We the patriotic people...

My new passport came in the mail yesterday. Holy patriotism, Batman! There is no mistaking this as anything but a U.S. passport. This thing could single-handedly win the 'war on terror'. So much for being subtle when I travel. "Yes, I'm a US citizen. Why yes, those are amber waves of grain on page 18. You are correct, we are patriotic sons a bitches".

Did the old ones even say United States on them?

Apparently these new ones contain electronics in them. How's that for Big Bro? I'm sure the first thing Peru did was drop several million to upgrade their immigration control in order to process these things for us. I counted three pages for the old-fashioned stamps. Every other page is reserved for visas. At the rate we're going, we'll probably need them.

Anyway, I'm going to miss getting all the stamps (they didn't send back my old passport). But at least I've got one in hand.

Planned

I've been reading several entries in lonelyplanet.com's Thorn Tree–a travel forum for people to ask questions/provide answers/suggest tips on travel–and have come to realize I may not be able to make up a lot of this trip as I go. It was my intention to arrive in Quito, Ecuador, and move from place to place as I felt like it. I thought the only time I had to be any where was January 30th In Ushuaia, Argentina, for the trip to Antarctica at the end of my trip. But it's looking as though a few of the bigger sites I wanted to see are filling up fast and I need to plan dates to see them. Machu Picchu and the Galapagos islands being the big two. Apparently only 250 tourists are allowed on the Inca trail a day. Thus reservations are required months in advance. And what I thought was a loooong low tourist season in the Galapagos is only a month or two. I'm just hoping since I'll be near both of these areas in the low season, I won't need to pick specific days just yet. Just to be safe, I emailed a few outfits to see what they suggest. Book now, I assume will be the response.

Planning out each day sort of takes the fun out of it. Then again, I probably won't care how organized I was when I'm looking down on Machu Picchu at sunrise one morning.

Layers

I received a package in the mail yesterday from Fathom Expeditions–the group leading the excursion to Antarctica. The package was full of info like what to wear and papers to sign in case of an emergency. I took the time to actually read all the fine print (they are able to cancel the trip–but no mention of a refund?) and saw that if needed, Argentina and Chile have fine medical facilities. That's great news. But if it's taking us two days just to chug over to Antarctica, what are the chances I'll get to use them if I really need them?

Anyway, the brochure was, of course, chock full of pictures. I don't think I could be any more excited now. I also got the latest Footprints Guide to South America which I spent most of last night reading. Much more detailed than Lonely Planet. But yes, I've still got six months to go...