chris_i79's VirtualTourist Home Page

Hello, My name is Chris and I have a problem........ I am a travel addict! It seemed very harmless at first, a simple 3 month trip to Australia. While in Australia I choose to extend my ticket and make it a year long experience. Ever since that trip I find myself planning excursions around the world, sometimes while I am experiencing the culture of a foreign country, I am already thinking about where I am headed next! Along the way I have made some very good friends and met distant relatives around the world. I feel very fortunate that my drug of choice is traveling and hope that my wallet can continue to support my habit in the future.

If you are a friend from home, a person I have met abroad or just somebody surfing the net, welcome to my site. I hope you find it useful and interesting.

When I was growing up I was able to visit many places nearby my home town of Thunder Bay, Unfortunately places "near" were usually a 4 to 8 hour drive at minimum. I used to go to Minneapolis, Winnipeg and Duluth many times a year for hockey tournaments. As I got older the trips got a little further and longer. I went to Florida twice (the first time we drove, it took 3 days each way!)

Finally in 1999 I took my first major trip. I went to Australia for a 3 month stay. I travelled alone, but was lucky enough to have relatives in Brisbane and meet friends in Sydney who were both very good to me. I loved Aus so much that I delayed leaving many times and ended up staying a full year, I actually took the very last flight I was allowed to without having to buy another ticket. I was very fortuante to be in Sydney during the 2000 Summer Oympics and saw many events. During the year I was able to travel up and down the backpacker route of the east coast. I made it as far North as Cape Tribulation and as far South as the Great Ocean Rd. I also made a quick stop in the center to visit the spiritual heart of Australia, Uluru. Sadly In December of 2000 the inevitable came, my visa expired and I was forced to go home.

Highlights of this trip were:

Being in Sydney during the Olympics (and just daily Sydney, my favorite city)
Bridgeclimb
Diving on the Great Barrier Reef
The Great Ocean Rd
Magnetic Island
Whitsunday Islands
Byron Bay
The Outback

Fast forward three years now and I am now looking into returning to Aus in a permanent kinda way....so if anyone out there has some knowledge or tips regarding citizenship send them my way, it would be greatly appreciated.

When I came back home to Northern Ontario I was so bored that I could not stand it. I managed to save enough money to travel to Europe for 5 weeks. I flew to England and saw London for a week. Then it was an incredibly cheap Ryanair flight that took me to Spain, where I explored nearly the entire country. Next it was on Portugal to soak up the sun in the Algarve. Some of my favorite places during this trip were:

Barcelona, San Sebastian, Sevilla and Lagos (Portuagal).

When I returned home from Europe I enrolled in the International Business Management program at Confederation College. This course provided me the opportunity to travel to South America.... twice! The first time was in 2002 and was a short 2 and a half week visit to Paraguay and Iguacu Falls in Brazil. I enjoyed my initial visit to Paraguay so much that I decided to do a full semester there as part of my final semester placement.

In January of 2003 I departed Thunder Bay and went to Mexico for five weeks. Here I attended Cemanauac, a Spanish school in a town an hour South of Mexico City called Cuernavaca. During my time I managed to explore Mexico during the weekends and thought it was great! I have a lot of friends in Mexico City who once again made great hosts and tour guides. After that it was on to Paraguay for the second time. While in Paraguay I participated in an economic development program being performed by Confederation College and CIDA (Canadian International Development Agency). Of course I managed to cram in traveling at every possible moment while I was in South America. I was able to see most of Paraguay, including the remote Chaco. I traveled to Brazil going to Foz de Iguacu twice as well as Rio de Janeiro (my nomination as Paradise on earth!) and Camboriu in the state of Santa Catarina. Once my placement ended in late May I went to Bolivia and Peru to climb the Inca trail and experience the wonder of Lake Titicaca, the worlds highest lake. Then it was on through Argentina before my bank account decided that it was time for me to return to Canada.

Highlights of this trip
Rio de Janeiro
Cusco and the Inca trail
Buenos Aires
Foz de Iguacu
Amazing cultures and grasping spanish

May 10 2004

Frequent Flier points allowed me to escape the horrible Canadian winter and spend just over a month in Mexico. I had experienced a taste of Mexico the year before when I studied Spanish in Cuernavaca. However this trip allowed to see a lot more of the country as my travel was not restricted to weekends. My trip consisted of some time in Mexico City visiting friends and then driving from Mexico City to Cancun and back, a distance of over 5000 km. I never imagined Mexico to have such variety and loved my time there, I know it will not be my last trip there. A special thanks to all my Mexican friends who made it such a wonderful experience.

I moved to Vancouver, British Columbia in July 2004 and have enjoyed my time here so far. The mild weather and beautiful scenery definately back up Vancouver's reputation as one of the best cities in the world to live in.

I am now graduated from my program recieving my International Business and International Business Management Diplomas. As far as travel my next big personal trip is...... who knows!!! I would love to say Africa, although right now my bank account is still a little angry with me from South America (funny how 6 months without a pay check will do that huh?) and a long trip is probably some time away.

I hope that my pages are helpful and that you enjoy the photos. The pages of Australia and Europe have photos taken with my old Pentax 35mm camera. Any other pages have photos from my digital camera. I purchased a Cannon A40 in 2002 and am extremely happy with it. (this explains why there is more detail in the new pages).

If you feel like writing me feel free, even in Spanish....it will give me a chance to practise. Also if you find any errors on my pages let me know, some of these pages were created in internet cafes with very poor keyboards (hahaha)....or late at night when I was not paying attention. So let me know and I will fix them.

99% of the photos on my pages I have taken myself, but in a few rare cases I had to resort to the net. ALL OF MY PICTURES ARE MY PROPERTY and can not be duplicated without my consent or a letter provided from this broadcaster (use your sports announcer voice)

This website is constantly developing so keep checking back!