(This page is about the website and why it exists in the first place. To learn more about Beth & Randy on a personal level please read the About Us page. )

What is Beers & Beans anyway?

Aside from being a photographic & written journey, Beers and Beans is really about helping others. Possibly the most important aspect of this site is the desire to fill it with good information about good people all around the world. People working hard to make a difference. As we travel we will be volunteering, wwoofing and doing what we can to help out others along the way. In fact now on this site we maintain:

1. A pretty awesome volunteering list – which lists cheap & free places to volunteer around the world and includes wwoofing and similar resources.

2. The Greater Good list -  This list is something we have created as our way of saying thanks to people who are already working hard to make a difference in the world. (Please email us if you would like to be added or know someone who should be added.)

3. The Engage Yourself With The World Crusade – The crusade  includes a spot where you can make a donation – not to us – but to someone in need around the world. You pick the country, you pick the need – we deliver the goods en route. You get photos of the actual donation & the happy recipient. Someone in need gets something they need. We get to do something cool and unique. Everyone all around gets warm fuzzy feelings. Check out the page for some unusual ideas to get you going!

BeersandBeans is also about the spaces in between.

What are the spaces in between?

When Beth is traveling the camera rarely leaves her hand. This is usually because travel is, more times than not, about the journey not the destination. Of course the destination is important for it’s own reasons but it’s the journey  – the physical & personal transformation – that changes who we are in hopes to make us see life in a different light. This is what we call the spaces in between and it is pretty much the basis for most of the photography & writing that you will see on this blog. While you may see some typical travel photos, the real drive & passion behind the curtains at BeersandBeans is to document the journey & transformation itself. To document what happens when you’re going from one place to the next, to document what is having the most profound effect on our lives & in a weird way, your life too. If you find yourself looking at a photo and not understanding it – that’s ok – everything on this site is intentional with the spaces in between as the basis for it. Everything photo Beth posts is infused everything that she has and not all of them will look like typical travel photos.The photographs are meant to be specific moments in time – the goal is to capture that moment and make the reader feel something.

For some examples you can check out this small post on the Day of the Dead in Oaxaca, Mx and also take a look through our Somewhere In Time weekly photo posts.

And the name BeersandBeans?

What the heck is that about?

Ok, Ok. The name makes no sense right? Well it’s simple really. When we started this journey we tried to come up with a name that was different and it was tough. Then it became obvious – Randy loves beer, he’s a bit of a connoisseur but certainly not a snob since he likes ALL beer and Beth is a vegetarian that loves beans, most specifically black beans.

Randy = Beer

Beth = Beans

BeersandBeans.com!

We also thought initially this blog would be about vegetarian food and different beers around the world but the focus has shifted slightly. It will still have aspects of that in it because Beth is a major foodie and writing on here is waaay more fun than Yelp but the focus of this blog is definitely more on the volunteering, the photography & the documentation of the trip itself. We used to even have a recipe section on here and Beth would be lying if she said there wasn’t some small part of her that hopes that section will come back as the journey begins. But because it takes a long time & a lot of work to run a blog, especially one that is thought content heavy, it will really depend on time. Perhaps that will become an entirely new blog – who knows?

Beers and Beans is about wandering the world in seek of the unusual, the mundane, the beautiful, the forgotten and all the amazing people who make this world a better place. Please join us.

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Definitely stop by to say hi through a comment or 0n our contact form – we’re really stoked about all the new people we’re going to meet through this blog!

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