A new take on Evolution

As I was sitting in traffic this morning, I was contemplating the monotony of daily life and the infintesimal smallness of people's brains. Which got me thinking about evolution, as it tends to do, which got me thinking of evolution's counterpart, creationism.
Creationists have usually maintained that the grand scheme of human evolution - that we were once greater apes who slowly developed the skills and features that we possess today - is a bunch of baloney. In their view, we cannot be beholden to those "inferior" creatures.
However, what if creationism directly implicates our history as apes? It would seem to me that the life in an African jungle, with no worries of global warming, car insurance, or political agendas, would be a lot more like the garden of Eden than we would like to admit. Think about it: Gorillas and chimps have no mortal enemies, they live on sweet fruit and plant shoots, with an easy-going familial structure.
So, maybe we were monkeys, as the evolution tells us, living in a beautiful pristine African jungle, akin to the Garden of Eden. Then we got high-minded ideas, which led us out of that jungle and into the wilds of Eurasia and the Americas, blighted with our own intelligence and determined to make McDonalds a staple of our diet. Perhaps both theories are right. We were created, but as monkeys, and our evolution since then is part of the plan to realize the truth and error of our ways as a growing intelligence.

An idea

So, there is a grant program through MSR that allows people to apply for treks throughout the world. It is a youth-only thing, under 25 I believe. And there is no real other requirements, other than you have to write a grant, have a clear proposal, and then be accepted. I would really be interested in doing that, but I have not much clue where to go. I'm torn between doing something majorly huge, like biking from Kathmandhu to Istanbul, (10 000km) or being more of a smaller scope. Kayaking around New Zealand, trekking through the Gobi desert, a photgraphy trip along the great wall of China... all are ideas that I've had so far. The Darien Gap of Panama would be a unique challenge, but probably beyond my range of ability at this moment. Ditto with any rock-climbing attempts or such. But hiking Gabon's national parks would be fun, and to see surfing hippos at the end. Or to China to view wild panda bears....

Any suggestions?

Laying Awake, wanting to travel, to expand my wings again and take off... But to where??

Turkey?
Costa Rica?
Mongolia?
China?
Madagascar?
Argentina?

Too many choices... not enough time...