Throwback Thursday

The first time I met Marcus, I was finishing my freshman year of college and Marcus was just graduating.  It was the spring of 2001.  He told me that he had had his friend, Jenny, buy him an airplane ticket anywhere in the world (aside from war-torn countries and with a budget of $1,200).  He was going to arrive at the airport not knowing where he was headed in the world, and his goal was to find day labor and make enough to get himself back home in time for grad school.  So, Marcus was Superman to me.  Still is.  ;-)

His first backpacking trip abroad was pre-blog, and so he journaled about his travels through Eastern Europe from internet cafes by emailing his friend and having him copy the text directly into HTML code.  I was one of his first readers, even though I didn't meet him again for a few years after his adventure.

In 2004, when I graduated from college, I had my own first backpacking trip abroad -- in Western Europe.  And then, in 2008, just before Marcus and I both left graduate school and moved to New York City, we took our first backpacking trip together.  

Our trip through Central America was post-blog, pre-iPhone.  The height of the Blackberry era and just at the dawn of Twitter ("What hath God twat?" - Stephen Colbert).  We documented our travels on Blogspot under the title "Hola, Pollo!" as our Lonely Planet guide had instructed us to be polite and introduce ourselves to the local chickens, in addition to their owners, on our travels.

I had thought we archived and deleted Hola, Pollo years ago.  Turns out we missed it in our internet history cleaning sweeps.  So, enjoy this trip down memory lane if you desire.  For a limited time only, you can see a picture of me in the shower (don't worry, it's more-or-less SFW), as well as some of Marcus during one of his most famous hair experiments.  Hola, Pollo!