Maggie Woo and Bryan Kinshella are both born and raised in beautiful British Colombia, Canada. We currently reside in Ladner, just south of Vancouver, where we try to get our kayaks wet in the Fraser River Delta as much as possible.
Bryan and I have a passion for travelling and exploring. We first met in the winter of 2005 when a group of our friends went snowboarding up at Seymour Mountain. Bryan led me to a cliff and I promptly jumped down. Apparently, it was love at first jump. On our first Valentines together, we bungee jumped naked for charity and more recently, we tied the knot with a skydiving wedding on July 27, 2013 (click here to see our wedding website).
Since that first jump down the snowy cliff, we have trekked in the Himalayas to Everest Base Camp in Nepal, summited the tallest mountain in Africa at Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, cage dived with great white sharks and scuba dived with dozens of sand tiger sharks during breeding season without a cage in South Africa.
We have scuba dived the ruins of Cleopatra’s Palace and had an underwater dance party on the fallen remains of the Great Pharos of Alexandria, the lighthouse named one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. We have explored the tree covered temples at Ankor Wat in Cambodia, pyramids tucked into the lush bird filled jungle in Tikal, Guatemala, camped out with Bedouin in the desert by Petra, Jordan and followed the footsteps of Incans in Machu Picchu, Peru.
We have backpacked across Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Europe, which was a lot of fun. However, now, our sense of adventure is motivating us for more novel means of travel…
Most recently, we have just returned from our honeymoon cycling trip from Vancouver, Canada all the way down to Buenos Aires, Argentina. This cycling trip took us 19 months, cycling over 16,200km on our bikes. We cycled by active volcanoes, through jungle and vast farms, up and down through the majestic Andes Mountains and across the surreal Altiplano high plateau with huge white salt flats, flamingos and llamas.
Our home was our tent and our whole lives fit into four saddlebags that we had on our bikes. We cycled out of our driveway in Ladner, BC on September 3, 2013 and returned home on April 5, 2015, travelling all the way to the southern end of the Americas and back again without using a single plane.
(Read more about our cycling journey here)
The cycling journey from Vancouver to Argentina is a continuation of our amazing kayaking journey from Vancouver north to Alaska. In the summer of 2010, we paddled about 1,300km up British Colombia’s beautiful coastline through the Inside Passage to Ketchikan, Alaska. We kayaked with majestic humpback and orca whales, fished for our dinners and watched eagles soar overhead.
(See more about the paddling journey by clicking here)
With the combination of our paddling and cycling journeys, we have travelled from Alaska to Argentina using our own power without an engine.
I, Maggie, am medical anthropologist, which sounds complicated but just means that I consult for community health projects specializing in global health. I love the outdoors and when I’m not travelling, I enjoy cooking up feasts, doing yoga and reading.
Bryan is an electrician and his interests include alternate sources of power, such as solar and wind. Bryan loves snowboarding, snowshoeing, hiking, camping and of-course, kayaking whenever possible.
When we arrived back in Canada after the 19 month cycling journey through the Americas, we realized that we had an unprecedented opportunity: a free summer in British Colombia! For Vancouver, the rest of the year is grey and drizzly with occasional escapes to frolic in the white snowy mountains. The summer however is the glorious season of sunshine that Vancouverites live for. We both enjoy our work but decided it could wait just a little longer. It was time to spend some time with kayaks, which we joke are our first children, and explore around amazing Vancouver Island!
Vancouver Island by Kayak 