Time for plan b, c or d

this picture has nothing to do with the post other than it's the only one I took on this day

6 months before taking off, I mapped out a rough route of where to go and what to see but a combination of things was about to change all that. First it was almost Easter or Santa Semana as they call it in Central America. That meant everything was about to shut down and accommodations were about to fill up with people taking advantage of two week holiday. The second was an email I had received from a friend back in Toronto (hi Andrew). Andrew’s family is Belizean and he’d been all over the country; he’d also been all over my Belizean itinerary. His verdict was blunt and too the point: Corozal – quiet; Orange Walk – nothing to see there; Belize City – a hole; Belmopan – really nothing to see there; Placencia – really touristy. In a handful of words we’d decimated my plans. Since he was bang on about Corozal, I took his advice to heart especially after talking to Gwynn and another expat staying at the Hotel who’d lived in Belize City for the last 20 years and ran a site on the transportation links. Both of their verdicts were similar. So what to do?

We sat on the balcony of the hotel, whipped out the computer and began our quest. Orange Walk supposedly had tours into some nature reserves and awesome ruins. So despite everyone’s words of wisdom we thought we’d give it a try. I emailed our hotel of choice (in terms of price and comfort) but they were full. Our second choice only had a room for $50US. Well, that settled it. No Orange Walk. What next? So there was a boat from Corozal to San Pedro in the Cayes. Once again I sent emails and once again the only thing available was a cold water hut on a beach for $50US. Been there didn’t enjoy it. Oh and there was no boat tomorrow because it was Good Friday. Scratch that. Maybe we’d stay in Corozal. No go. Gwynn was booked solid. That left the dreaded Belize City.

We asked Bill for some recos. All he could do was hesitantly say “it’s interesting”. Great and he lived there. Gwynn however was more blunt.
“My advice? Don’t go. Latest news is that they’re now throwing grenades instead of shooting bullets” he said.
“Well that’s less accurate than guns,” I tried to joke.
But Gwynn wasn’t joking.

Adrian however was determined. Armed with a 5-year old Lonely Planet which said “it’s not as bad as soon doomsayers will tell you”, he decided that where we were going. At least we knew we’d be able to get a bus there on Good Friday and there’d be more room options (particularly if everyone was getting the same advice as us). Plus, Adrian was convinced that there would be plenty to see.

That settled (or in my case unsettled) we spent the remaining part of the day hanging out (the photo above) and taking to Gwynn and the other guests that now filled up the place. There was an Irish couple just starting off on their own RTW adventure passing through on their way to Tikal in Guatemala, and an couple from Texas who were just finishing up 6 months in Mexico before heading to Alaska to work for the summer and of course Gwynn, who was full of interesting stories from his years of living in Central America, some funny and some sad. But before we all got too tipsy chatting away over beers, we dispersed preparing for our early morning departures.

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.

AC 993 now boarding, well, soon anyway.

A very quick update to say the first tickets have been bought. Woohoo! Yippee! Yay! No turning back now.  

And that's it really.

I was reminded that it had been a long time since I'd written anything. It may appear that way but behind this wall there are many entries waiting for me to hit spell check and publish. But all in good time, my friends. 

So where are we now?

Location: Toronto

Departure: March 17, 2009

Savings: $46,290

"I love it when a plan comes together"

- Col. Hannibal Smith, The A Team.

View Larger Map

If people could be classified as one of the A Team, I would say I was Col. Hannibal Smith with a dash of BA Barcus. My friend Cheryl is a bit more like Murdoch, loveable but slightly, um, well how do you say it - insane. She's the delusional one who is convinced that Vancouver is a nice place. And she's also a crazy lady that demand I post more often even though I'm not convinced I have much to say at the moment.  See, told you she was crazy. 

The biggest news to report is the new map up above and to the right. It's all new complete with multi-coloured route markers - ooooo, aaaaahhhh - that show the new itinerary we've decided on. After my momentary panic of what to do and where to go I think I've figured it out (well for now at least). So here's what we've got so far.

Central America:

Southern Mexico: 3 weeks

Belize: 2 weeks

Guatemala: 3 weeks

Honduras: 3 weeks

Nicaragua: 3 weeks

Costa Rica: 2 weeks

Panama: 2 weeks

South America: 

Ecuador: 3 weeks

Peru: 3 weeks

Bolivia: 3 weeks

Chile: 3 weeks

Argentina: 5 weeks

Paraguay: 1 week

Brazil: 5 weeks

Africa: 

South Africa: 4 weeks

Lesotho: 1 week

Namibia: 3 weeks

Zambia: 2 weeks

Malawi: 3 weeks

Tanzania: 6 weeks

Rwanda: 2 weeks

Uganda: 2 weeks

and then

Ethiopia and beyond.

And that's where the dots on the map stop. Not because that will be the end of our travels. I hope not. But because that's as far as I'm allowing myself to plan at the moment. And by planning I mean, filling in an excel spreadsheet that looks a lot like a day planner. We still hope to carry on travelling on into Asia via Russia. But there's no need to get ahead of ourselves (that's a note more for me than you btw).

As it is, I've already been collecting tonnes of hostel, tour and adventure links in my del.icio.us profile. You can check them out there. Yes, I'm a bit of a freak when it comes to planning.

Another list I've started is things I'd like to do. This trip is completely selfish for me, in the sense that it's all about trying things I want to do. Here's a list of the top 10 in no particular order.

1. Learning to scuba dive in Honduras
   
2. Seeing the Galapagos
   
3. Seeing Easter Island
   
4. Getting competent in Spanish (and revive my French)
   
5. Taking the slow boat through the glaciers of Chile and Argentina
   
6. Cage diving for sharks in South Africa
   
7. Searching for gorillas in Rwanda
   
8. Climbing Kilimanjaro
   
9. Seeing the big 5 on safari (although I'm sure I'd settle for 1 out of the 5)
   
10. Experiencing the world with Adrian
    

Out of these 10, the closest to being ticked off is the language thing. I've been teaching myself Spanish off and on for about a year. And how's it going? You tell me.

Puedo hacer los phrases basicas. Y puedo leer despacio los libros sin el diccionario. Pero hablo muy malo. ¿Verdad? 

Well, I'm working on it, okay. I've finished my intro spanish tapes, I mean mp3s. I'll soon finish my beginner's book before I undertake the first year MIT spanish course. So hopefully I'll improve before I have to put it into practice.

As for the other things on the list, some of them are pretty crazy and I'm not even sure if I'll actually go through with them. But if I do, I hope Cheryl doesn't mind if I start classifying myself as crazy Murdoch. 

And with that it's time for an update ( I actually first posted this without it).

So where are we now?

location: Toronto, Canada

ETD: March 15, 2009

savings: $36,498

Let's start at the very beginning - wherever that is.

Excuse me, do you know the way to... to... wait where are we going? Good question and one we thought we'd answered.

However, circumstances intervened - Adrian found himself without work for a few months, our anniversary trip required an expensive detour, pre-trip expenses are adding up - and our savings haven't accumulated as fast as we hoped. But we're not too far away. In fact we're only a couple of months behind. But all these hiccups made us realize that we should probably over save - justincase (justincase of natural disaster, justincase of a tough returning job market, justincase we need to pay ransom to our kidnappers, etc) .

Unfortunately, this means redoing our itinerary. Now understand, I'm a closeted control freak (okay, maybe not so closeted), so I need the security blanket of a planned route. But I know that these itineraries are never set in stone. And thankfully, when we've had to deviate from past travel plans, Adrian has stepped in to take care of stuff while I sit rocking in a corner clutching my itinerary.

So here I sit, once again looking at a map of the world and wondering where to go. And there are so many options it's a little dizzying. In fact I just starting typing out a list of options and when I got to number 11, I deleted the list for fear of losing the few readers I have. So this post is far less informative than I hoped it would be.

I posted to Lonely Planet's Thorntree looking for advice, and only got one response, from Donna, my virtual travel friend. (thanks Donna! lots of great tips and I halfheartedly blame you for introducing options 6-11 ). But I'm realizing that Adrian and I are the ones that have to make the decision.

Our requirements are complicated.
The only must do things on our trip are South America (Adrian) and Africa (Liz). So these our priorities.
I've been learning Spanish and would hate to lose it before we can use it.
We want to fly on as many StarAlliance carriers as possible to capitalize on Aeroplan points.
We don't want to spend more than $1000 on any airfare leg.
Our savings will probably cover 500 days (at $100/per day)

And this is where we've ended up (mentally): either Central American to South America to Africa to ?, OR South America to Africa to ?, OR Africa to South America to Asia to ?. Each have their pros and cons and each time we think one is in the lead, something makes us change our mind.

Feel free to add your two cents. Literally (if you visit any of the google links on the righthand side). And figuratively (by adding a comment).

Oh and slightly good news. Adrian's contract has been extended for another 4 weeks so we have a bit more cash to look forward to. And I finally got a retroactive raise (only 6 months late).

So where are we now?

location: confused in Toronto
ETD: March 15, 2009
savings: $30,998 (but hoping for a big jump in the next month)

so much to do so little time and money

Before I post about our Storm Watch Tour 2008. I have a big change. 

I'm going to do this post backwards, starting with so where are we now?

location: Toronto

savings: $28,600

ETD: March 15, 2009 (although we may go earlier)

Yes, you'll notice a new date there. 

No, we're not getting cold feet.

Our trip to New Orleans and the resulting flight changes not only ate into the savings but also made me realize that emergencies can cost a lot more than you realize. And for The Big Trip™ that meant saving up for a bigger resettlement cushion and boosting the ever important just in case buffer.  

A later departure date also means a rejigging of our itinerary - either starting in South Africa and pushing South America to the end of the trip or adding Central America to the itinerary. But that's another post once we have a better idea of when we'll actually be leaving.

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.