Chuck Scott, Tours Director:

Born here in British Columbia, Canada,  I have been very fortunate in my life to have been able to do some  interesting things.  I spent some time in the army at a very young age, where I developed a certain taste for adventure. I was a parachutist and fieldcraft instructor among other things, so when I got out one of the things that naturally seemed to fit was Smoke Jumping. (That is: parachute delivered fire fighters for the wilderness areas.)

I "jumped" in the Yukon Territory of Canada for a private company contracted to the Yukon Forest Service, fought fires in summer, in the winters I would travel. Europe, Asia, the Middle East. One year I was with a few friends camping in the Sinai Desert, at the edge of the Red Sea, when someone started raving about the reefs just off shore. ( In those days this area was still controlled by the Israelis and was reasonably open.) So I borrowed a cracked snorkel, with a leaky mask, and ventured out over the edge of the reef. One look and I was hooked. It was the most amazing thing I had ever seen. Like a landscape out of dreams, the fish, the coral, the colour. Unbelievable!

The next year I was back, and took my first diving course at a diving centre on the Red Sea. I liked it so much I decided to take it up as a professional. Within a few years I was finished teaching for dive centres and started my own little Scuba School in Vancouver, where I was living. A few more years of hard work and more luck than I deserved I was running my own dive charter boat.

About this time I got seriously into photography, underwater that is. I did shoots in the Red Sea and the coast of Canada, and then found some things on land that started to look like they would make a good photo.      .....Ok, so I had a girlfriend who asked me to do some shots of her for her modeling portfolio because she couldn't afford a pro. They were terrible. She hated them. I invested in better gear and a few courses, but she was gone anyway. Oh well.

About then I developed an interest in wildlife photography, got out of diving and back into wild fire suppression.  On a winter trip to a place I had always wanted to see, the Amazon Rainforest. Again I had one of those unforgettable experiences in the forest. I was hooked. Not to mention I fell in love with a beautiful Brazilian woman, who became my wife a couple of years later.

Neila (pronounced nail-ah) has endured me now for almost 22 years and I am happy to say shows no signs of coming to her senses. With her help and the help of her family, most of which live in Belem at the mouth of the Amazon River, I have been admitted into Brazilian Society in a way that few foreigners ever are. Having led several photographic expeditions, and attempted to establish an Outward Bound School for Brazil I feel I know my way around this fascinating part of the world..

Meanwhile, little boys eventually must grow up, so I went back to school and spent some very happy years as a Software Consultant  in Vancouver. ( But don't tell anybody I am supposed to be some big tough adventurer.) And am the proud father of a wonderful little boy called Nicolas.

We decided to spend a few years in Brazil to give Nick a chance to get to know Brazil and his family there. We spent 2003-4 in Belem, and I went full time as an Amazon rain forest guide. Along with the guiding I was working on my first book, an adventure novel, surprisingly enough set in the Amazon.

I am very comfortable in the wilderness in Canada or in Brazil, having spent so much time in both. My years in training remote access fire crews, and teaching diving students, as well as running a luxury charter boat and running photographic expeditions into the Amazon, has well equipped me for the role of host. I also enjoy the independence of guiding.

My family and I are very glad to be back in British Columbia, though I will continue to organize an annual trip to the Amazon Rainforest. We have settled in a pleasant little community outside Vancouver called Maple Ridge, where I can hear the frogs singing all night from my bedroom. I truly love my little part of the world and having seen much of the rest of the planet I also have the strong conviction that we are living in a little piece of Heaven.

Wild BC Tours and Guiding is just fun...Nick helps out whenever he can and I get a great kick out of showing folks around my home town..

Chuck Scott
In the shadow of Golden Ears Mountain, near Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
June. 2009
Wildman@wildbc.com

Neila Scott, General Manager

Neila Scott was born in Brazil and lived there for the first 23 years of her life, Neila brings with her a life experience as colourful as the costumes that fill the streets of Brazil during Carnaval.

Brought up by a cardiologist, her mother was her main inspiration and role model. Growing up poor in a two-room house in the Amazonian city of Belem, her mother brought herself out of poverty by studying hard and becoming the first black doctor in the state of Para.

In 1985 Neila met her prince charming, a Canadian from White Rock, British Columbia, who swept off her feet and brought her to live in British Columbia.

At the time she had already had 3 years of experience training adults in English as a Foreign Language, most of her clients were executives of large corporations like Ray-O-Vac and Halls.

After settling in Canada she got back to university, graduating in Biology (Major in Genetics) from UBC.

While going to university she taught ESL at the local colleges, and soon after graduation landed a job training adults in a computer skills college.

Soon an opportunity presented itself for her to manage the training department for an American company operating in Richmond, and she took it, that's when she got the valuable experience training and coaching employees of large corporations and local government in BC.

In 2005 she helped Chuck establish Wild BC Tours and Guiding providing a whole new demention in real world business experience.

Neila continues to teach in the off season and guide in the summer months, and has the experience, the passion and the friendly personality to coach, teach and host anyone to great success. See her web site at FindingUp.ca.