Adela Ucar

Adela was born in Bilbao, Spain.

As a teenager, her favourite TV programme was Pilot Guides with Ian Wright – and she always dreamed of becoming a TV presenter. Ten years later, whilst working as an assistant producer, she met Ian Wright in person – and her wildest dreams came true.

Adela graduated from the University of Navarra, Spain with a bachelor’s degree in Audiovisual Communication. She then moved ‘down under’ to Australia where she lived for over a year whilst studying a postgraduate degree in Documentaries at the Victorian College of Arts in Melbourne.

After returning to Spain in 2004, Adela was selected to enter a Discovery Channel competition for young documentary filmmakers called Reel Race. Competing against five other contestants, she made six mini documentaries in five weeks, travelling through The Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Macao and Papua New Guinea, working entirely on her own, to a very tight budget and an equally tight deadline! She won the competition and worked for Discovery Networks Asia in Singapore for two months. Since then she has been working as a producer on history, travel and social documentaries with both British and Spanish crews.

Adela has done a lot of travelling visiting most of Europe, Northern Africa, Tanzania, Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico, and Argentina. She also spent three months surfing along the Eastern coast of Australia, Fiji and Brazil.

Travel philosophy

“I prefer not to judge a place by the first impression. Sometimes it takes time to discover the character and beauty of a town or a country, and it’s only after a few days, when you’ve met the locals and got into the pace of life that you realise its true nature. Then you’re able to make an accurate judgment.”

Worst experiences

“I went to Brazil with my family and after they left I planned to stay for another three weeks on my own travelling south from Rio to find some good surfing. On the first wave I rode I fell over on top of another surfer, cut my breast and broke my surf board. That same day I got a huge infection on my big toe that left me lying in bed for four days in terrible pain. At night there was a huge storm and a power cut for three days in the little town where I was staying. There was no one else apart from me in the “pousada” and I read The Pillars of the Earth in six days. When my toe got a bit better I tried to surf and my board broke yet again. That’s when I decided to return home, before things got any worse.”

Favorite Places

“My favourite place is the most memorable place I’ve ever been… and that’s Australia. I still want to go back and visit the desert – but the time I spent travelling along the coast in a camper van, meeting people that are now among my best friends, sleeping and eating on deserted beaches, surfing fantastic waves, watching dolphins and whales. it made a huge impression on me.”

Top travel tips

Accept the unexpected and take advantage of it rather than complaining because things didn’t happen as you planned.