Get to know your Rockies & Vancouver tour host: me!

by Lino DiNallo

Though best known as our *cough* humble scribe, Staff Writer Lino DiNallo (read: me) will lead his first esteemed group of homosexualists through the Rockies, Okanagan, and Vancouver (the city he calls home). Learn more about hitting the road with him in this handy Q&A.

Q: First of all, isn’t it a bit self-involved to interview yourself in the third person?

A: As RuPaul – future President of the United States – does do declare, “If you can’t love yourself, how the hell you gonna love somebody else?” Also – I live in my head.

Q: Fair enough. Now please calm my concerns about your ‘Scenes From’ blog posts. You seem to revel in drunken tomfoolery. How could we trust you to show handsome homos, lovely lesbians, and other upstanding members of the queer community a good time given those downmarket antics?

A: I’m just a cam ham that uses inebriation as a literary device. Believe it or not, I prefer my beverages heavily caffeinated with an extra shot of pretense. I’m *much* better known for towel turban portraiture.

Q: Why don’t you break down this trip for us.

A: Things kick off in Calgary, home of The Stampede – why not practice your lasso skills to wrangle a cowboy? Then we’re off to The Rocky Mountains with stops in Banff, Jasper, Lake Louise, and The Columbia Icefields. Stand by for some of the most scenic drives of your life and one crazy school bus ride. Finally we’ll swing through the Okanagan – Western Canada’s premier wine region – before we wrap it up with Supermodel of the West Coast, Miss Vangie-Vancouver.

Q: What else can you tell us about Vancouver?

A: I love how socially forward the city strives to be, even by looking back. City Hall unanimously and officially acknowledged this land as the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations.

Q: Will travelers get to learn more about the First Nations?

A: On our Talking Trees tour through Stanley Park – the best city park in the world some say –  we’ll learn how every tree and plant has been deemed sacred, and how they’re still used by indigenous societies for food, medicine, art and technology.

Q: I’m told things end with a bang. He hot?

A: No, smutmonger. Our tour wraps the same day as the Vancouver Pride, the largest parade in Western Canada. Consider sticking around an extra couple of days – if only to sleep off the literary hangover, suntan on our many beaches, or drive up to Whistler on the Sea To Sky Highway.

Our Rockies & Vancouver trip is only 1 of our 10 Year Tours to celebrate a decade in business.