”

She wrote a mission statement which read:: “To connect people with experiences that crash open their souls for the purpose of making change.” When she returned to the U.S. in August 2009 it was her goal to make that happen.

While she had been traveling, the U.S. economy had tanked. The first bank crashed one day after she left the States, her dog Sadie had died, and her bank account was virtually empty. Upon her return, a new life was before her, but she had no idea how that would look.

That changed in a hurry.

Shortly after she got back to Washington she received a phone call from a man whom she had met in June 2008 in Seattle — before her big trip. He had previously contacted her when she was in Nepal and southern India. He asked her if she would be interested in running a United States-based company called Grand Asian Journeys that would create, market and sell trips to Asia.

Her answer was an immediate and resounding “yes.”

The job description included selling the trips on the company’s Web site in Nepal, Bhutan and India, plus customized trips to visit these places and southeast Asia.

“About 90 percent of my job is working with clients to make sure they are getting the experience they’re hoping for,” Perry said. “The other 10 percent of the time I travel, including leading tours, as well as scouting new locations.”

This fall she is leading a tour to south India, featuring its cuisine and culture. After that she will do a scouting trip to Sri Lanka. Next year she plans to lead a 13-day trip to Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.

When she “comes in for a landing” Perry enjoys the domestic scene with Keith, her significant other whom she met on a camping trip at the Fairholm campground at Crescent Lake in 2010, and their dog, Willow, a golden retriever.

She enjoys getting out into nature and thinks the Olympia National Park is one of the most beautiful places in the world to hike, mountain bike, and go kayaking.

She is also an avid cook, and enjoys spending time in the kitchen learning new recipes and new cuisines. And she enjoys playing creative word games with her six nieces and nephews.

Her religious beliefs, she said, are simple.

“I believe in the Universe,” she said. “I believe that if you are a good person you will enjoy love, support and community.”

She also has strong political opinions.

“I believe in government’s providing for the people,” she remarked. “And I am willing to pay more taxes for more services like health care, education, infrastructure, et cetera. I guess that makes me liberal.”

And her philosophy of life?

“Life is short. Have fun. Take care of your personal temple — your body. Love people. Laugh often. Ask questions. Listen. Don’t judge others, as you never know what is going on in their lives. Don’t engage with people who bring stress or unnecessary drama to your life.”

She said spend your time with “people who nourish your soul. Learn. Read. And smile at strangers.”