Exploring the World part one

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First preparations, first compromises, first screw ups

So, today – or better last night I booked the flight for the first part of my big exploration of the globe, the tour through the Americas. Well the booking was easy, it took only 8 hours and it was so quick only because I exactly knew when I wanted to fly where… at least I thought so. It is simply amazing how many travel agencies do NOT accept credit cards! Or charge 50 euros to do so. When booking six fights, you don’t want to spend 300euros for the grace to use your credit card?! Rather spectacular was the booking “em portugês” on the monolingual webpage from Avianca Brazil, just to find out there was a switch to English on the second page… still they would communicate with you only in local hyroglyphs. So unless I bought refrigerators for a few hundred Reais unbeknown to me, the flights within Brazil should be good. Oh speaking of Airlines, thanks TAM for leaving the Star Alliance in spring, so my bonus miles don't count, hmpf - one thing I found out of course just AFTER booking.

The travel route: Entry point to the new world will be through Mexico/Yucatan, that was for sure and the exit will be from Brazil. Thanks to Condor flights these trips are fairly cheap. Timeframe is something like 6 weeks, leaving after getting rid of the most royal pain in the butt (you know what). The climate pretty much defines the timing enroute. I hate rain as much as I learned to hate darkness… so avoiding excess monsoon rainfall is obligatory. That meant Central America is first, Frankfurt – Cancun on April 30^th. From there, an inland tour on Ancient Maya trails through Yucatan, Belize and Guatemala. Also hope to go Scuba – Sukellus in caves and great & amazing coral reefs on this part of the tour. May is the beginning to the rainy season, wish me luck so it would not start right away!

After that, let’s go to San Francisco! Alternative would have been L.A, but the choice was nearly a no-brainer. So inhaling flower-power atmosphere with some interesting & beautiful town-planning Californian style, that’s the plan. Then I want to meet my friend Risto, who still claims he is fine with me hanging around a week in California. Looking forward to that! Then to Miami/ Florida, unfortunaltely only a short stopover. There is so much to see in the city and visiting the everglades would be a dream, but this time I have to skip those.

Instead, Manaus is on the list (update: Manaus if off the list, but Iquitos, Peru) instead, my old dream to enter the Amazonas jungle. And here I took the last chance to get an insanely expensive flight as opposed to a ridiculiously expensive one, thanks to FIFA World Cup. Why those st…d Americans had to qualify and why the whole world seems to fly there? Argh the timing sux, but so does daily rain. And since I understood the city is rather despictible, I want to waste no time to go and explore the green hell, having lunch with poison snakes and dinner with crocodiles, where the question of who is eating what is still within a range of uncertainty.

Then I went to book the flight to Salvador de Bahia, where I hope to get a ticket to see Germany versus Portugal. And I hope that booking does not turn into a disaster: Whereas in Bahia and Recife accomodation is not a problem whatsoever, Manaus is an absolute mayhem. Why, oh why does Italy play England there on the 14th? And why those hordes did book virtually all available hotelspace already leaving only options which are in the rage of the pope’s budget? Finding a solution for that is a challenge unasked for… Anyway, people can expect me back in civiliziation on June 18th

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