Adventure Couples

By Annie Blaylock McQueen, Staff writer | February 1, 2014

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Ces and Laura Guerra decorated their backyard with Nepalese prayer flags. Here, they wear trekking vests they received from their Mount Kilimanjaro guide, Dean Cardinale. (Photo:www.hartphoto.com)

Would you consider it romantic to schlep gear, without a shower or much sleep for days on end, up a 19,000-foot volcano? How about camping in Africa while lions circle your campsite? Or, closer to home, training for and running a full marathon together?

For some Buzz-neighborhood couples, this is romance.

Adventure junkies Ces Guerra, a realtor, and his photographer wife, Laura, got engaged in 2005 on a hike in the Smoky Mountains. They have tackled Mount Everest Base Camp, Kilimanjaro, the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu and don’t plan to stop climbing any time soon.

“Going to see museums in Paris is a great way to travel but this kind of hiking, when it’s an adventure, is so much more rewarding because you have such a high,” said Laura. “There’s nothing like it.”

Framed photos of their trips are sprinkled around their home. As music plays softly in their den and a fire rumbles, Ces leans back in his wingback chair to reminisce. “I always talk about climbing up to the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in the middle of the darkness, through the wind, the cold and the sleepiness, when I looked back at Laura and asked, ‘Laura, are you ok?’”

Laura interrupts, laughing, “I know what you are going to say, Ces, and it’s so cheesy.”

He smiles, and continues. “She said, ‘I am just thinking of the day we got married and our friends and family.’”

Ces says he nearly gave up and quit because of pure exhaustion the day before they reached the summit. “I wanted Laura to keep going if I stopped.” Nonetheless, they made it to the top and snapped a photo of them holding a flag of Ces’ alma mater, Louisiana State University.

In the end, they both agreed the happy thoughts of their lives at home helped power them up the final difficult push.

Ces and Laura have made friends along the way, like local retiree and active volunteer Joan Hessidence and her husband, geophysicist Rick Wall, whom they met in the United Airlines lounge at Bush Intercontinental Airport.

Joan and Rick have lived in Norway and London and traveled over the course of their 30 years together. “When we were dating in 1984, we did a 21-day bicycle trip in China,” said Joan.

“For us, [traveling] is an affirmation of some of the things, the common values, that brought us together to begin with,” said Joan. “We met each other at a YMCA in New Orleans, so an active lifestyle is something is very important to us.”

Greg and Iliana Romero collect art on their travels. Above their mantel is a Patagonian Indian craft they bought in El Calafate, Argentina. (Photo: Kevin Long, www.gulfcoastshots.com)

Oil and gas professionals Iliana and Greg Romero say exploring is “in their blood.” They have lived in and traveled to New York, Europe, Latin America and Dubai, among other places.

“We did a safari camping in the bush in Botswana, Zambia and Namibia. It was a pitch-your-own-tent, shower-every-couple-days type of safari,” said Iliana. “But it was one of the most magical experiences.”

Iliana says the rustic safari helped her appreciate basic amenities. “The bathroom was a hole in the ground 50 yards away from our campsite. Walking to it was frightening, especially when you have a pride of lions walking through camp,” she said, laughing.

While some couples prefer sipping mai tais on a sunny beach, the Romeros chose to bike around France for six days on their 16^th wedding-anniversary trip. “We biked through Dordogne and Bourdeaux, and [biked] a high of 55 miles a day,” said Iliana.

When traveling together, said Greg, “we’re creating memories together, and when you create memories and experiences together, that always creates a great foundation for a relationship.”

Danielle Batchelor, a business owner, and her husband Josh, a private equity investor, met in high school in Oklahoma City and married in 2000. Since then, they have lived in San Francisco and New York and now call Houston home. They have traveled to France, Italy, Ireland, Thailand, Vietnam, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, the Bahamas and the British Virgin Islands.

While traveling, they always find time to enjoy one of their passions: running. “You can see so much more on foot and such a different perspective,” said Danielle.

“We ran the Houston Marathon in 2013 together. It was such a different kind of adventure,” said Danielle. “We would joke the training was like these long dates. You don’t have cell phones or television,” said Danielle. “There are adventures away but there are also wonderful things you can do in your own backyard.”