New Video – Niono and the Entourage

By Steven Shoppman in Niono, Mali

August 2, 2010 – 5:00 pm
 Village Entourage [3:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (534)

Just after editing this video, I found out that I had malaria. Since many strains of malaria, including the one that I contracted come on somewhat slow, you just start to feel more and more weird and look worse and worse over time. I realize now that I never actually wrote anything to go along with this video and that it is one of the poorest quality videos we have on the website. Since malaria attacks your brain and nervous system amongst other things, you have a really spacey feeling and sometimes cannot even compose sentences well. I would guess this is one of the reasons why the interviews I filmed had the wrong mic setup and were out of focus even though I have setup cameras like this hundreds of times before.

Later when we were visiting one of our friends in Pointe Noire, Congo (Where I got Malaria and edited this video), he had also gotten malaria. He speaks french natively, but also speaks nearly perfect English. However, the day we were talking with him, he could hardly form a sentence in English because of the Malaria messing with his brain. It is a crazy disease.

The video was actually shot in the village of Niono on the way to Timbuktu. Steve Bouey wrote a blog about this village with a bunch of photos as well. You can read it here: Everyone should have an Entourage. While Malaria is horrible, Africa still has some incredible things to outweigh its wrath, like these kids we were able to hang out with for a few days. The simple life of an African village…enjoy!

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By Steven Shoppman | Posted in Africa, Countries, Mali, New Videos | Tagged , , , | Comments Off

New Video – Diving the cold waters of Ushuaia!

By Steven Shoppman in Ushuaia, Argentina

August 1, 2010 – 4:53 pm

It seems that in the midst of the last year this video slipped through and never made it online for all of you to see. Lately I have been working to get all of our video organized for a new project in the works. So stay tuned, we will be posting more often in the coming weeks and keep it coming again. We are finally back on our feet! It has only taken a year since we returned to be able to begin focusing on the website and TWBR again. I guess that is only expected after an expedition like ours.

So please enjoy this video, we filmed it in Ushuaia, Argentina and watching this video certainly makes me wish that I was still adventuring everyday. For this particular video we had the incredible opportunity to dive with Ushuaia Divers in the 4 degree waters of the bay full of seals, sea lions, giant crabs and more. It was quite the adventure. So enjoy and get ready for more content soon, including more travel guides, stories and videos!

By Steven Shoppman | Posted in Action Sports, Argentina, Countries, New Videos, South America, adventure | Comments (0)

Hang In There Old Friend

By Steve Bouey in

March 9, 2010 – 4:31 pm

Toyota has been in the headlines a lot lately and you would have to have your head stuck in hole not to know that the attention Toyota has been getting as of late has been bad. It all stems around the recalls of several of Toyota’s popular models due in part because of potentialproblems with accelerators becoming stuck while the vehicle is moving. These perceived problems have triggered one of the largest recalls in consumer product history at nearly 8.5 million vehicles and caused Toyota to halt production on these models until the problem was identified and a solution put in place. It isn’t really the size of the recall involving Toyota that has got me a little bent out of shape recently, it is the hostility that is being directed towards this company, not by consumers, but by the United States government and the mainstream press.

Recalls are nothing new, in fact there is a major recall going on at Ford right now and let’s be honest, Ford has established some notariety for itself in the recall world; remember the Ford Explorders of the late 1990′s, so why all of this fuss about Toyota and why have they been chosen to be raked over the coals?  None of the headlines have focused on Ford current recall or the crappy cars they continuously seem to make.  True the Toyota recall is large, but Toyota accounts for a much larger percentage of vehicles on the road so it is just proportionate. I have my own conspiracy theory here; US economy fails, US government bails out US auto manufacturers, Toyota is main competition for US auto manufacturers, chance to take town Toyota, etc., but I won’t go there just yet. 

I finally find one media article by Michael Fumento in the Los Angeles Times that takes a view more closely aligned with me on this and it is worth a read as it states part of my point from a less emotionally charged and more eloquent point of view that I can at the moment.

Toyota Hysteria

Bottom line, Toyota builds bomb proof and reliable cars and trucks. They always have, and they always will. In many ways I feel I owe my life to Toyota as these trucks got us out of some jams. Mistakes happen and Toyota has taken measures to correct those mistakes just like every other auto manufacturer has since the automobile was invented.   So why the Congressional hearings and the criminal investigations? Why the billions of dollars in class action lawsuits coming out of the wood works? I know Toyota will rise above this but I definitely feel like this thing is a bit of a witch hunt and Toyota is being painted as a scapegoat for other problems facing this country… but hey, that’s the American way… find someone else to blame for your problems and sue them! So excuse me if I don’t take it a bit personal.

By Steve Bouey | Posted in Interesting, Trucks, World News | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (3)

Thank you everyone for voting!

By Steven Shoppman in

February 4, 2010 – 3:25 pm

The voting ended for the Reader’s Choice Adventurer of the Year Award.  Thanks to everyone for taking the time to vote for us.  Unfortunately we did not win, however, since the issue that featured us as Adventurers of the Year was the last issue of National Geographic Adventure in print, the prize of being featured in a future issue is no longer to be awarded.

It was truly an honor to be featured in the magazine as one of the Adventurers of the Year and I suppose it is also pretty cool that we can say we were in the final issue as well.  So all is not lost.

It has been great to have all of you follow us for the last two years and beyond the Nat Geo article we have also been recently featured in a few local papers as well, including a front page feature in the Fort Collins Coloradoan.  They followed up with a more in depth article later in the week in their Explorer section.

Most recently, today there is an article in the Loveland Reporter Herald.

When we were up for the NGA award, I put together this page with some of our highlighted stories from the expedition.  It is a nice walk down memory lane and for those of you who are new to the site and expedition, it is a great way to see some of our favorite highlights.

Unfortunately, both Bouey and I have had to buckle down and get some real jobs since we returned, so the book and documentary are coming a little slower than we had hoped, but we are working away and hoping to have the book ready in the near future.  Make sure to sign up for our updates with the signup to the right so you will know when they are available.

Also, we have been doing many more speaking engagements lately and getting a great response.  Very soon we will have a page up on the site outlining our presentation options and until then please feel free to contact us for more information about bookings.

Thanks again for all of your continued support!!

By Steven Shoppman | Posted in Expedition Media/Info, Updates | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Some people are really doing some good stuff.

By Steven Shoppman in United States

December 21, 2009 – 3:13 pm

With all the organizations and people we met and talked with around the world, often it felt like people were just wasting time and money with silly ideas for aid.  Often these ideas provide little to no real lasting help to people in the world in need.  This story is genius.  Using technology, design and innovation to improve people’s situation is truly the best way to go about helping the world, and these guys are giving people just what they need as a tool toward a better life.  Not only that, Bamboo grows quickly and inexpensively, so Bamboo Bikes are nothing short of genius. Check out this video and when you are done watching it you can visit their website to learn more about this cool project: http://www.bamboobike.org/Home.html.

By Steven Shoppman | Posted in Africa, Interesting, USA, World News | Tagged , , , | Comments (1)