(new) 1+1=2 except online.

Dealing with airlines is never easy, is it?

Today was another official do nothing day. We hadn’t planned it that way. But we were still stinging from the cost of yesterday’s tour, and still tired from all the traveling we’d been doing. So both our bodies and our wallets told us to stop. It was good thing. It allowed us to get down to planning our next phase of traveling. Now that we’ve definitely decided not to go to Brazil and getting close to the end of Argentina it was time to look to our next continent, Africa. So we spent the day looking at the cost of hostels and bus travel. After the last month, we don’t need any more sticker shock.

Then it came time to book our plane tickets. We’d been on the South African Airways site a few times over the last few days. But we’d never been able to commit to purchasing the tickets. It felt a lot like when we were getting ready to by our first tickets to Mexico City almost a year ago. We knew we were going but it took almost two weeks of hemming and hawing before we could press that glowing buy now button on the screen. I don’t know why – butterflies, I guess. Today, however, we were going to do it. But first some more playing around with all the flight options. Yes, I admit it was more procrastination. But hear me out, this was good procrastination. Just for kicks I clicked on the return flight option. Back in Mendoza, Dan and Jillian had suggested buying a return ticket if the price wasn’t much more. You see, South Africa is one of those countries that require proof of exit in order to enter. Technically many other countries we’ve been to have required it only Panama demanded it. But it’s not the border officials that are the problem it’s the airlines who are sticklers for the rules. They won’t let you get on the plane if you don’t have the immigration requirements, sometimes forcing you to by a ridiculously hard to refund, last minute ticket in order to get on board. Better to be safe than--- wtf?!? A return ticket is $500 cheaper than a one way ticket? That’s right for $1200 we could fly there and back or for $1700 we could fly there only. Confused? So were we, for about two minutes before we rushed to buy the return tickets, thinking it was a mistake that would be taken down asap.

Faster than you can say “faster than you can say”, we filled in our info and hit buy now. The site thought and thought and then flashed a dreaded error message. We’d had some trouble with the card back in Chile so Adrian placed a call to Visa to find out if there was an issue. There wasn’t. Okay best to try again. The too-good-to-be true prices were still online. We quickly filled in all our info and once again hit buy now. The page thought and thought and… nope. There was the error message again. Crap. It must be the price; it was a mistake and it was crashing the system. Or so we thought. Oh well, on to looking at hostels. The plane tickets can wait until we’re in BsAs (what the lazy cool kids call Buenos Aires) tomorrow. Or so I thought.

I opened up my email to send a few hostel enquires and there in my inbox was a flight confirmation from South Africa Airways. Judging by the time stamp, it was a confirmation was for the first attempt. Now I had a horrible sinking feeling. Did we just accidentally purchase two tickets twice? It really was a good thing we were in BsAs tomorrow to straighten it out. I jotted down the address of the South African office – it was only a few (less than 10) blocks from the bus station so we could stop in as soon as we arrived, provided we got in on time and provided they weren’t closed for that silly Argentinean siesta.

The rest of the afternoon was just hanging around the hostel and chilling before our long bus ride to BsAs. We said goodbye to Deirdre and the lovely staff and trundled down to the bus station. The bus was 15 minutes late – never a good sign – and a little worn around the edges. We were two of 6 people on board but the ayudante was a super nice guy and very attentive – even if communication was strained. He spoke the most heavily accented Spanish we’ve heard since Colombia. But managed to communicate that we had our choice of wine with dinner, as well as offering us whisky before bed. And to top it off, they had a movie other than The Bucket List. Wow, I didn’t think it was possible. Goodbye, Puerto Madryn. Hello, Buenos Aires.

Getting the hell out of dodge x2

It was still dark when we got up and left for the airport, once again made much easier by the awesome Sarah who drove us there. Check in was easy but finding a bank machine to get some breakfast proved impossible. So we spent our last few Canadian dollars on Tim Hortons coffee and bagels. I’d like to think it was a final homage to the home country before we took off and not desperation.

Thanks to the wonders of Air Canada’s upgraded entertainment system there was no fighting over the remotes as Adrian watched Max Payne and I watched Defiance. And 5 hours, 2 breakfast sandwiches, and 4 coffees later, we felt the plane begin to make its descent.

Looking out the window I could see the dusty mountains that surround the city, before the plane went low, really, low over the city. Since I couldn’t see the airport, I did panic just a little bit and with the addition of some turbulence, the woman behind me made use of 2 vomit bags. Didn't help calm my nerves. You see, in Toronto, the airport is way out in the middle of almost nowhere, surrounded by acres of fields, highway and other buffer. But here the airport was looked like it was in the middle of a bustling neighbourhood. And being so low and bumpy made us – okay, just me – sweat a tiny bit. Or maybe it was the lack of sleep.

But that was nothing compared to the next leg of our our journey. After finding a Scotiabank machine in the terminal (yay, no service charges), we decided to skip a $20 taxi ride in favour of a 20¢ subway ride. Well, it seemed like a good idea at the time. Little did we know that there are no escalators in the metro stations but there are a lot of stairs, even more when you take the wrong train and have to double back. Not a welcome site with 40 lb packs on your back. Oh well, it was all part of the adventure. And it did save us a whack of cash.

We arrived at Hotel Virreyes and had to wait 20 minutes while they finished cleaning our room. The hotel is a relic from the 40s and 50s but the bathrooms are immaculate and the bed is comfy so we’re happy.

Once unpacked, we headed out to explore the Centro Historico area our hotel is located in. We saw a dog walker struggling with at least 6 big dogs and cats walking outside windows 6 floors up but that was less stressful than navigating the sidewalks (uneven and dangerous) and street crossings (chaotic and deadly). But within 10 minutes we arrived at the Zocalo, the big square that’s synonymous with Mexico City. And it’s as big as it looks in photos. And the flag flying in the middle is even bigger. It was memorizing to watch it flapping in the wind.

We snapped out of it and headed into the Catedral Metropolitan to sit down for a moment and read our map (there’s no place to sit in the Zocalo). According to wiki, it’s the largest cathedral in the American continent. Designed by Claudio de Arcinieaga, construction started in 1573 and lasted for more than 300 years (sounds like they needed a producer and a better workback). Just as we were about to take a quick look around, an old man approached me.

He asked in Spanish if we wanted a tour.
I replied with a smile, "No gracias"
And then he got snarky and in English asked.
“Did you say no because you didn’t understand or because you don’t want one?”
“I understood. But we’re coming back tomorrow.” I still said with a smile.
That angered him further.
“Tomorrow!?! Sure you are. Why don’t you just say no if you don’t want it? Tomorrow! Maybe I won’t be here tomorrow maybe you won’t be here tomorrow!!!”

Wow, I think someone needs to make a confession because that was definitely wrath we experienced. And thanks to him, we decided not to go back to the church again. So for the second time that day, we got the hell out of dodge.

But when we stepped outside, we were surrounded by truckloads of soldiers. For a moment I wondered if we were about to witness a riot but when the soldiers pulled out musical instruments instead of guns (although I saw some of those too) I figured we were safe.

We’d stumbled upon the daily flag ceremony. So we stuck around to watch the marching band and the 12 soldiers required to gather up the flag and take it in for the night.

We walked back to the hotel now starving and exhausted thanks to the early morning and time difference, stopping for tortas (buns, filled with delicious yummy meat, cilantro, tomatoes and onions) at a street vendor. With full tummies we collapsed in bed this time escaping sore feet, and exhaustion.

*******

p.s. let me know if the rss feed is working for you - it's not working for me and I don't know how to fix it.

Answering the question: So where are you going?

Recently, we've started telling people about the trip. Not just casually mentioning "ya, I'd like to travel the world someday" but "we're leaving in November and we're not coming back, are you going to miss us". After the slack-jawed shock wears off, invariably, the first question is where are you going?

If money weren't an issue, the answer would be where aren't we going. But this is real life. And time and money are an issue. 

Although we've always wanted to see the world, the Big Trip™ became a real goal just over a year ago. We were chatting about where to go for our next little trip, and I said it was time for us to hit Africa again. However, air fares for Tanzania were about $2500 each or $1700 if we flew to London and then hooked up with a charter of some sort. But with only two weeks vacation time available that was too much money or too little time to make the trip worthwhile. 

Doing a little more digging at Airtreks, I discovered that you could get a RTW ticket from $1600 (albeit with a generic route London, Bangkok, Sydney, New York). Wow around the world for $1000 less. And then I noticed their trip planner tool. 5 hours of playing out dream scenario after dream scenario and seeing a total that was only $5000 I was in love. I knew that we had to go RTW and we had to do it now. 

Of course, nothing is that simple. After figuring out the financial plan, we had to adjust the time frame. But once we were well on our way to getting the money together, we started the "where do we go" discussion. Actually negotiation is a better phrase. We both like to travel, but our lists don't always match. Previously, we alternated picking trips. Adrian's choices were Tunisia, Cuba, Peru, and most of the US destinations. I picked Gambia, Buenos Aires, Cambodia, and India. But now we'd have to combine dream destinations. 

We each made lists of must sees. 

Mine: Africa, Russia, and China

Adrian: Brazil, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, Italy and Egypt. 

Combine these lists and you'll see that this is 6 continents (including Canada) and a lot of miles. This makes it the most expensive RTW itinerary and not really feasible. So the first to go were Australia and New Zealand. Too far and too expensive and easy to do when you're older. The next to go Italy. Too expensive and easy to do when we're living in the UK. This left us with South America, Africa, Russia, Asia, which is slightly more manageable. 

The next step is how to go. I looked at Air Treks and then to stretch the airmiles I looked at Oneworld and Staralliance. Using Staralliance, was the best bet. They fly from South America to Africa and we already have 50,000 airmiles with them. Using their trip planner helped us establish a rough itinerary.

• Toronto to Santiago 
  
• Overland to Sao Paolo. (via Chile, Bolivia, Argentina Paraguay and Brazil) 
  
• Sao Paolo to Johannesburg.
  
• Overland Johannesburg to Egypt. (via South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Sudan, Ethiopia, Egypt, Jordan) 
  
• Egypt to the UK for a visit with Adrian's family. 
  
• UK to St. Petersberg overland to Beijing via the Transmongolian. (stopping along the way in Russia and Mongolia) 
  
• Overland to India. (taking in China, Tibet, Nepal and Northern India).
  
• Calcutta to Bangkok
  
• Overland South East Asia (Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia - still not sure where)
• Singapore to Tokyo
• Tokyo to Toronto

Phew, that was a mouthful. Hope you're still with us. Of course this is all subject to change - so don't get married to anything (that was more a note to me than to you). Already we're looking at the finances and we may have to drop off everything after India. Or simplify Africa. But at this exact moment the map on the right there shows are desired route from Santiago to Calcutta. 

In order to catch good weather in all the locations (nothing that requires a winter coat) we have to leave by mid-November. Or change it completely. (the qualifiers come out once again)

This is the plan. But no tickets are booked yet. At the moment, we're planning to buy along the way. But that could change too. 

Now when you ask "So where are you going?" I think I have an answer. Although it comes with a huge asterisk. Because you can plan all you want but life can always throw you a real curve ball. 

Lazy days ahead, music in my head

January 29, 2008 - Playas del Este

What to do with our last day? Do we head back into Havana? Or does the beach win? The decision was made; it was time for our trip to come full circle. We'd started off on the beach, reading, swimming and hanging out and that's how we ended the trip. 

We stocked up on beer and treats from the local store and camped out on the beach for the whole day kept company but a bunch of birds. As our bus pick up time approached we headed back in to change by the hotel pool. The pool wasn't as creepy looking down below as it was up above but with only 3 people enjoying it, we weren't the only ones scared by it. 

We got on the and headed to Varadero as the sun set. The airport was even worse than I remembered - a grotty place full of people I hate. Girls with corn rows and sun burnt scalps, guys wearing their sunglasses at night. At the check in counter a guy was yelling at the staff who were trying to charge him for his grossly overweight luggage. He accused them of trying to pocket the money for themselves and said if they wanted his money they should just ask for it. He screamed that flies all the time and knows that internationally he can have 75 kilos worth of luggage. Oh yeah, dipsh*t? If you fly so much you should also know that charters have a lower limit because lower weight allowances = lower fuel = cheaper costs. I just wanted to throttle the prick. But I also wanted to sit down. About  this time I realize i probably had too much sun - I was burning and cold at the same time and feeling nauseous. 

The hell that was the airport didn't get better once we passed security. A flight to Regina was delayed and a large portion of its passengers were getting loaded in the restaurant, playing country and western music on a boom box. Passengers was piled up on top of each other in a boarding area that had plenty of gates but few seats. 

Thankfully, the plane was early and we were soon sitting in our seats - next to the female companion of the dipsh*t at check in. Luckily he was seated far from her, and she was far quieter than him.  Wow I sound cranky don't I. Perhaps this is because our trip was coming to an end. Boo!!! Or perhaps it is because by the time we got home it was 2:30am. I logged into my email, and discovered I had to be at work for a 10am meeting. So without a moment to reflect and relive our trip, I was thrown back into work as if the trip never happened. Rather than curing my travel addiction, it made it worse and I look forward to the day when I don't have to think about work again. Yay!!!

Staging an intervention

Hi my name is Liz and I am a travel addict.

Adrian and I have had a moratorium in place on travel while we save for our planned round the world adventure (from this point forward known as the Big One). However, we are addicts and we had a relapse. 

It's been 6 months since we've been anywhere and over 13 months since we've been on a real trip and it's another 9 months until we leave on the Big One. So we looked at some prices did some math and chose Cuba. I know, I know, what's a melanin-challenged girl doing chasing the sun? Well, sunburns are my childbirth - the hurt like hell but as time passes I forget the pain and just remember the good times. Plus, it's minus one bazillion in Toronto so a sunburn seems more desirable than frostbite. 

We checked the usual suspects on the net - itravel2000, redtag, selloffvacations, exit - finally finding a $600 all inclusive just outside of Havana, far away from the tourist hell, i mean mecca of Varadero. 

So on January 22 we left for a week. Yes, that also happens to be Adrian's birthday. Good thing, since I'd forgotten to buy a card but could tell him that this trip was my present to him. (phew, that was quick thinking). Here's our day-by-day. Oh and this is going to take forever, so be patient. 

January 22, 2008 - Toronto to Playas del Este

I haven't flown on a charter in probably 10 years. And the last time I stayed at a resort was 5 years ago in West Africa. Not because I'm a snob but because I'm cheap. I've found regular airlines to be just as cheap and with better flight times than charters and resorts often more expensive than going on your own. However time was also a factor so here we were about to fly a charter to an all-inclusive resort. 

I'm not sure what I was expecting in Cuba. Bread line-ups, miserable people, poverty, pushy folks who'd do anything for a bit of money. Guess what, it wasn't like I expected, except of course for our hotel. After 7 hours of travel time (1 hour to the airport, 3.5 hour uneventful flight, 1.5 hours on a bus), we arrived at the Concrete Monstrocity™, known in tourist brochures as Hotel Tropicoco. 

In the unflattering midnight light, it was less tropical paradise and more soviet hospital (most fitting since it was used as a convalescent centre for Venezuelan eye surgery patients last year) - completely devoid of all personality. I wish I could say it looked better in the daylight but that would be a lie - we weren't surprised by it's lack of style. But who cares - we were only 20 minutes outside of Havana which was what we came for not the resort. 

And when you're trying to cure a travel addiction, it helps if the relapse isn't comfortable.