by Matthew Allison | May 28, 2009 | Asia
One of My Greatest Trekking Adventures May 2009: I first learned about Papua and its tribes of penis gourded men from a documentary. The idea of a tribe of men wearing nothing but penis gourdes to be honest seemed absurd to me and I couldn’t believe that such a...
by Matthew Allison | Mar 31, 2009 | South America & Antarctica
March 2009/Day 1: I wanted to visit the Galápagos Islands, a remote archipelago of volcanic islands famed for their unique wildlife, which played a crucial role in Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection. My goal was to experience the wildlife and raw...
by Matthew Allison | Mar 30, 2009 | South America & Antarctica
March 2009: On this trip to Ecuador, beyond exploring the Galápagos Islands-Independant Travel to the Galapagos Islands | Venture The Planet, my goal was to venture deep into the Amazon Rainforest and visit Yasuní National Park—a place that keeps drawing me back. I...
by Matthew Allison | Jan 23, 2009 | Mexico, North America
A Layover Adventure: Climbing the Pyramids of Teotihuacán In January 2009, with a 10-hour layover in Mexico City on my way to Tijuana from Panama, I decided to make the most of my time by visiting Teotihuacán. Taking a combination of metro and public bus from the...
by Matthew Allison | Dec 3, 2008 | Central America
Darien Gap December 2008/January 2009: Few places in the world are as mysterious and alluring as the dense, foreboding jungles of the Darién Gap. This is a wilderness so deep, mountainous, and hostile that it remains the only break in the Pan-American Highway, which...
by Matthew Allison | Nov 29, 2008 | Europe
Exploring Moldova: Europe’s Least-Visited Country and Its Unresolved Conflict November 2008: As part of a two-week journey through the Balkans and the former Yugoslavia, my friend Dan and I spent three days in Moldova. I was particularly excited to visit Europe’s...
by Matthew Allison | Nov 29, 2008 | Europe
Break-Away Republic of Transnistria Transdniestria: A Soviet Time Capsule and a Break-Away Republic Adventure November 2008: As part of a multi-country journey through Eastern Europe, my friend Dan and I set our sights on Transdniestria—a self-declared breakaway...
by Matthew Allison | Nov 26, 2008 | Europe
Exploring Albania: From Communist Isolation to Modern Transformation November 2008: I visited Albania twice—first in 2008 during a two-week backpacking trip across the Balkans with my friend Dan, and later in September 2021 with my wife Paula. On my first visit, Dan...
by Matthew Allison | Nov 25, 2008 | Europe
November 2008: As part of a two-week backpacking trip across the Balkans, my friend Dan and I spent three days in Serbia. Our main goal was to explore Belgrade and observe how the country has rebounded from the NATO bombing campaign of 1999, which contributed to the...
by Matthew Allison | Nov 25, 2008 | Europe
November 2008: Traveling to Bosnia was one of the highlights of my two weeklong backpacking trip across the Balkans with my friend Dan because I was able to put faces and names to the victims, I watched in the news reports during the 90s when I was a young kid. I not...
