Galapatours: About Us

Cynthia Guerra

Galapagos Specialist

Born and raised in Ecuador, Cynthia has a deep connection to her homeland and its magical islands. With seven years in the tourism industry, she’s passionate about sharing the beauty of Ecuador and ensuring each traveler has the trip of a lifetime. She understands that a journey to the Galápagos is more than just a vacation—it’s an unforgettable experience. Now part of the Galapatours Team, Cynthia is excited to help you craft your dream adventure. She’s here to offer personalized travel guidance and make sure your journey is truly extraordinary.

Hitomi Kamimura

Galapagos Specialist

Born and raised in Ecuador. As a daughter of a Japanese and Colombian, growing up in two completely different cultures caused her an enormous curiosity to explore the world. Passionate for tourism and with a vocation for service, Hitomi has been helping travelers to plan the best trip to the Galapagos Islands for over nine years. In her spare time, she loves being outdoors taking pictures of landscapes, visiting local cafes and learning new languages.

Justine Loisy

Galapagos Specialist

Justine, has been living in Ecuador for several years and continues to be amazed by the country as if it were her first day. After many trips to the Galápagos as an interpreter, she knows incredible places that she loves sharing with travelers. She looks forward to helping you discover this unique destination through unforgettable cruises.Justine, has been living in Ecuador for several years and continues to be amazed by the country as if it were her first day. After many trips to the Galápagos as an interpreter, she knows incredible places that she loves sharing with travelers. She looks forward to helping you discover this unique destination through unforgettable cruises.

Alec Krishna

Director and Founder Karmaventura

Travel has always been more than a passion. After living nomadically for over seven years across the globe, I fell in love with South Asia and founded Karmaventura to share my passion for the region, my family heritage, and the sustainable projects that travel can support. Living across diverse cultures taught me the value of authentic encounters and responsible travel. My last name, Krishna, shared with one of Hinduism’s most well-known gods, reflects the cultural roots that inspire me to create journeys that go beyond tourism and connect people, cultures, and values.

Andre Kiwitz

CEO & Founder

Andre started his journey in 2001 after realizing that organized travel often lacks depth and real connection. He founded Ventura to scale authentic, specialist travel experiences by reducing complexity and prioritizing strong local partnerships over industry-standard solutions. He leads the company with a clear focus on speed and ownership and expects his teams to take full responsibility for quality and execution. Outside of work, he prioritizes freedom, fitness, and destinations with character over comfort.

Benno Schmidt

Founder of Galapatours, Polartours and Rivertours

Benno is a true travel enthusiast known for his remote work lifestyle. He has journeyed across the globe and speaks five languages. Benno discovered the Galápagos in 2014 and instantly fell in love with small ship expedition cruising. Since then, he has founded Galapatours, Polartours, and DiveIndonesia. In his free time, Benno is an avid diver and paraglider.

Cristina Presura

My Ventura

Cristina leads Epic Trips, Ventura Travel’s AI-powered travel brand, redefining personalized travel. With a background in business development, partnerships, and strategy, she brings a global perspective and loves reimagining how travellers explore the world. Cristina has lived in Austria, Portugal, Germany, Kenya, South Africa, and Spain, speaks four languages, and loves discovering new destinations through their food, local culture, nature, and yoga.

Erick Feijoo

Integrator, Head of Business Operations

Erick works from our Berlin office as Integrator and oversees our company's business operations. From a very early age, he's been fascinated by new languages and cultures, and he especially enjoys getting to know countries' politics and history. Erick's family is from Ecuador and Peru, and he previously worked on economic development issues across different Latin American countries. He joined Ventura TRAVEL after working in Washington D.C., Germany, Belgium, and Costa Rica.

Hanna Bishop

Retention Specialist

Hanna works from the Cusco office in Peru as a Retention Specialist, supporting travellers throughout their journey and ensuring they feel informed, valued, and well cared for. After studying tourism in Spain, she first came to Peru for a one-year internship with a tour operator. Since then — now already ten years ago — South America has never let her go. She immediately felt at home in Peru and fell in love with the country and its people. Today, she has built her life and family there and continues to explore the continent’s remarkable diversity. Her deep regional knowledge and passion for customer care help her create positive, reassuring, and solution-oriented experiences for every traveller she supports.

Kathleen Ishibashi

Central Operations Specialist

Kathleen originally hails from Oregon, USA but has been living in Japan for over 17 years, where she has found her second home. She previously worked as an English language instructor and currently holds a master's degree in applied linguistics. She will be working with Japaventura in ground operations and is thrilled to share everything she loves about Japan with the world.

Kim Poissant

Customer Success Director

Ever since she can remember, Kim was driven by a natural curiosity that brought her to new places and cultures. Always searching for the unknown, she has lived and worked in Germany, Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama and the Canary Islands, before she finally settled down in France. Despite her adventurous heart, Kim loves when things are in order. As part of the Ventura team she can live out her two sides: organization geek and passionate adventurer.

Liesa Roehr

Travel Specialist

During Liesa's exploration of Latin America, she fell in love with the cultural and landscape diversity of the region. Through participation in volunteer projects with locals and other travelers, she gained deep insights into the local culture and tourism. As a Travel Specialist for viventura in the Berlin office, Liesa is particularly excited to share her enthusiasm and provide others with authentic insights into the beauty and diversity of Latin America. In her free time, Liesa enjoys delving into psychological topics and exploring the complexity of human nature. Despite her introverted side, she values good company and finds expression and friends in dancing (especially Bachata) and sporting activities.

Alfredo Ortegón

IT Developer

Fredo is a tech-enthusiast with a never-ending thirst for knowledge. When he's not behind a computer screen, you can find him exploring nature on his mountain bike or indulging in his love for food. Fredo brings a positive and energetic attitude to the workplace.

Ana Caceres

HR Specialist

Born in Medellín, raised in Bogotá and Santa Marta. Ana is the HR coordinator for our office in Medellín. She has been an entrepreneur for most of her working life. She has a communication degree and her passion is to help others. She enjoys traveling to tropical places and loves the Caribbean. Ana is very family oriented and enjoys spending quality time with her family and friends. She enjoys cooking all kinds of food and watching movies. Dark chocolate, wine, and coffee are always welcome

Ana Llerena

Flights Specialist

Ana was born in La Paz- Bolivia and also works from La Paz office, she loves working with flights and reservations giving her best in taking care of her costumers, so they can have an excellent and pleasant air trip without inconveniences.

Cintia Frias

Flight Specialist

Flight Operations Specialist. Responsible for providing Flights for Ventura Brands. Cintia joined the Ventura family in November 2016 as a Flight specialist for our brand Viventura. Her main roles are: making flight reservations and issuing tickets for the company's tours. She is committed in providing enjoyable and stress free flights for our travelers by looking for suitable connections for them.

Deyby Vasquez

IT Developer

Deyby technology, coffee and salsa dance lover. He has been involved in technological projects since his graduation. He combines programming development with entrepreneurship. Likewise, he loves to spend the time with his family, walking, drinking coffee, dancing salsa and bachata, flying drones and sometimes cooking.

Ericka Amurrio

Flight Operations Manager

Ericka works from our La Paz office as a Flight Operations Manager and is in charge of providing flights for all Ventura brands by negotiating with airlines in order to provide our customers with an exceptional flight experience to start an amazing trip.

Gabriela Palma

Accountant

Gabriela works in our Cusco office. She is responsible for all the accounting management in Peru, presenting on time all the monthly and annual reports of the economic status in Peru, in the same way she helps all the offices of South America in accounting matters.

Genesis Guerrero

IT Developer

Genesis spent six years developing software for enterprises even before finishing his studies in System Engineering at the University of Magdalena (Santa Marta, Colombia). He's an open source enthusiast, python evangelist, and javascript lover. He also has experience as lead developer, freelancer, and startup co-founder. Genesis loves to drink craft beer with friends, to attend rock concerts and to discover new places to walk and eat.

Gustavo Cataño

IT Director

I love tech things, and use this passion every day in my work with our IT team to deliver great value for Ventura Travel. I like to travel and enjoy riding my bike along unknown roads. However, above all things, I really enjoy spending my free time with my family and my daughter.

Isabel Sanchez

Flights Operations Team Lead

Isabel works from our La Paz office as a flight specialist in order to book, issue and make individual offers assuring that our pax get the best possible flying tickets in cost and quality.

Louis Poissant

Performance Marketing Specialist

Specialist of performance marketing, he is a big fan of sports and gastronomy. After an MBA in Paris and first work experience in Berlin, he decided to move to Asia for several months and took Japanese classes to increase his immersion. In charge of performance marketing in the marketing department of Ventura Travel, he is able to combine two things he enjoys: numbers and writing.

Patricio Grez

Finance Director

Patricio joins our Ventura Team as Head of Finance, bringing a vast experience with him. Not only in pure finance topics, but also in its relation across different areas of an organization. Passionate traveler, but the slow travel. Spending time and living in different countries and cultures has always given him good experiences. He is open to new challenges and willing to share with others.

Ralf Spielberger

Finance Director

My finance team and I manage all the financial aspects of ventura Travel. Our mission is to deliver accurate, prompt and useful financial information to the different stakeholders.

Sandy Duran

Flight Specialist

Flight Operation Specialist Responsible for provinding Flights for Ventura Brands This is Sandy, she was born in La Paz. She has a degree in tourism, since she finished her studies she started working in the tourism area, especially in Airline reservation systems. Now being part of Flights team in Ventura Travel, she feels pleased to contribute to many people travel and have meaningful and unforgettable experiences.

Sebastian Morales

IT Developer

Sebastian is passionate about creativity, design, and writing. A software engineer who works in the IT department as a full-stack developer from a medium-sized city of Colombia called Bucaramanga. He studied music at university with a major in classic piano, plays the bass guitar as a hobby, and sometimes produces his own compositions / songs. He is eager to learn new stuff out of curiosity almost always, a team-player who does not believe in organization heroes, easy-going person, and has a great sense of product quality and user experience.

Stefan Kuehn

Flight Specialist

Stefan fell in love with Latinamerica on his first trip when he was backpacking in Venezuela. Since then, he visited most of the countries of the subcontinent. He plays guitar in a band. You can meet him rocking the stage in small pubs in Berlin. Others interests are foreign cultures, food, and music. Stefan works from our office in Berlin as a Flight Operations Specialist. He is responsible for providing flights for Ventura brands: Reservations, quotations and ticketing for all brands.