Helen West, the founder of Cortez Tours, held her first job as a tour guide job as a high school student in Sitka, Alaska. That summer job —and the skills she gained from it — propelled her into a career in education, local government, and final as a small business owner.

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Cortez Tours is founded on all the elements that originalyl enthralled Helen about guiding: that stories have the power to unite and connect people, and that through stories, we can come to a common understanding. Our local guides tell true stories rooted in history and science (we admit, sometimes our stories are a little embellished) and through those stories connect guests with each other and those that came before us. We hope that everyone leaves Cortez Tours with a little more understanding of how we — as individuals — are connected to eachother, history, andf the natural world, and feeling a little more hopeful for the future of humanity.