Who is Yndiana Montes?

YNDIANA MONTES (Indiana Montezuniga) has been with the tourism industry for more than twenty years as a contributor to the sustainable tourism industry development in the Caribbean. She has concentrated on showcasing the natural way of living and travelling among the Caribbean Islands. She has created her own web site, www.SoloCaribe.com, specifically for promoting the Caribbean way of living, along with contributing many articles and interviews with VIPs and the leaders of the tourism industry in the most respected and recognized tourism publications. Her publications have been found on three continents and in Spanish, Portuguese and English.

Yndiana has become one of the most well known and respected tourism specialists in the Caribbean. As a journalist she attends the most important conferences, promoted by the Caribbean Hotel Association (CHA) and the Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO). Her work has been recognized with the following awards: “Huesped Distinguida” (Distinguished Guest) of Santo Domingo City (Dominican Republic, 1998), and the “Star Journalist” in the Annual Conference of Tourism in Aruba (CATA, 1999 and 2000). She was also given recognition for the support to the tourism development in Jamaica (1997), and the Caribbean Hotel Association (CHA), along with the Caribbean Media Exchange (CMEx).

She was also been recognized for her contribution to the support of tourism industry in the Caribbean through her TV program “Caribbean World”, aired by Caribbean Traveling Network Dominicano and TeleAruba . Most recently she completed a 62 chapter series of the TV shows “A Toda Costa” and “Mundo Verde” in her native country Venezuela.

Almost two decades ago Yndiana was the founder editor of Curacao Today and Bonaire Today, the sister papers of Aruba Today, a full color daily newspaper dedicated to the tourism industry development in Aruba, where she lived for two years. She also aired two radio shows on Hit 94 and Channel 90 in Aruba, during the two years she lived and worked on this Dutch Island (1999-2001). She collaborates with her two sons, Raul and Cristobal, who have been instrumental in supporting her with both camera work and audiovisual production for promotional videos. Her son Raul lives in Venezuela and Cristobal in North Carolina.

Through out these years Yndiana have been working as an executive, and the official representative of tourism for the Island of Trinidad and Tobago (TIDCO and TDC). Before that she worked with Captain Don’s Habitat, Captain Don’s Habitat Bonaire, Holiday Inn Aruba and Holiday Inn Sun Spree of Montego Bay for Latin America. She has launched important Caribbean websites along with doing E-newsletters for Islands and products.

In 1974, she went from Caracas, Venezuela, to Santa Barbara, California to study and learn English. She finished her Senior Year (12th grade) in Laguna Blanca School) in 1975, and them went to Santa Barbara City College for another year.

While in the U.S. she learned about healthy foods, yoga, and exercise, which introduced her to a whole new life style. In 1978 she was given a scholarship to study Paper Engineering in Spain. After college she returned to Caracas, but traded in Engineering for Journalism at the Central University in Caracas. As a child she began working around and with journalism with her father, who had a well respected social and political radio show called Radioperiodico Orientacion.

Along with journalism she began working in printing and broadcasting media communications; radio, TV, newspapers and magazines. She always included a segment on Healthy Life (“Vida Sana con Indiana”), whether it is TV, radio or print.

AND NOW…

No matter what island she was working with, she was always seeking natural health food stores, yoga, and better ways to eat. While in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 2004, she discovered the wonders of Ayurvedic medicine through an Ayurvedic doctor. Since then she has been following the Ayurvedic way, which has made dramatic changes in her health. After doing a seminar with Dr. Prerak Shah, she went to Gujarat, India (Ahmedabad), for Ayurvedic training, which included self-massage and shirodhara.

In 2007, Yndiana was the presenter of Ayurveda and Tourism at the Sustainable Development Tourism Conference held in Cayman Islands.

In 2009 she met her present partner, Bill Milligan, who is a retired family physician from New Jersey, who has been involved with holistic medicine for fifteen years, and Eden Energy Medicine for eight years. She now has discovered the beauty of our body’s natural energetic systems, which includes Chakras, Meridians, Auras, “strange flows”, along with others. She now is on another path, all part of taking care of oneself, through knowledge of Ancient systems, some more than five thousand years old.

Yndiana and Bill now split their time between the Mexican Caribbean and Wilmington, North Carolina and also promote alternative medicine (Integrative Healing Forum of Wilmington), and Ecotourism.