This year the Quest family began to grow quite substantially. New members of staff joined, both in the UK and South America, and new partnerships were formed. One alliance we were particularly proud of was with the conservation charity Rainforest Concern who had been helping create corridors of protected forest throughout the world. This partnership led to our first conservation project for teams, working in the heart of the Ecuadorian cloud forest helping to extend a corridor of jungle extending from the Andes all the way down to the coast. This mainly consisted of carrying large amounts of mud through the jungle, but every little helps!

In the office, we were very proud to welcome Jonjon Cassidy and Ben Marrion. Jonjon, as he is known throughout South America, was to become the contact for all our partners across the continent, and was to help keep the projects and expeditions as unique as they could possibly be. Ben, everyone will tell you, quickly became the stalwart which kept the entire company together - well chosen Michael.

February 1999 also saw the beginning of an age of Quest political activism - well, sort of... The first conservation team was in Quito visiting the city on foot until they found themselves in the middle of a protest against the current Ecuadorian government. Curious to see a group of sixteen "gringos" walking through the middle of their strike, the local TV crew approached the group to ask what was going on. Keen to show good international relations, the group leader (Jonjon) replied with a story about "solidarity for the local Ecuadorian people". At least, that was until a tear gas bomb was fired in their general direction and bounced off his foot. The image of him and his team fleeing down the road out of harms way was repeated on every local news station that evening!

So, February 1999 also saw the END of an age of Quest political activism.