Monday, January 22, 2007

Tentative Itinerary

These are the places I intend to go during my trip. If anyone has any suggestions re: places that I left out that I "just have to see," please feel free to comment.

May 1-6, 2007

(Chile)
Santiago
La Serena/Totorolillo
San Pedro de Atacama

May 7-13, 2007

Arica/Codpa
(Bolivia)
La Paz
Coroico

May 14-20

Santa Cruz de la Sierra
Copacabana/Lake Titicaca
Floating Islands
(Peru)
Puno

May 21-27

Cuzco/Sacred Valley (Machu Picchu?)
Arequipa
Nazca/Pisco

May 28-June 3

Lima
Trujillo
Máncora/Tumbes (beaches)

June 4-10

(Ecuador)
Cuenca
Guayaquil
Quito

June 11-17

(Colombia)
Popoyán/San Agustín?
Medellín
Cartagena de Indias
(To Panama, via sailboat)

June 18-24

San Blas Islands/Colón
Miraflores/Panama Canal
Panama City
(Costa Rica)
San José

June 25-July 1

Costa Rican Rain forest(s), TBD
(Nicaragua)
Managua
(Honduras)
Tegucigalpa
(Guatemala)
Guatemala City

July 2-8

Antigua
Chichicastenango
(Mexico)
Oaxaca
Mérida/Tulum

July 9-15

Puebla/Pyramids
Mexico City

July 16-22

Morelia
Copper Canyon
Guadalajara

July 23-29

Zihuatanejo
Puerto Vallarta
Tijuana
(USA)
San Diego
LA/Camarillo by August 1 or so

Thursday, January 18, 2007

The Planning Phase

Welcome to my blog, which will document my upcoming trip from Santiago, Chile (where I have been living for the past 2 years) home to California. I plan on taking about three months to get back to my parents' house in southern California, leaving in early May 2007 and arriving in early August. I have to get home in time to pack up and go off to grad school, which will start in late August/early September.
I haven't gotten into grad school yet, though (the suspense is killing me). I guess that will be the topic of another post, when the time rolls around. But I have already given unofficial notice at my job here in Santiago that I plan on being out of here by the end of April.

Meanwhile, I am planning for the trip. I have invited a number of friends and family to join me for parts of it along the way, and I'm hoping that some people will be up for it, although no absolute confirmations yet.

The red line on this map shows the path I'm planning to basically follow:

I will be packing very lightly. I am planning on shipping a lot of stuff to my parents' house from Chile, and I can only hope that it beats me home, because I'm going to need it once I get there.

The main rule of the trip is to not take any planes, unless it's some sort of emergency or I'm running extremely behind schedule. I have 2 ATM cards (one from my US bank account and one from my Chilean account), which will be providing the funding for this sojourn following years of saving my pesos in Chile.

I will be following a rough itinerary, and there are certain things I am planning to see along the way, but I'm going to make up most of it as I go along. That's the way things are done around here, and after two years of living in Chile I am prepared to roll with unpredictability.

For those of you who feel that an uppity white boy traipsing through the third world with nothing but a backpack is cause for concern, I urge you to remain calm. I am going to take my malaria pills regularly. It is highly unlikely that I will be kidnapped and held for ransom. I am not planning on going native and becoming a covert guerrilla freedom fighter for the EZLN or the FARC. Rabid Guatemalan pumas will probably not devour me alive. And I am planning to take the "good" taxis in Mexico City (not the ones where the drivers slit your throat)...the green ones, right? Or is it the white ones...