Keith Martin
I am from Georgia, but I have lived in California for the past few years. I have been working as an engineer since I got out of school six years ago. I have grown tired of working the never changing rat race of ‘normal life’, so I am embarking on a multi-year round the world journey, a retirement of sorts, beginning with a winter contract job in Antarctica. From there, who knows where I will go, but I plan on seeing the whole world and all of the unique cultures, remote wildernesses and amazing history that this planet has to offer. I am planning on traveling as inexpensively as possible, without sacrificing the quality of the adventure, but I am also going to work along the way to help cover my expenses. explorerkeith
Update: 03/03/2008 - I am taking a break from life on the road for a while. I am going to get my blogs up to date over the next several months.
Update: 17th June, 2009 - I am just back from a two month adventure in the Peruvian Amazon. I am working on getting my blogs up to date, but first I am going to write about the Amazon - Stay tuned for the long overdue blogs on Greece and the Middle East. I will be heading to Scandinavia and the Arctic for another sailing adventure at the end of July.
Travel Blog Posts
June 1st 2009
It first hit me when I nestled down into my tiny window seat on LAN flight 072, bound for Lima - My time in the Amazon was over. I had conflicting emotions as the doors on the plane closed. I was definitely happy to be going home, but I was already missing the forest and all of the mysteries hidden beneath its canopy. The plane was filled to capacity with a mixture of foreign tourists and Peruvians. I was surrounded by a group of American high school students who were returning home from a week-long educational trip to Cusco and the Amazon. The students were completely self-absorbed in their odd, popularity games and their chaperones had their hands full trying to prevent an international incident - The class clown was sitting directly in front of me ... read more
The Rivers Ran East, But I Went West
Published: July 7th 2009South America » Peru » Madre de Dios » Puerto Maldonado » Amazon Rainforest
May 29th 2009
It started raining as I sat on the sofa in the lodge waiting for my group to leave. It wasn’t just any rain either, it was a torrential downpour reminiscent of the rainy season and I wasn’t really all that happy to see it. As I sat and talked to the three tourists that would be making the journey up river with me, my mind wandered to my lonely backpack, the one that I had left leaning up against a tree near the river. I thought of all of my dry clothes and my electronics and my extra books and I wondered if, after nearly five exciting years on the road, the pack’s ‘water resistance’ still functioned as it did when I first bought it. I didn’t linger too long on my belongings though. The mist-filled ... read more
The Life of a Guacamayero (Macaw Researcher)
Published: June 23rd 2009South America » Peru » Madre de Dios » Puerto Maldonado » Amazon Rainforest
May 19th 2009
By my fifth week living at Posada Amazonas I was ready for a break. The eight to ten hours I was spending on the trail every day, while immensely enjoyable, were taking their toll on my body. To make things worse, the lumpy, sagging mattress I had been sleeping on had resurrected an old pelvis injury, which I had earned in a fit of stupidity during a mountaineering trip in Yosemite many years before. I spent a few days resting in my bed, hoping to prevent a total flare up that would eventually spread to my lower back, rendering me useless to the project. After my second day in bed it became clear that I was not going to recover sleeping on the same moldy mattress that had caused the flare up in the first place, ... read more
Into The Amazon
Published: June 15th 2009South America » Peru » Madre de Dios » Puerto Maldonado » Amazon Rainforest
May 8th 2009
For those of you who have been following my blog you will notice a large gap. I have decided to start writing about my current travels, but I will fill in the gaps as quickly as I can, so stay tuned and enjoy. A quick glance through the window revealed a seemingly endless blanket of green where, a few minutes before, there had been huge, snow-capped peaks. Just below us a wide ribbon of muddy orange water sliced through the green in a winding, haphazard manner. I knew the river well, though I had only seen it on maps - It was the Tambopata, one of Peru’s last wild rivers. As we got closer to the ground individual trees became distinguishable in the blanket of green and it hit me for the first time just how ... read more
Return to Cumberland Island
Published: May 26th 2012North America » United States » Georgia » Saint Marys
January 27th 2009
It was one of my favorite places in the world - A land of primordial maritime forests filled with palms and twisted live oaks, their gnarled boughs draped in thick curtains of Spanish moss; a mysterious island surrounded by tranquil salt marshes and the raging Atlantic, and seemingly forgotten in time; a pristine home to wild horses, bobcats, turkeys, deer, feral pigs, and armadillos, with swamps filled with alligators and snakes; a beachcombers’ dream with miles and miles of empty, shell-strewn beaches, where the treasures of the deep abounded; paradise! A week-long backpacking trip on Cumberland Island was the most anticipated camping trip of the year for my scout troop and every spring through my teen years we all loaded into our old green bus and headed south to the southern-most barrier island on the Georgia ... read more
November 23rd 2007
Here is the final blog from my 2007 journey. It is set in Paris (despite what the tag says). Due to an unfortunate accident with my photos I only have the ones from the first part of my time in Paris – The gargoyles of Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower, and all of the other nice photos are gone. After eleven months on the road I was on my way home. I was tired and I needed a break from the free, roving life. Thoughts of home-cooked meals and familiar faces excited me more than the most exotic of images I could build in my mind. It was an unexpected turn of events, but the same ‘boring’ aspects of the comfortable life that I had been living before I donned my backpack and hit ... read more
November 16th 2007
The blank desert scenery flew past my window as I headed north through Jordan. I knew that just beyond the flat, brown expanses along the road, the fabled crusader fortress of Shobak Castle, rose up in the distant hills, but, despite a strong urge to see it, that wasn’t where I was headed. After six days of wonderfully active exploring in the canyons and mountains of Petra, I was exhausted and I just wanted to rest, so I reluctantly decided to skip the remote, mountaintop citadel. Instead I was on an overcrowded bus bound for Amman, Jordan’s capital. My journey through the Middle East was down to its last week and I no longer had the luxury of an itinerary-less existence on the road. Amman was the end of the road for me, but there were ... read more
Across the Desert to the Canyon of the Crescent Moon
Published: November 25th 2011Middle East » Jordan » South » Petra
November 10th 2007
I walked on into the darkness, guided by a series of dimly flickering candle lanterns. The candlelight revealed the sandy ground and about ten feet of the wind-worn walls of the narrow Siq in a mysterious, red glow. It was a cool night, yet the sand felt warm on my sandaled feet. Despite the steady flow of tourists walking in front of me and behind me, all was silent. Every one of us was completely lost in the moment, eagerly waiting and wondering if what we had come to see would appear just around the next corner. Slowly our procession wound its way deeper into the narrow canyon. The star-filled sky was hidden from our view, except for a narrow sliver that flowed like a sparkling river across the shadows of the upper part of the ... read more
November 5th 2007
The rugged, brown scenery streaked past my window at an alarming rate. Each bend in the road was accompanied by a slight squealing as the tires struggled to keep their tenuous hold on the asphalt. We charged up a slight incline in the road and then, right when we reached the crest, I got a strange sensation like we were flying. It only lasted for a split second before the screech of the tires and a jarring thud confirmed that we had been airborne. I looked up to the driver in the front seat, his gloved hands tightly gripping the steering wheel, and saw a broad smile on his face – He was still in control. My travel companion turned around from the front passenger seat. He had an equally broad smile that I knew mirrored ... read more
November 2nd 2007
Eastward I went toward the edge of Africa and beyond. My route passed the town of Rosetta, famous for the stone found there that helped researchers decipher the hieroglyphics, and continued through the Nile delta. The darkness outside my window eased my desire to watch the landscape go by, so I spent most of the journey fading in and out of sleep. I woke up when we hit bumps in the road, or when we stopped for a restroom break, or when large vehicles passed us in the other direction. The landscape was always the same, featureless darkness, so I always drifted back to sleep. At some point in the night I woke up as the bus entered a tunnel – It was the highlight of the night’s journey. Down we went into the earth leaving ... read more
explorerkeith
| Joined | January 16th 2005 | Trips | 0 |
| Last Login | May 26th 2012 | Followers | 30 |
| Status | BLOGGER | Follows | 0 |
| Blogs | 101 | Guestbook | 312 |
| Photos | 3,373 | Forum Posts | 57 |
Options
Where I Have Been
Map Legend: 12%, 34 of 263 Territories
Lived In 
Traveled Through 
These are all places I hae traveled through or lived in over the last few years. My goal is to get rid of all of the gray on the map.
Blogged From
TravelBlog Awards
Top Photos
Tot: 0.079s; Tpl: 0.006s; cc: 14; qc: 60; dbt: 0.0489s; 1; s:notus w:www (50.28.61.183); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.8mb
