English Only?

Tonight I grabbed a few drinks with a friend of a friend who is also going to South America for several months at about the same time I am going. She is flying to Buenos Aires at the beginning of October and flying out of Lima in April. Apparently she, too, felt this was a good time in her life to do an extended trip. During the course of the conversation we declared we would meet up some where along the way. This makes the fourth acquaintance from DC I will meet up with in South America. That is a lot of time to speak English while I am there. Am I defeating the purpose of this trip?

On the up side, each person I plan on meeting there speaks Spanish. I guess I can attempt to speak only Spanish to them as well. But am I bringing DC with me?

Fiesta Foreva

A few nights ago DL mentioned a going away party before I leave. This was actually brought up after seeing a brochure for Chik-fil-A party platters (just an excuse for chik-fil-a, i think). The thought of a going away party had never crossed my mind. Is four months of travel really worth a party? Leaving for grad school, peace corp, even six months around the world: all good reasons for a party. But an extended vacation?

OK, any excuse can be found for a party. I guess anything can happen while I'm there. Like possibly finding a design job and deciding to stay for a couple of years. Who knows? Maybe a party is a good idea — in case four months turns into two years. In which case I'd regret not having a party to say goodbye...

Good Advice

I did a happy hour yesterday at my favorite dive bar, Fans, with a former coworker who has since quit his job (thus the "former" label) and traveled the world. He imparted some good advice: you can't see it all. He's right. South America is a large continent. There's no way I can see everything I should see in four short months. Hell, I could spend four months in just one country and I wouldn't be able to see everything I should see. His suggestion: if I ever find myself in a situation where I have to pick one site over another, tell myself I will be back. And it's true. There will be plenty of time in the future to revisit a country.

One other piece of advice he had was to always pick social interaction over a "must-see" site. I agree with this with some reservations. Meeting people in other countries and really getting to know them and how they think can provide immeasurable insight to ideas and beliefs outside my "box". It can also lend great stories to share in the future. But it would be difficult to convince myself to spend a late night in a bar with a group of peruvians knowing I might miss my ride to Machu Picchu the next day. Hopefully I'll have the opportunity to do both.

Another Superlative

The Northern-most capital city? Reykjavík (seen it)
Southern-most city? Ushuaia (will see it in January)
Highest elevated capital city? La Paz (will see it in December)
Driest place in the world? OK, not a city. But the Atacama Desert is the driest place in the world and I just discovered it's a mere 180km into Chile from Bolivia. I actually just discovered, um, it. Never heard of the Atacama Desert before this morning when I noticed a question about it on Lonely Planet's thorntree.com. But after seeing pictures, realizing how close it is to where I'll be, and begging my friend to drive me over there, I now find myself trying to figure out how to fit one more country into my travels.

Four Months

...and counting.

I've Got Reservations

Turns out the boat I originally wanted, but was full, now has an open space. So I reserved that space and put down a deposit. I'll be sailing (motoring) around the Galapagos Islands on the Encantada. And it is $300 cheaper than the other yacht. Booya

Extended Stay

After talking to a couple of the outfits in Ecuador that work with various Galapagos yachts, I realized none of the trips would fit my schedule without making me take some time away from the countries I planned to visit later in the trip. Granted I could have dropped a lot more money and found one to accommodate me. But these 8-day yacht cruises (in my price range) were already hovering around $1200 (ok, so not really in my price range). Add to that the $380 round trip ticket to the islands from mainland Ecuador. Plus a $100 Galapagos park entrance fee, and I was already well over budget. So spending more on a yacht wasn't a solution. What to do?

Call Delta and see how much it would cost to add a week to my flight schedule. There was a service charge of $180, but the ticket price went down so I ended up only paying $125 to switch my dates. Now I can take the yacht I can afford, at the time it's available, and it won't take any time away from seeing the other countries. Problem solved.

Well, not exactly. After changing my ticket, I contacted the company I had been working with to reserve a slot on the yacht I wanted. Turns out they had upgraded the boat in the past two weeks and the price had jumped $180. Now I'm looking for another boat I can afford...

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...