Well, here it is. A blog of
sorts. my first one, i have withheld my personal ramblings from the internet
(much unlike others) for far to long!
I must also at this
point interject and note that being a child brought up in the 90s with
access to computers i have abysmal spelling. while i think my vocab is okay
(sort of) i will often struggle to spell a word. but in the spirit of
documenting i will not be avoiding words that i cannot spell. i will simply
try, and probably fail, to keep things as best i can.
it is now 8 days before i
leave for Buenos Aries and i am at a lost in both anxeitey and excitement. I
have not been traveling for this long time since 2004 when i was 19 and headed
out on what has become a right of passage for most young australians. that being
a trip to the UK and europe and of course a contiki tour. this trip is far from
a contiki however thanks to the amazing organization efforts of my brother we
have a very good itinerary that has got us traveling all around this amazing
continent and having a good mixture of on and off the beaten track experiences.
I will not go into the plans too much as you will hopefully discover these
adventures through this journal/blog.
I must admit i have been rather blasé
regarding packing and preparation. I have a sic backpack and a few other items
but i think i have been overwhelmed by the amount of climate zones we will be
spending time in and failed to put alot of thought into it. One of my biggest
struggles was finding hiking boots to fit. i was told and recommended to travel
in hiking boots as opposed to the ole shell toes as i would be likely to be
spending lots of time on my feet. so i went in search of size 15 vibram soled
hiking shoes. well lets just say that nowhere-in the world-sells these. i
settled for a hiking boot that is made by the same guys that make our safety
boots here at work. A lesser quality shoe but at least one that fits.
4/6
Well a quick copy and
paste into word has revelled how bad my spelling actually is. Wow. Again i offer apologies. who knows at least i may learn to spell better from documenting this trip!
Also I see that I have
had 12 views. This is something that I don’t get seeing I haven’t actually told
anyone im writing this so chalking it up to casual internet browsers.
The day moves closer
to flying out. I depart perth on the morning of the 8th and fly to
syndney via adelaide with a few hours stop over at the airport there. I must
thank my sponsers – riotinto : for employing me on FIFO for the last 2 years
allowing me to accumulate enough frequent flyers points to pay for my return
flights to Sydney and from Sydney to Buenos Aries and then LAX back to Sydney.
Huzzarrr! And also I should be gratefull they have given me the 4 months leave
I asked for.
So at the moment Im
spending days getting the last minute things sorted. The ever increasing amount
of toiletries and medical stuff I swear is ging to be taking up half my pack.
Not to mention my camera gear!
Had a few goodbye
drinks of sorts yesterday afternoon and im gratefull for the people who took
the time to come down. Everyone was asking the same question: are you excited.
I feel like im letting
everyone else down by not being ecstatic. To be truthful iti am excited in
parts and even though im leaving in the next few days I still think it really
hasn’t kicked in. not to worry though. I remember the same when I went to japan
and it wasn’t until I was at the airport that I felt that euphoric feeling that
is made up of anticipation, excitement, exhilaration and nerves that most
people characterise as simply excitement when going into the clichéd “unknown”.
I changed a heap of money
the other day. I have got US dollars for most of my travels through south
America and english pounds to use while travelling in Cuba. I didn’t really
want to carry a lot of cash on me, in case I was to lose my money belt or
worse, get robbed. But it would appear that I need to carry US on me all the
time for bribes and the sanctions placed by US on Cuba means their money and
trde are not wel accepted there and also the major banks don’t want anything to
do with them either. I was advised my travel card wont be accepted there nd
they cant guarantee I will have access to my accounts while there either.
I also spent an amount
of time streamlining my itunes today and signed myself up to the couch surfing website. Not updating my ipod for 4 months means I
have to sort out a good mix of music to take with me and decide to take some tv
episodes or not also. These are BIG decisions hey!! Haha
Come Wednesday I will
forget about work and that will be it! Gonna have a few drinks with friends on
Wednesday night and then snap into holiday mode!
