A Letter To Our Founder

The other day, I began looking at a Patagonia Itinerary that I had made for Paragon Expeditions back in 2016. It made me realize that Clark was the only hotel or travel representative who ever took the effort to reach out to us, let alone come see us in San Marcos, TX. This is how it all came to be…

It was around June or July of 2015. I had graduated college that May and immediately became employed by Paragon Expeditions after being an intern my senior year of college. I had done a good job during my internship, but what really had me interested in visiting Peru was a friend who I met in my hometown of Austin, TX. He went to the Texas School For the Deaf, but was originally from Peru and was in the process of getting adopted by one of our Paragon Expeditions guides, Holly Wissler. She was a National Geographic History & Trekking Guide in Peru, and had her PhD in Ethnomusicology from Florida State University. And get this, now Holly is a Music Professor at Texas State University! (For more on that story, Hearing From The Heart: Turney & Dante's Adventures in Austin.)

His name is Dante, and he’s from Q’eros, Peru and happens to have Usher’s Syndrome—making him partially blind in his peripherals and fully deaf. Holly met him when he was 6 years old in Q’eros where he was a bit neglected due to his family’s misunderstanding of his rare condition. With the permission of his father, Victor, and his mother (both now deceased), Holly was able to bring him to Cusco in order to get a proper deaf education. Unfortunately, further deaf education in Peru after middle school is difficult to access. So Holly brought Dante to Austin where her sister lived. I hadn’t met them, but Paragon Expeditions Owner Ryan Weaver introduced me and we helped get them mountain bikes.

The initial idea of me becoming an intern at Paragon was because I wanted to create my own Tour Operation where I lead adventures in the Texas Hill Country. So, I thought it was a good idea to begin learning the industry. Nearly 10 years later, I haven’t looked back on that idea too much after discovering Peru and Latin America.

Through working with Paragon Expeditions and becoming close friends with Holly Wissler, I was invited to visit Dante’s village in the Peruvian Andes, a place called Q’eros: one of the last Inca villages that still exists. The native people in this region live at above 14,000 ft elevation, so the Spaniards never made it far enough to find their villages.

In order to go, I had to get permission from my teachers to take my finals early and miss a few weeks of class in order for me to graduate…and sure enough, they all said yes! So in April of 2015 I went to Peru with Holly and Dante. I hiked to Q’eros, the village Dante is from, saw Machu Picchu, and explored Cusco. Mind you, this was my first time out of the United States of America at 23 years old!

Me, Turney, in Q'eros, Peru with Holly, Dante, and his Quechua-speaking grandparents. They are some of the last living Inca descendants.

We ended up biking with Holly’s friend, Paul Cripps, at Huaypo Lake to the Salt Mines of Maras and down into the Sacred Valley. I posted that video onto our company Facebook a few months after. Little did I know that would be my bridge to meeting Clark. When I became a full time employee of Paragon Expeditions, I was requesting marketing packages from different Patagonia hotels. I sent one to Awasi, and got an email back from this Dude/Bro named Clark. He sent me an email that said something like, “Hey dude, I saw that you reached out to Awasi and want to put them up on your website, but I saw on Facebook that you went mountain biking with Holly? Do you know Paul Cripps??”

After that we connected on a call that lasted a few hours. Clark told me that us boys at Paragon were crushing sales at Inkaterra and Titilaka and Hotel B, so we need to start selling Ecuador and Galapagos. He also could not believe that I was only 23 years old!

Clark ended up deciding to roll through Austin for sales calls a few months later and he wanted to meet up. I remember telling him, “Dude, I’ll be honest with you I live in San Marcos which is a college town about a 30 minute drive south from downtown Austin. Come down here, and I’ll show you around. I can take you paddle boarding on the San Marcos river, we can do some scuba diving, hit up some bbq, and check out some bars on the square, maybe even throw on some boots and hit the dance hall.” He said:

“Okay, Sounds good dude I got us on drinks and BBQ. I’m going to get a hotel room on I35 at the Holiday Inn so I can book it to some meetings in Houston the next day.”

I didn’t really understand at all what a hotel representative was or what Clark really did at the time. I was thinking: “This rad dude who is super well connected with the absolute most badass adventure lodges in Latin America wants to hang out and be my friend? Okay, I am absolutely down.”

We ended up doing all of the above, and more. The next morning he delayed his first meeting so that we could scuba dive in Aquarena Springs (the source of the San Marcos River) where no swimmers are allowed, but I had access being a volunteer scientific diver for the springs, and Clark being a Divemaster I was able to get him in with me. Of course, Clark knew another diver who worked at the Meadow’s Center, the museum and scientific study lab of the San Marcos River. If you’re reading this, shout out to you Rob Dussler!

Clark and I scuba diving in the San Marcos river.

It was epic, and afterwards I hit him with a custom maroon and gold TX State Bobcats custom-made Paragon Expeditions hat which he rocked everywhere for several years for some reason. It always fired me up to see. I’ll never forget when he was about to leave he literally said, “Dude, I totally forgot to give my presentation, I’ll email it to you and we’ll keep in touch. Just keep killin’ it Turn-Dog!”

I’ll never forget those words because that day Clark became a mentor in my life and someone that I could count on for advice with an honest answer. We kept in touch over the years, and I went on one of his FAM trips to the Galapagos Islands in May 2018 with the most legendary group of people from literally all over the world. He truly assembled a dream team for that trip—our marketing guru Whitney James was on that trip as well!

The epic FAM Trip group in Ecuador - May 2018.

He made sure to get a picture of the outfit!

I’ll never forget, Clark told us to pack nice clothes because his friend invited us to one of the finest restaurants in Quito, ZaZu. So, I packed a suit and cigar, rolled out to the lobby of Casa Gangotena in my newly-fitted dry-cleaned suit with cigar in front pocket, glass of Pisco in the other hand. To this day, I’m not sure if I ever saw Clark laugh that hard. He couldn’t believe that I took his suggestion so literal. He was always sure to never question my first impression ability or swagger after that one!

Eventually, Clark hooked me up with a job at Latin Excursions. After Paragon, I had worked at Facebook for a bit. I called him one random day about six months in and go “Clark, you gotta help me get out of this damn job, I’m losing my mind stuck behind a desk.” He goes:

“Okay dude, I got you, I’m at Remote Travel Show in Costa Rica, I’ll hook you up with someone here.”

The next day he had me on the phone with the owner, Eric Sheets. After that convo, the next week I was working with Latin Excursions doing a bit of itinerary building for all of Latin America, some representation meetings with different travel agencies. We sold lots of Panama, so I was invited to go on Kirsten’s FAM Trip to El Otro Lado and Isla Palenque. Kirsten Gardner is the Owner of Outlier Journeys and was the Central America Portfolio Manager for CK before I was.

That was an amazing experience because I got to see how Kirsten ran her FAM trips very similarly to Clark’s. That was another amazingly orchestrated group, a few who I now consider great friends.

I began to notice that all of the hotels in CK Rep portfolio that I had visited shared a common trait of creating truly authentic local experiences for their guests. If you’re open to learning about new cultures and exploring pristine wildlife areas, your mind will be truly blown away at any of the hotels in CK Representation portfolio. The staff members become your friends, and the hardest part about visiting any of them is leaving.

Then, the pandemic happened and everyone lost their travel jobs. CK Representation stayed alive and Clark said, “F this, I’m bringing my family and we’re going to show the world that it is still okay to travel.” Looking back, what he did was truly honorable and gave a lot of people hope that things would go back to normal. I ended up working a tech job in Austin, but seeing Clark, Jacqui, Blake, and Carter full sending it to Latin America again fired me up! It was a reminder that there is a breath of fresh air on the other side of this thing. We just have to keep moving forward.

In the midst of all that, my father passed away due to a stroke at the age of 70 in July 2021. Simultaneously, my pandemic job was not panning out because the startup company that employed me during that time burned through all of their money, fired everyone, and was trying to give me their company due to the fact that I had the highest consecutive sales numbers. However, they were paying me the bare minimum after laying everybody off and still to this day I’ve got no clue what the heck they were trying to do handing me their company. This nonsense went on for 6 months after my father passed away…I was seriously struggling internally, going through one of the roughest times of my life scraping by financially and mentally. My oldest sister Rachel had passed away when I was ten years old and she was 18, due to a car accident. She was my driving force all this way, but then when my dad passed, it felt like there was no gas left in my tank. My job was crumbling, my father was gone…I was ready to give up.

This is the kind of person that Clark is. He called me not long after my dad had passed and said that he was going to be in South Padre Island kiteboarding with the kids, but he wanted to take his boys floating on the river with ole Turn-Dog. So he drove five hours with the boys to come meet up in San Marcos. We had an epic time. I’ll never forget when we were getting off of the river, a huge thunderstorm and lightning storm hit. Blake and Carter were freaked out because they grew up in California drought and have never seen Texas thunder. Clark thought that was the funniest thing ever. Of course, we got out safely before the rain hit, perfectly on time.

Me, Carter, Blake, and Clark floating the San Marcos river.

Before we left, Clark said, “Hey man, it seems like Kirsten is going to go do her own thing and start a Tour Operator which is fine, but I might need someone to come work for me next year. Keep your phone on.”

He knew everything that was going on in my life and never brought any of it up. We drank a couple Shiner Bocks on the river and just hung out while people-watching with Blake and Carter. It was one of the best days ever, and he subtly delivered a message of hope and positivity to me when I needed it most. All around solid guy in the most nonchalant way. A true legend.

One December afternoon in 2021, I got a phone call. First I believe it was Kirsten, then Clark afterwards. They both separately said to not tell one another, but they were going to recommend that I should come work for CK. I said okay awesome, sounds good, let me know.

A few days later, right before the holidays, Clark called me and said, “Dude, I talked to our Central America partners and they all said we’re good to go. Do you have a wife and kids? Can you leave your other job? Are you able to go down to Costa Rica for a month ASAP?” I said:

“Clark, you’re literally saving my life right now. I thought I was about to go bartend or work construction. Also, no dude. I saw you two months ago and I’m still not married and don’t have kids. Let’s do this thing, I’m ready.”

Right afterwards, I called the startup and said adios. I literally had no money after quitting my job right away, so Clark had to buy my flights to Costa Rica and get me down there. About a week into the trip, I needed to get a rental car which I had never done before anywhere in the world. In order for me to pay and survive, Clark had to send me a company card. This man somehow sent my company credit card to Enterprise Costa Rica, had them take it out of the DHL package, and store it in some drawer by the concierge desk. At first they had no clue what I was talking about, but then when I messaged Clark he was like “ask this one lady Lisa—she was being nice to me on the phone and stored it away for you.” Pays off to know Spanish!

Sure enough I asked the other lady and received the company card to get my rental car and continue on. ONLY CLARK COULD PULL THIS OFF. The rest is history. I spent the next 30 days exploring Costa Rica coast-to-coast and mountain-to-mountain, doing yoga, eating healthy, and going on adventures with local staff members who many now have become my good friends. I learned the ins and outs of each hotel that I now represent in Costa Rica. It truly transformed my life and set me on the best path that I could have possibly ever imagined thanks to Kirsten and Clark collaborating to help give me an opportunity. I will deeply in my heart forever be grateful for that. And while I’m still heartbroken for the loss of my dear friend, I feel the strength to carry on what Clark taught me and to honor his legacy alongside Jacqui, Blake, and Carter.

When someone pulls you out of a difficult situation and gives you the chance to shine, that can never be forgotten. It is the exact representation of the type of man he was.

Clark was one-of-a-kind. I, nor anyone on the face of this earth can ever replace him. He was a brave man who looked life straight in the face with full-confidence and never strayed away from being himself. He had it all figured it out. People always told me this about my oldest sister Rachel who passed away. For the longest time I was like, “what are they talking about?!” Now, I completely see what they meant. Very few people have it all figured it. They walk life at their own pace and people follow their lead. I suppose the ones that carry this ability depart too soon, only to leave us with all of the tools to know what life is really about.

Clark’s good soul will always exist, and we will all live on with the lessons that he taught us. I owe it to Clark and the Kotula family to honor his legacy by carrying on the torch that he lit, as if I’m running out to light the flame for the Olympics opening ceremony.

At the end of the day, with CK Representation it is all about the people. The lodges in our portfolio were all carefully hand-selected by Clark for a reason. It’s because they will absolutely knock your socks off and you will remember your visit for the rest of your life. But most importantly, because they are doing the right thing by supporting local people and preserving incredible pieces of land.

Take a step out of the ordinary, leave your suit and tie at home, and come have a life changing experience at any of the hotels in our portfolio. As something Fernando from Hacienda Zuleta would say “EMBRACE THE CLARK KOTULA SPIRIT, HERRRRNNNANNNDEZZZZ!”

The CK Way.

Peace, Love, & Unity with thanks and grace to all of the Clark & Jacqui’s family.

— Turney Maurer

AKA “Pavo Loco” (people in Costa Rica thought my name was Turkey, so Clark coined that nickname pretty quickly)
AKA “Turn-Dog”
AKA “Herrrrrrnandezzzz” (This one came from Hacienda Zuleta when I told Fernando that my mother’s last name is Hernandez)