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Published: October 18th 2014
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Rucksacks
nearly packed Saturday 18
thOctober 2014
TRIP PREPARATIONS
“The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page” Saint Augustine
Many people in the world are less fortunate than we are. We count ourselves most fortunate because we have the opportunity to travel; many do not. So we are off travelling again! It is five years since we were last backpacking and so the forthcoming journey is well overdue. We want to read more of the book! So, in just seven days’ time we shall venture forth on a six and a half month trip to South America. We believe that the preparations have been sufficient to provide a structure to the journey, yet flexible enough to allow for spontaneity. In other words, we have a roughly planned itinerary, have booked a few sections of it and left the rest open. This is to be an unusual trip, mixing three fourteen day cruises with five months backpacking. We shall probably be an elite group of two when we board the NCL cruise ship “Norwegian Epic” in Barcelona; we shall be wearing hiking boots and checking in rucksacks; no tuxedos and cocktail dresses for us this time. Our idea in taking a transatlantic sea crossing, rather than flying, is to ‘travel’ there, rather than just arriving. Similarly, after six months we shall re-cross The Pond in style, from Rio back to Barcelona aboard Royal Caribbean’s ship, “Splendour of the Seas”. These transatlantic crossings are exceedingly good value, with special discounted fares to transfer the ships from the Med to the Americas and vice versa. The third cruise, in January, will be from Santiago in Chile, around Cape Horn to Buenos Aries in Argentina, aboard Princess Lines’ ship, “Golden Princess”. We used “Telegraph Travel” (Cruise 118) to book up these cruises and would highly recommend their efficient service.
In between these three cruises, we shall be living rather less luxuriously, using trains, boats, buses and planes (and feet) to read several pages of the South American “book”. So, first Barcelona to Miami, via Madeira and a couple of Caribbean islands, a week in the Florida Keys to chill out, then the serious stuff starts, flying first to Quito in Ecuador, then making our way down to Chile via Peru and Bolivia. From Argentina, we shall make our way up to Brazil, via Uruguay and Paraguay, visiting a total of eight South American countries.
We do hope that many of our friends and family will follow our blog, as they did the last time we went off travelling, and hopefully some will send in a few comments or emails to keep in touch. If other readers enjoy what we publish, then we hope to hear from them too. If people sign up to subscribe to our blog, they will get an email each time we publish. The next instalment will be written next week, in Barcelona, however thereafter, we may have to wait until we cross the Atlantic to publish again, because it will be far too expensive to get online on a cruise ship. So, we shall be leaving home next Saturday, taking the train to Barcelona, spending one night in that great city, then setting sail the next day, Sunday 26th October.
We have had all of the required jabs, seven in all, including Yellow Fever which is required to enter some countries. We have packed plenty of malaria tablets for the Amazonas region as well as a well-stocked medicine bag. Our mossie nets have been re-treated, we have had dental and health checks and the rucksacks are almost packed. The rucksacks seem to have shrunk since they were last used so we might need to discard some clothes to close them! So, anyway, one week to go; Galapagos creatures, Machu Picchu, Patagonian fjords and glaciers, Falkland Island penguins, Iguassu Falls, the Amazon and Christ the Redeemer, here we come!
Hasta luego España y Hola el Sud de América.?? ? ?
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