From Oaxaca to Africa
How El Camino Inspired Lifelong Traveler, Kirstin, to Leap into the Travel Industry
By Katherine Harrison, El Camino Travel contributor
As an avid traveler, Kirstin Benish discovered El Camino back in 2018 and was immediately drawn to the company’s unique approach to small group travel. She quickly gathered that, rather than hitting the tourist hotspots, El Camino plans trips full of authentic experiences from the people who know their destination best—the locals. She identified with this commitment to slow, sustainable travel and realized that their trips were exactly the types of trips that she, as a solo traveler, would want to go on. “I was amazed with what they were doing—it changed the group travel dynamic for me,” Kirstin recalls.
As Kirstin was first getting familiar with El Camino, she was working at a specialty coffee importer in Minneapolis. The company’s focus on collaborating with local farmers and selling coffee at premium prices resonated with her nonprofit background, and she saw a future it the work. However, as a result of the pandemic, she was let go from her job in April of 2020. “When I lost my job, I started attending a lot of the events in the El Camino Clubhouse. Hearing people speak about their passions gave me that boost of inspiration during the pandemic that I typically get while traveling, and it got me out of my rut. Around that time, I knew I wanted to go on an El Camino trip…it was just a matter of when.”
Kirstin moved from Minneapolis to San Diego and started working at a skincare company and teaching yoga at the same time. While she knew she wanted to make a career shift, she didn’t know exactly how yet. “I knew travel was always going to be something I’m passionate about and something I wanted to be involved in, but I didn’t know what it looked like for someone with no experience in it and no connections to get involved.”
Inspired by the Clubhouse community, Kirstin signed up for the Bolivia trip in 2021, but due to Bolivia’s extended 10-day quarantine requirement, El Camino had to postpone the trip. Undeterred, Kirstin saw that the first El Camino Oaxaca trip was taking place later that year, in October, and thought—sign me up! “I decided to shift and do the very first Oaxaca trip, and it was everything I hoped it would be.”
Having been to the more touristy sides of Mexico, Kirstin was excited to visit the more off-the-beaten-path city of Oaxaca for the first time.
“I didn’t know of many people traveling to Oaxaca at the time, so I was really interested in going. I love all things artistry and food, so it was a perfect destination and the timing just worked out,” remembers Kirstin.
Leading up to the trip, Kirstin continued to have thoughts about getting into the travel industry. It just so happened that her redirection to the Oaxaca trip was a perfect twist of fate as it turned out that there were several travel professionals in her small cohort. Inspired by conversations with her group, Kirstin felt comfortable sharing her dream.
“This trip was the first time I put the idea out into the world—I love travel; I want to work in travel,” explains Kirstin. “It was a full moment of realizing that, although I don’t know how to make this a career yet, this is what I want to be doing.”
With this realization, she knew she was in the right space.
“The fact that I was supposed to be in Bolivia AND I was surrounded by people in the travel industry…lightbulbs!” raves Kirstin. “The El Camino Founder and CEO, Katalina Mayorga, was also on my trip, and it was from conversations with her and other travel experts that I knew I was with the people I wanted to be with.”
One particular piece of advice from these conversations resonated with Kirstin: “You don’t need to know exactly how you will make travel a career yet. You don’t need to have all the answers right now. You just need to continue moving forward—talking to people and putting your dream out there.”
These deep conversations took place alongside El Camino’s signature immersive experiences. A highlight for Kirstin was seeing the process for making red clay ceramics. “They were piling wood onto a giant file with all the ceramics underneath,” recalls Kirstin. “It was great to see people doing it in a traditional way—the way they were taught for generations. They are not shifting their process for ease.”
Kirstin also loved meeting a family of fifth-generation mezcal distillers. “I loved their connection to family, the appreciation for the natural world, and their sense of gratitude,” Kirstin admires. “To think of mezcal, a liquor, in that way—a gift to the natural world—it is different than the way a lot of people think of it.”
These meaningful experiences gave Kirstin a new perspective. “The trip gave me a sense of clarity,” explains Kirstin. “When you are around people who are continuously doing what they are passionate about, it is contagious. You feel inspired by those people to begin following your own path a little more.”
As the trip was coming to an end, another important connection was made. “I did Peace Corps in Botswana, and I also studied abroad a couple times studying African studies. I had this underlying dream of starting a travel company in Southern Africa,” recalls Kirstin. “Someone from my group mentioned that one of her travel mentors is half-Botswanan, working for a travel company out of New York, and overseeing all the African consultants. She offered to connect me with him to chat about the industry.”
Thrilled by this opportunity, Kirstin returned home from her Oaxaca trip. “Immediately after the trip, I knew I was on my way out of my current job because it wasn’t fulfilling anymore,” recalls Kirstin. “I continued going to El Camino Clubhouse events and digging in a little more.” Once Kirstin received the travel professional’s contact information, she was ready to take action, and things moved quickly from there.
“A week after being connected, I was on a call with him, and we chatted for an hour,” Kirstin shares. “One of his good friends and former co-workers lives in San Diego, where I live, and he said she might be hiring. Her main business was Africa, which was ideally the space I wanted to be in.”
Soon after this conversation, Kirstin met with her soon-to-be-boss in San Diego, having finally broke into the travel industry. “She is the owner of a luxury design company, called Tribù Travel, where I work now,” explains Kirstin. “We work as an agency, designing trips for clients. Our specialty is Africa, and we work with a lot of suppliers out of South and East Africa mainly.”
Working on the marketing and operations side, Kirstin gets to collaborate closely with suppliers and communicate directly with the people on the ground, which she enjoys. “This role is how I got my foot in the door, and it is everything that I could have asked for and more,” she confirms.
Discovering El Camino, attending Clubhouse events, and going on the Oaxaca trip proved transformative for Kirstin, helping her take a leap of faith into the travel industry, and ultimately finding her place at Tribù Travel. “The travel industry is funky—it’s really hard to jump into blind,” she shares. “I was really lucky to have multiple mentors to get here.”
