January 2003

This page is both my most active and my most evolving page. It started out as a way to document my travels abroad with both my writing and my photography. Well, a couple of things have happened along the way. Firstly, my love of photography which started when I was just a boy has really taken off with my entry into the digital age. Secondly, I have found that I probably enjoy this area more than anyone. I regularly read the storys and check out the photos and I can't believe how much I enjoy doing it. I guess it brings me back to each place in a way that simple memories cannot.

Anyway, I figured hell, I spend a lot of time visting places that are not so far away but still just as interesting. And so I thought I'd include them as well. Typically I include only a brief description of the trip and I post what I decide are some of my favourite shots of the outing.

As to the format, well....rather than change each journey's look to match my current likes, I've decided to leave them just the way they are. In this way you can see a sort of evolution of my website. I'm certainly not a genius when it comes to design but I figure that getting the content out there is more important than the delivery, at least when it comes to this particular site.

October 2001

You don't need to be very well acquainted with me to know that I like to travel to foreign lands and spend time in the mountains. My travel experience is relatively recent although the desire has always been there. Alternatively, my backpacking trips have been a lifelong passion. Moving out west from eastern Canada was a dream come true for me, awakening an even deeper love for the outdoors. Since then I've never taken the mountains for granted and virtually every summer I don my pack and head into one of the many beautiful parks we have both here in BC and in Washington state. In my hectic, technologically driven world I regularly find it necessary to unplug myself from all that binds me to it. I head up into the alpine sometimes for as long as 8 days and the more remote the better as far as I'm concerned. It is hard to explain to the uninitiated or the couldn't care less. Inevitably, it is hard, grueling work, especially as I approach 40. Still, there is something about watching night fall as all around you, snowclad peaks ignite in the setting sun. The sound of a loon's mournful song echoing across a misty lake never fails to send goosebumps down my spine. Even cowering in my tent at 8000 feet while the most violent electrical storm I've ever witnessed, scared the shit out of me, is an experience I would never have missed.

Travel too has also become a regular part of my life. So far I've been limited to the Americas. Not too sure why I keep being drawn back to Central and South America, I just go where my whims take me. I guess places like Peru have always held a certain mystique for me, and so far I've not been disappointed. One thing is for sure, travel has taught me tolerance. I believe that everyone should plunk themselves down and spend some time in a culture that is foreign to their own. It teaches you something that cannot be learned any other way. That the world is a big place, full of different cultures and different ways of doing things. It is easy to look at a culture from the comfort of your living room and form judgments based on the context of your own life. It is an entirely different thing to witness it in the environment that formed a people, to feel, smell and taste the everyday factors of another cultures existence. I used to return home feeling smug and secure in the 'goodness' of my Canadian way of life. Now I come home, and I savor the memories of my fleeting tastes of an exotic way of living. I know that all too soon, they will fade from my memory as the everyday pressures of my 'real' life crowd them out.

Anyway, the content of this section is a compilation of a few of my travel destinations, backpacking trips and even some backroad travels and camping trips. I hope you enjoy them. I certainly enjoyed the process of rediscovering so many memories.

Footnote
In November of 2001 I was forced to replace my beloved Pentax camera, having lost it in Honduras. I replaced it with a Nikon CoolPix 950 digital and now wonder why I didn't do it sooner. This will explain the difference in photo quality that you will find.

Another Footnote
In October of 2002 I replaced my 950 with a CoolPix 4500. I really could not justify it, but then as a bachelor, why the hell would I need to. The 950 was and is a super camera but I started reading up on the new one and well... you know what happens. I've already shot over 1500 photos with the 4500 and it is quite simply an amazing camera. Hopefully you will enjoy my work.