Travel Blog '09 -- Part 1 -- Intro

Most people: "So, where did you go on vacation, Brandon?"

Me: "The Galapagos."

Most people: "The what?"

It's amazing how many people have never heard of the Galapagos islands. And even the ones who are familiar with them seem to have no idea where they are located.

Most people: "South Africa? ...The Iraq? ...Such as?"

For those of you who don't know, the Galapagos islands are located north of Gilligan's island, south of Atlantis, and east of the island on Lost (thanks Wikipedia!). This archipelago of volcanic islands has become a symbol of evolutionary theory ever since Jesus first visited them less than 6,000 years ago and invented finches and the beagle (thanks Institute for Creation Research!).

I traveled there with my friend and yearly travel buddy Mark who lives in Chicago and works in a zoo as a dolphin trainer. Some advice: if you don't like talking about your line of work while on vacation, I suggest traveling with a dolphin trainer. Trust me. No one cares about how many Toyota Corollas you have expertly trained to back up into small parking spaces when there's a Dolphin Trainer™ around. He eats a lot of tuna, by the way.

The Galapagos islands belong to Ecuador which is where we spent a little over two weeks including our pre-cruise visit to the Amazon rain forest. Unfortunately, Quito, the capital of Ecuador, also belongs to Ecuador and that's where our journey began. Here on this blog, I plan to meticulously document every step of our adventure. Or, at least what I can remember and/or make up since I took no notes other than filling up my travel journal with drawings of stick figures getting it on. Classy drawings, people. I'm no sicko.

So, rather than write one incredibly long post, I hope to write many short ones. Or maybe a reasonable amount of medium ones. Or, considering my blog track record, this might be the last you ever hear from me until two years from now. Whatever the case may be, I hope you'll join me as I recap a fantastic vacation that a poor, jobless slob like you could not afford to take in our current economic climate.

I think I'm starting things off on the right foot, no?