Hola, como esta?
Here's my new blog to keep everyone and anyone who cares to read updated on my travels. I'm not an experienced traveller at all, but I always love to try new things, so I'm making a point of putting myself out there into situations that I wouldn't normally find myself in. There's nothing I like more than setting myself a challenge and then working towards acheiving a goal.
A little background and reasoning behind this whole trip...
This will be my second trip overseas, the first was in 2008 for just a few short weeks, although it felt a lot longer than that. In that time a got around California, saw Vegas in an extraordinarily sleep deprived state, and went to Jamaica to watch a cricket match between Australia and the West Indies.
Those five days in Jamaica were probably the best 5 consecutive days of my life, and I vowed then and there to go back to the Caribbean next time Australia played there.
So plans have been in the works for 3 years, but only really gained traction about 12 months ago when I decided to adventure around Central and/or South America while I was at it. So the planning, saving, and annual leave stockpiling started then, and now I'm just a week from takeoff. It's come up really quick.
Basic itinerary for the 11 weeks I'm away looks like this...
- 6th - 12th Feb: Kick into holiday mode in Orlando, Florida.
- 12th Feb - 7th Mar: Guatemala. First two weeks at a Spanish school in Antigua (I know basically zero Spanish right now, whatever you see in this post is direct from my new phrase book), followed by some jungle hiking adventures to El Mirador in the Peten region.
- 7th - 23rd Mar: Peru. About a week aclimatising followed by a 9 day mountain hike to Machu Picchu, taking a different route to the traditional Inca trail.
- 23rd Mar - 6th Apr: Nothing set in stone. Latest thoughts are probably taking me to Bolivia for a couple of days, then Panama. Maybe arrive in my next stop (Barbados) early and do a mountain bike ride around the island. I want to keep time this flexible so I can do whatever I feel like at the time.
- 6th Apr - 21st Apr: Two Test matches between Australia and the West Indies. First is in Bridgetown, Barbados. Second is in Port Of Spain, Trinidad. Fun times be here.
So thats the basics, I've decided to go and see a few countries really well, rather than getting around the whole of Latin America in a whirlwind tour. Hopefully that works out OK. I suppose only time will tell! I'll be sure to let you know.
Hasta luego. Mucho gusto.
Adios!
