True Stories.
Real Adventures.
ASSIGNMENT
Share the Story of a Place.
What We do
All trips should leave us new, but some make us more whole, too, deepening our perspective & appreciation for the world around us, and bringing us closer to ourselves in the process.
These are the kinds of experiences we strive to impart at Gift of Go. Each year, we guide a small handful of ambitious, vivacious travelers on journeys into some of the most compelling Places on earth, in order to experience life in a way that few realize is possible.
Our trips are deeply immersive, profoundly educational, and relentlessly challenging. They’re also unique—not only in terms of their settings & itineraries, but in the quality of their story-telling.
We’ve dedicated our lives to exploring & understanding these incredible, unsung Places. It’s a privilege to be able to share their Stories, and to be part of your journey.
- Eddie & Elisa
We’re Storytellers
And experiences are our medium. If it feels like you just stepped into a documentary (or better yet, an epic), we’re doing it right.
We’re Guides
Tasked with leading you deep into the Story of a Place, and bringing you back out again, safely & enriched. It’s a privilege to be a part of your Story, too.
We’re Stewards
Of the Places we go, and keepers of the Stories we tell; as dedicated to the well-being & faithful portrayal of the communities we visit as we are to the incredible journey of the travelers who come with us.
We’re Explorers
Which is a job that never ends. We’ll never know everything about the Places we go, but it’s the promise—and process—of discovery that keeps us coming back.
We’re Trail Blazers
But we didn’t set out to revolutionize an industry. We simply followed our calling to dive deeply into the human experience on this planet, and believed that others might want to travel this way, too.
We’re Escape Artists
And we reject the notion that truly compelling experiences can be designed en masse via the same formula as holiday package tours.
Cast & Crew
Your Guides.
eddie lott
explorer / guide / Experience director
A natural-born trail blazer with the indomitable curiosity of a 19th-century naturalist and an insatiable desire to experience life to the fullest, Eddie worked & traveled his way across 40 countries on 4 continents by the time he celebrated his 21st birthday (in the mystical beach town of Pipa, Brazil) and hasn’t slowed down much since, exploring more ways of life, in more places, than many families do across generations.
His passion for sharing the lessons he’s learned along the way has led to prolific careers in social entrepreneurship, for which he has received numerous awards; and the arts, where he is a published songwriter, recording artist, photographer, and translator. He has been featured as an entrepreneur on NBC & the Discovery+ networks, lectured on social-entrepreneurialism & sustainability on two continents, and can (still! somehow) be found crooning on Spotify, but his proudest accomplishments have always come as a traveler, a student, and a dad.
The reluctant beneficiary of a rigorous Jesuit education, and a lifelong student of the humanities & social sciences, he is fluent in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, holds a bachelor’s in Political Science from the University of Texas at Dallas, and is a proud alumni of the Boulder Outdoor School of Survival (BOSS).
When not bushwhacking or storytelling on behalf of Gift of Go, he restores elusive Brazilian Land Cruisers for adventurous drivers around the globe, plays pick-up basketball with the locals, and cooks up big meals with Elisa and his cubs, Luca & Kako, at their basecamp in the high Brazilian savanna.
His latest personal project, a photo journal chronicling his time in the Espinhaço, called The View Strikes at Once, is set to release in 2024. You can follow his adventures (& see pics of his epic cubs) here.
elisa oliveira
researcher / guide / Experience producer
Just four short years ago, Elisa was living in a trendy neighborhood in a bustling metropolis, hitting the gym (& sushi parlor!) daily, and working 9-5 as a Partner at the up-&-coming agency she’d founded shortly after graduating from architectural school.
The daughter of a western physician and a holistic therapist, she’d always been curious about life beyond the confines of society, but her talents for communication, organization, and project management had rendered her transition from academia to career a natural, if uninspiring, one.
A fateful trip to Brazil’s Serra do Espinhaço in 2019 changed all of that, and within months she found herself hiking across the Texas desert and allowing herself to dream about things like medical school, live-aboard sailboats, and life on the road in western Africa.
Since then, she has lived in frigid warehouses & sweltering guesthouses; worked with power tools, drones, and audio/visual equipment; fallen deeply in love with Mexico; raised a pair of prickly pre-teens; spent 200+ days on the trail; and begun to see both herself & the world around her with new eyes.
On the rare occasion that she isn’t parenting or off-roading, map-making, or spreadsheet-whispering on behalf of Gift of Go, she can be found experimenting in the kitchen, digging into a good book, or studying the origins of the universe.
A licensed architect and certified Wilderness First Aid practitioner, she holds a bachelor’s degree in Architecture & Urbanism from Fundação Mineiro de Educação Cultura (FUMEC), and is fluent in English & Portuguese.
You can follow her journey (& witness her transformation) here.
Why We do this