Marina Cook Travel & Business consists of a team of travel professionals led by Marina Cook. We have office in Recoleta neighborhood in Buenos Aires, Argentina and other in Carmelo, in Uruguay. We have extensive on-site staff in the destinations where we operate. We have all traveled extensively to these destinations and have banded together with the common goal of passing on our passion for adventure and discovery travel to our clients. Our goal is to meet and exceed all our customers' expectations and allow them to experience the best of South America has to offer.
Marina Cook Travel & Business was founded by Marina Cook who is our Director of Groups & Independent Travel. She was born in Argentina, but she lived fifteen years in an island called Florianopolis, one of the top cities to visit in Brazil - according to the Newsweek magazine of June 2006. She grew in contact with forty two beaches and surrounded by her family and friends from Germany, Italy, Spain, Peru, Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay which were living at the same Island. Florianopolis Island is located in the South of Brazil which has immigrants from every European country. In her childhood in Brazil, her parents always spoke Spanish at home. That experience allowed her to become bi-lingual. After school at the Island in South of Brazil she went to Mexico (Cancun) to study tourism. It was an incredible experience because, at that time, Cancun was at the begging of the tourism business. She had the opportunity to touch the Know-how of the project - development. When she finished the University in Mexico she went to work on an Italian - Shipping Cruise. There she learned to understand the Italian language, culture and people. She got the chance to visit Senegal, Marruecos, Cadiz, Canary Island, Barcelona and Genova. The passengers were from United States, Germany, Spain, Brazil and Argentina. After the cruise, she spends two months traveling around Europe. She visited Italy from North to South, then Swaziland and France. When she arrived home in Buenos Aires she got an offer to work at the Club Med in the North of Brazil. There she learned the French system and a few expressions. She falls in love with the culture and the history of the people in the North of Brazil. It was completely different than the South where she lived during her childhood. Club Med became small to her. So she went to live in an Island called Morro de Sao Paulo at the North of Brazil. To get there you should take a 4 hours wood boat from another Island. After 6 months at the Island with out newspaper and TV she discovered her self living in a parallel world. Such a nice Spiritual experiment! She started to work in an ecological project in the Island. Nowadays the "ecological project" is a Country Club with 36 bungalows and a small airport for private planes. At the end of this project, Hyatt called her to participate to the Opening of the Madison Golf & Resort in Carmelo, Uruguay. Today Madison is Four Seasons Carmelo. Then she went to the Mountains in San Martin de Los Andes (Patagonia) to manager an exclusive, small and cozy ski hotel.
It was the year of 2000 when she decided to go to Washington DC to take an English course at Georgetown University. She stayed a year and traveled to New York, Pennsylvania, Florida and California. She was decided to stay longer and work in a Hotel in New York, but "September 11th" changed her plans, and she traveled back to South America. She went first to Punta del Este in Uruguay to organize another 5 star and resort Hotel opening. After the opening she traveled to Chile to work as a manager in an Urban Hotel in the Capital of Chile. Also she got the chance to work in a hotel in the famous sky center "La Parva" as a manager during the weekends. It was a high season of work! But Chile was not my place and she decided to come back definitely to Buenos Aires in Argentina.
Since December 2002 Marina is living in Buenos Aires and working at the Incoming Travel Services. She started working in a tourism magazine. Her job there was like a manager of the Incoming program services. She was so fascinated about the Travel agency Incoming services that she started to work in a Travel Agency which receive Brazilian tourists. She was working as an Operation Manager. They were attending 1500 passengers per month. However she was looking to organize tailor made trips. Her knowledge about the Portuguese language and their culture helped her to focus only to learn the travel agency system work. After almost a year she decided to change her job. So she went to work as a Project Manager in one of the most important Incoming Services Agency in Argentina which works with North Americans and European people. She worked hard for a year leading a team of operators and traveling around Argentina with groups.
At 30 years old she had an important background, i.e., tourist region development, Italian Cruise system - work, French Club Med system - work, ecological project experience, the know-how of the Opening of a 5 star and resort hotel, the management of a boutique hotel and of course, the knowledge of exclusive Incoming Travel Agency services. Supported in this deep background she created Cook Travel & Business.