I recently met Teresa Williamson, founder of Tango Diva, for a glass of wine and travel talk. Being an avid traveler myself, I was curious to talk to Teresa about her adventures and most importantly, about the journey which enabled her to literally live, work, and breathe her passion for traveling. Teresa’s project connects women adventurers world-wide, encouraging them to Fly Solo, as the name of her book describes. Read more about her and her travel magazine in this two-part interview.
Q: When did you become a Tango Diva?
A: I officially became a Tango Diva at 30,000 feet above sea level in a plane above the Andes, when I had spent some time in Machu Picchu, Peru, in 2003. I had been trying to negotiate what my life was about and the plane lost an engine heading home, and I realized that I wasn’t doing what I wanted to do. The alarms were going off, the plane was filled with smoke, it was the worst case scenario and I thought, “I have lived a vacuous existence,” and I really want to take some time and give back to women and give back to the world. And the thing that I love so much is travel. I learned how to fly planes, and Tango is the phonetic letter for T, for travel, and Diva is actually the Goddess of Wisdom. So I see Tango Diva as a Goddess of Travel Wisdom, that women put on their dashboard, instead of Mother Mary you put Tango Diva. So that’s how I started!
Q: How do you identify a Tango Diva?
A: Firstly, she walks into a restaurant totally confident, by herself, goes to the bar, and sits down and orders a glass of rosé! Or champagne. And she’s not afraid to, she’s confident, she knows her strength and she’s got her wisdom. So, that’s how you can recognize her. And she’s probably wearing something really cute too. Really decent shoes, like if she’s in Rome she’s definitely going to have wedge-shoes on, she’s not going to be wearing Gucci stilettos! (She laughs) That would be somewhere else, like New York.
