Doing nothing is hard work

Since I have no photos from this lazy day please enjoy this pic of a typical front page of a Mexican newspaper. As you can tell, Adrian enjoyed it.

Just as we promised ourselves, we spent the day in the hostal doing nothing, well nothing that involved leaving the hostal. Instead, Adrian caught up on his favourite tv programs and I spent the entire day uploading photos and a little bit of time updating the blog. Sure there’s wireless everywhere but it’s slow especially when there are ten people with laptops using it. Yup, that’s the new backpacker fully equipped with laptop, digital camera, psp, skype headgear spending more time looped in with people back home than the person next to them at the hostal. And we're just as guilty although trying not to be.

But all the peace and quiet meant we could make plans for the next leg of our journey to Oaxaca about 6 hours south east of Mexico City. Good thing because checking the bus company websites revealed a limited number of buses contrary to everything we’d read. Panicked I reached out to the Lonely Planet Bulletin Board where a couple of fellow travelers told me the websites were on the fritz. We could indeed show up the next morning without a ticket and get on the next bus.

After a cheap dinner around the corner from the hotel, we repacked our bags a feat that is still just as hard as when we did it back and Toronto and went to sleep. Well I tried to get to sleep. An hour later I woke up scratching furiously at my arm. I turned on the light to discover it covered in welts, some two inches across. I immediately assumed the worst. Bedbugs! But no when I heard buzzing and saw something flying through the air, I was actually relieved to discover it was a mosquito or three that had been feasting on the one part of my body not under the covers while Adrian slept shirtless, snoring and untouched right next to me. My pasty glow-in-the-dark skin was irresistible to not just the sun but all bloodsuckers too.

I went back to bed pulling the sheets around everything but my nose, half expecting to wake up with 50 bites on the tip of it. But alas, at 7am it was only the usual sirens, horns and car alarms that woke us up. The noise is one thing we were definitely not going to miss. Loaded up we headed into the Metro for the last time getting off at TAPO – the eastern bust station which was tiny compared to the Terminal Norte and got on the next bus to Oaxaca.

Making a list checking it twice

a peek into my obsessive compulsive planning mind 

No this isn't a post full of the Christmas spirit. Rather this post is a list of lists. No, wait! Come back! Actually, I'd like to run too. 

We've entered the home stretch. Less than 3 months to go and so much to do, hence the lists. Lots of lists. 

But you've already seen the first one. The "Where are we going?" list. And that only took a year to compile. And it's only rev.7. 

The second list is medical. There's the list of doctors to visit. Travel Doc. Family Doc. Eye Doc. Dentist. 

Then there's the list of shots to get. And their prices. Oy-vey.

Yellow Fever - $75 - already have 

Typhoid - $30 - right before we leave

Hepetitis A - $120 - already have

Hepetitis B - $90 - first shot done, second shot due now, and the last shot we'll have to get on the road (the Doctor reco'ed Costa Rica as a good country to seek medical attention in)

Menengitis - $130 - right before we leave 

Flu Shot - FREE 

Japanese encephalitis - $270 - yikes, but not until we're getting ready to head to Asia. 

Between this and all the blood I've had taken, no wonder I'm feeling like a pin cushion, a very poor pin cushion. 

And let's not forget Malaria. Oh Malaria, we've never met and I already hate you. For the first year we'll be travelling in and out of at risk areas for the first 6 months and then solidly at risk for the next 6. That's a whole lot of medication to carry around - and let me tell you, it's not cheap. Malarone, the one with the least side effects and the most effective, is also the most expensive. That's about $20 a day for 365 days which means for the first time in 30 years I've written to Santa.

Dear Santa, 

I have been moderately good this year. For Christmas,  Adrian and I would like a year supply of Malarone. And if you can't afford the whole $6000 we'll take half of that. 

Thank you,

Liz.

P.S. I'll leave beer and peanuts out for you. 

Rather that visions of sugar plums dancing through our heads, it was dreams of a sugar daddy to pay the way. Good news. There is a cheaper drug option. Bad news. It's been known to cause severe depression, violence and hallucinations in a very small amount of people who take it. So let's hope my insurance covers the other one. If not, I'll give you the heads up before we start taking the cheaper option so you can take the appropriate cover. 

And if I wasn't feeling poor already, there's the third list. Packing. 

Yes, I have discovered despite an apartment full of crap, we still need (or want) so much stuff for our trip. It's a reminder of how much our lifestyle is going to change once we're on the road. 

There's the techie stuff:

laptop - $600 on craigslist - so I can update this silly little blog 

camera gear - $2000 and counting - so I can take purdy pictures

hard drive - $250 - so I can store all those purdy pictures

iPod - FREE with airmiles - for music and movies on long bus rides to nowhere

PSP - FREE with christmas present - so Adrian can be amused on long bus rides to nowhere

There's the clothing: 

I'll spare you the list this time (although if you really are interested, I've added links to my lists over there on the right under Odds and Ends). Even unfashion plates like us are struggling to come up with a year's wardrobe that fits in a small back pack. The key appears to be multipurpose clothes, i.e. pants that turn into shorts, sweaters that turn into vests, bras that turn into emergency flotation device. okay, I made that last one up but you get the idea. 

To the manufacturers of these travel clothes, I have a couple of complaints. Must everything be made of fleece? And have you not received the colours of '09 from Pantone? Or any of the last 10 years.  I don't recall hunter green, plaid, or tropical prints appearing in any of the swatches. I wish Fluevog made some footwear appropriate for jungle treks. 

And finally there's the travel gear, the things I've never had a use for in the last 35 years but have been assured by every resource that we'll need on the road: 

multitool - 100 tools in one, for only $75 

headlamps - for midnight trips to the loo, outhouse, hole in the ground

silk sleep sheets - for avoiding bedbugs and bugs in general, 2 for $50

portable clothesline - $10

travel towels - remarkably like a sham-wow (without the creepy sales guy) 2 for $50

compass - hoping to find a dollar store keychain one with a thermometer

universal drain plug - ?

and... 

What am I doing here? What are you doing here? It's Christmas and there's turkey leftovers to pick at, sentimental movies to cry over, alcohol to drink, cakes to snack on, family to fight with and presents to return. 

See you in 2009 with (hopefully) less lists and more fun. I better put that promise down on my to do list before I forget.

Edit: Good news Malarone is covered by my insurance. New eyeglasses and contacts however are not. Oh well, you win some and you lose some.