A Week To Go

I figure I may as well put a post on this before we actually leave on this adventure. In two weeks we're going to be flying into Cartagena, Colombia with nothing but backpacks and unlimited options in front of us. If I said I wasn't nervous I would be lying. I think anyone would be. More anxious than anything. We've heard just about every question that anyone could think of regarding a 3 month backpacking trip in a foreign country, and we've answered them best we could. Sure it's dangerous out there, we're not looking for trouble we just want to see what the rest of the world has to offer, as least that's the plan. Of course I've got to speak for myself. Jordan, Joe, and Emily may have a completely different plans, but I know that we all have each other's best interests in mind, and that's why we'll succeed.

Many of you may not have an idea of where exactly we'll be or what we'll be doing so I'm going to lay out a basic itinerary so you could at the very least have a slight idea of where we are at any given time.

December 14th - January 1st we will be in Cartagena, Santa Marta, and the Rosario Islands. A trip to Bogota or Medellin may occur at some time between there, but for now we are sticking to the coast. We'll be staying at the NorthStar backpacking hostel for most of the time, Santa Marta's hostel is TBD.

January 1st - January 10th we will be in Peru staying at the Loki Hostel. Our Macchu Picchu hike is the 5th - 9th. We most likely won't able to update anyone on our status or conditions for those days, but we will be with a group on this hike, probably around 10 people, but no more than 15. We have two guides, porters to carry our things, a chef, and each other... we'll be just fine. On the 10th we'll be in a tiny town called Aguas Calientes which translates to "hot springs" and that's because the town is literally a hot springs town. After that we are heading back to Cuzco to do some white water rafting in the Urumbamba River. We plan on heading to Puno and Lake Titicaca shortly after that by way of train.

January 10th - January 20th will be a period of traveling. We don't have plans set in stone, but we do know that a few of these days will be spent on the coast of Lake Titicaca in Peru and Bolivia. Once we cross into Bolivia we plan on staying in Copacobana on the lake's Bolivian coast for a short amount of time. There we will make plans on whether we want to visit the famous salt flats or the "world's most dangerous road." Don't worry we don't plan on using it.

January 20th - ??? We will be making our way to Chile, by way of bus most likely. A visit to the Atacamba Desert may be in the cards or straight to Santiago to meet up with Joe's friends who are planning a trip to Tierra Del Fuego and the surrounding area which is in Patagonia. We also plan on jumping into the biggest pool in the world at some point which is on Chile's coast (it's actually the only reason we planned this trip... haha). After Chile we plan on heading to Mendoza and Buenos Aires in Argentina, here Jordan and I are planning to settle and try to get some fun jobs... we'll see what we can muster. I believe Emily and Joe may have similar plans, maybe for not as long of a time period but as I said you would have to ask them. Lollapalooza in Chile April 2nd and 3rd is definitely in the plans.

I have to guess that anyone who is reading this has got to be someone that I care about (or at least you care a little about me otherwise why waste your time). I miss you already, and we haven't even left yet. I created this blog so you can all follow us on our journey and so we could keep our sanity. I'm sure there may be times that we are going to be at each other's throats on this trip so this will help us blow off some steam and keep our thoughts in line.

I guess that's all for now, I'll try to get the others to post something before we all head out to get a little practice in because this blog stuff is new for all of us. I apologize for the abundance of links but my mother is a beginner with computer use and I want her to be as informed as possible... thanks wikipedia  : )~

Love you mom