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Published: November 14th 2006
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Rain, Rain, We'll Go Away!
The past week here in Seattle has been very rainy and dark. The earlier part of this week our home saw over 5" of rain, and it is still coming down. Lisa comes home well after the sun has set and it is dark. We love living in Seattle and this is a part of living here, but every now and then you do need to get away from it. And get away, we shall. 7,551 miles to be accurate.
We are feverishly gathering all our gear and taking care of last minute details for our trip next week to South America. This weekend we have been busy getting our packs packed and starting to put up our Christmas decorations for when we get back (we are hosting Christmas for our families this year).
The Travel Bug
It has been 8 years since our last major trip (Europe 1998). We had been talking about taking another major trip somewhere for several years, but kept finding excuses to put it off. It was Lisa who really got the ball rolling for us more than a year ago. She has always made sure we got all
the travel miles credit we deserved over the past several years, especially during our time in North Carolina. So last fall we had finally collected enough points to get both of us to South America and back. Due to filled air miles seats out of Seattle, we ended up having to arrange our flight out of Portland, OR. I found it odd that Delta had a harder time getting us reservations for a flight to Atlanta, than getting from Atlanta to Lima.
With our tickets in hand (electronically speaking), Chris really started digging into working out our itinerary. Lisa helped by darn near reserving every South American travel book in the King country library system. The more we looked the more interesting things we found that we wanted to visit:
- Salar de Uyuni & La Paz in Bolivia
- The Rainforrest & Rio de Janeiro in Brazil
- Buenos Aires & Iguazu Falls in Argentina
- Mountains, Glaciers & Wildlife in Patagonia
- Santiago, Mt. Aconcagua & San Pedro de Atacama in Chile
- Machu Picchu, Cuzco & the Sacred Valley in Peru
Among many others.
As it turns out South America is also a VERY
big place, with vast distances between destinations. So hitting everything in 2 weeks is simply out of the question. So we had to cut the list down and focus on a couple of destinations. Since we were already flying in and out of Peru there is no way we could miss Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley. Chris put together a very compelling argument to visit Patagonia. We where pretty much set to make those two areas the focus of our trip, but due to flight schedules we decided add a full day in Buenos Aires.
Trip Plan
Nov 16th - Fly: Portland, OR to Atlanta, GA. to Lima, Peru.
Nov 17th - Fly: Lima, Peru (red-eye 1:20am) to Santiago, Chile to Punta Arenas, Chile.
Nov 18th - Penguin Colony Excursion via Zodiac in the Straight of Magellan. Bus to Porta Natales.
Nov 19th - Torres Del Paine Excursion
Nov 20th - Bus: Porta Natales, Chile to el Calafate, Argentina
Nov 21st - Moreno Glacier Excursion
Nov 22nd - Bus: el Calafate to el Chalten, Hiking
Nov 23rd - Hiking, Bus: el Chalten to el Calafate
Nov 24th - Fly: el
Calafate, Argentina to Buenos Aires, Argentina
Nov 25th - Buenos Aires
Nov 26th - Fly: Buenos Aires, Argentina to Lima, Peru to Cuzco, Peru
Nov 27th - Nov 30th - Explore Cuzco, Sacred Valley & Machu Picchu
Dec 1st - Fly(AM): Cuzco, Peru to Lima, Peru, Explore Lima
Dec 2nd - Fly: Lima, Peru (red eye) to Atlanta, GA to Portland, OR
Departing Thoughts
So those our the plans for our South American adventure. We know it sounds ambitious but that is just how we travel (Lisa constantly has to reign me in). It is very exciting to be so close to our departure date, but I don't think the fact that we will be thousands of miles from home in less than a week has really hit us (nor the fact that we are going to Spanish speaking countries and do not speak Spanish ourselves)!
Our pups will be splitting their time between visiting their cousin in Portland and a doggie ranch that has llamas and Bison! Whereas our cat will be lounging on Lisa's mom's lap.
Please keep checking in, we will be trying to add updates and photos along the way when we have time or the opportunity.
I was inspired to keep a travel blog by reading the journals of fellow traveller/bloggers
Cumberland Sausage. Their photography is amazing. My favorite entry is titled "
The Hand of God" written about their time in Patagonina (their entry about
Nepal is also really good). Enjoy.
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M Dodds
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Via con dios!
Looks busy, and fun! I do love to travel!