Leaving

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Hello!

As a lot of you will already know, I'm spending the next seven months travelling around South and Central America, initially solo with the intention of meeting some friends along the way. I've decided to keep an online travel blog as I go as it should hopefully allow anyone who's interested to keep track of where I am, while also being a good way to keep my own record of the journey.

It's 5.30am in Watford and I'm just getting ready to leave my house for the last time in seven months (if all goes well!). I'm feeling just a little bit daunted about the trip ahead with random bursts of excitement punching through sporadically. It's fair to say that I did not get the best night's sleep and encountered a mini crisis around midnight when the backpack I was intending to use split open at the zip. After a brief panic, a replacement bag was found and, though it is slightly smaller, it actually holds my gear better then the previous bag and feels much more durable. I'm just relieved it happened here rather than in the middle of my trip!

The plan is to spend the next seven months travelling through Latin America, beginning with a six-week sprint from Cancun, Mexico to San Jose, Costa Rica. From here I will catch a flight to Rio de Janeiro for Carnival and then have just under four months to make Cusco in Peru for the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu (meeting up with my friend Andrew on the way). The last two months will be spent sampling Peru, Colombia and Ecuador (if I have time!) before my flight home on the 1st August from Bogota. That's the plan, whether it will turn out this way is anyone's guess.

Other then the bag incident, packing has not been too stressful and I've managed to pack quite light. The problem is striking a balance between packing for warm climates and the potentially colder weather I could face as I move south and into the Andes. At the moment it's fair to say that I'm unprepared for wintery conditions, but I hope to pick up more gear along the way.

Anyway, I better go and say goodbye to the loved ones. Hopefully the next blog post will contain better stories than a broken backpack!

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