I Want to Go to Paris and Fall in Love with the Great Apes

The world has definitely gotten smaller since the coming of the internet. Apart from talking to people from the other side of the world in real-time, it has provided us the luxury to dream of distant places and go "to infinity and beyond". Choosing our own adventures have never been this easy. It has been mainstream for less than 20 years and yet it has become part of the lives of millions of people around the world. Yesterday as I went online, I found out about an opportunity to go to Paris, to hear from experts, to be part of an event partnered with the United Nations and to save Great Apes. Without the help of the internet, I would not hear current events as fast and I would have found it difficult to pursue my dreams of traveling. Blogging would not even be a word and this wouldn't even reach the 2nd UN-GRASP Council.

Source: UN-GRASP Website

Yes, you heard it right. I am going to blog about saving Apes. Before anyone asks why, I'm going to say, "Why Not?" In this day and age, you are your own editor when you own a blog. Technology has given people, even a non-journalism graduate, a voice and an avenue to be interpreted by the rest of the world.

My first memory of a gorilla came from the cartoon film Tarzan when I was young. The next few images were probably from television too and sometimes from an occasional visit to the zoo. I met a primate once, it was a sleeping tarsier in my own country (Bohol, Philippines). My last and a more exciting memory came from a blog post that I read about a gorilla trekking adventure in Congo by Chris Guillebeau. His recount brought me with him in his trip.

With inspiration from that post and some more travel shows, I now want to experience Africa for myself, observe animals, not just gorillas, from a distance in their natural habitat and to know the role that humanity plays in their plight.

Experts are now looking into technology and how it can help save the Great Apes. I say hold more online competitions to help create awareness and award the participants with a trip of a lifetime - to see the Great Apes. Let more people in, into the wonders of travel, the experience of being close to these great creatures and let them continue writing online in an all-in-one package, without regard for their occupation or educational attainment. Let them have the opportunity to go to where the Great Apes are, accept them as volunteers or volun-tourists for UN-GRASP and make them fall in love naturally. Set up an updated eco-tourism site with a blog so that interested volunteers can be accommodated instead of waiting for vacancies.

Actual experience written online from non-experts who have traveled more than a thousand miles to know more about Great Apes can save the Great Apes.