A Canadian couple that has been travelling the world since 2009 was named one of 10 “Travellers of the Year” by National Geographic for their globe-trotting adventures and clever way of finding accommodations.

Five years ago, Dalene Heck and her husband Pete sold their house in Okotoks, Alta., bought a one-way ticket to Bolivia and didn’t look back.

The couple said they made the decision to set off after a barrage of personal tragedies in 2007 -- including the unexpected death of Dalene’s sister -- pushed them to discover the world.

“We discussed then what it really was that we wanted to get out of our lives,” Dalene said on CTV’s Canada AM Friday. “It made us re-focus on what was important to us and what would make us happy.”

The Hecks sold all their possessions, but beyond that, had no set travel plans.

“We basically just purchased one-way tickets to Sucre, Bolivia and it sort of just went from there,” Pete said. “We knew we had a passion to travel, it just a matter of how long we can do it.”

Dalene said it was a “watershed moment” when they discovered house-sitting as a means to keep accommodation costs low, and become more “ingrained” in the communities they were visiting.

“After backpacking around South America for a year, we knew that we were really kind of tired of moving every two to three nights, and by house-sitting, we can sit in one place for a longer period of time,” Dalene said.

Pete said Turkey is one of the places they both hold close to their heart.

“We spent six months house-sitting in a remote town on the northwest coast and it was an incredible place,” he said.

The pair, who document their travels on a blog and Twitter, consider setting down some roots “every once in a while.”

“We have some places in our minds we would like to return to, maybe for a longer period of time, but overall we have the desire to keep moving,” Dalene said.

National Geographic Traveller, who recognized the couple for inspiring readers to realize that travel opens boundless opportunities, will run a feature story on the Hecks in their November issue.