Name: Armando Tautiva
Nickname: “Two-Pole Tonto”
Position: Curator of Archives & Collections
Home Base: Clermont, FL
First Adventure: 2005
Quote: “TODAY!!??” (his response when Don pointed to our mountain top hiking destination in the background and said “we’re going there,” on Armando’s first day, on his first trip)
Armando’s Dad’s Quote: “How well do you know these guys? Here, take my machete just in case” (said to Armando while sitting in a car at 4am about to depart on his first trip.)
Story: Years ago, Armando and Don Lake were co-workers and became good friends. How Armando ended up on his first trip with the gang is up for debate. Armando claims that Don badgered him until he reluctantly agreed to join up on one of our pre-Chikoot training trips in spring of 2005 to the Smoky Mountains (Gregory Bald Trip). Don remembers it differently. He recalls Armando begging to join our filthy group of adventurers after hearing about our cool upcoming trip to Alaska.
Regardless of how it went down, it worked well for everyone. Armando has now been on most of our incredible trips. And on our side, his Hispanic roots helped the organization almost hit some of its diversity quotas. Being bilingual, Armando’s language skills truly paid off during our trip to Patagonia in 2014 and even more so in Ecuador 2019. Thanks to his excellent translations, Armando was able to help Brother Donny Davis fluently punish unsuspecting Argentinian & Ecuadorean service workers in their native tongues.