Magge's Rankings

So my post will not be as comprehensive as Jeff's due to the fact that I am now spending a majority of my time attempting to consolidate all the various items we would like to take with us as much as possible. Jeff believes I will never be able to pack all the items I would like to bring. Silly guy! :-)

Pre-Trip Rankings

The most common question I've received about the upcoming year (aside from "why are you doing this?") is what I'm most excited about.  Given the scope of the trip, it's a very difficult question to answer succinctly, so I've made a top five list in four categories.  At the end of the trip, I'll redo the lists based on actual experience, so we'll see how well expectations match up with reality.  Magge will post her own rankings in the next day or two - to see mine, click "Read More".

Our Current Travel Schedule

Our itinerary is still somewhat flexible.  For the most part, we have decided which countries we will visit, and we have booked most of our international flights.  However, we're still open to making detours and we can still make changes to the dates of our flights.  If you want to meet up with us at any of these locations or anywhere close to these locations, just let us know.  However, be warned that we will stick our budget (somewhere slightly above shoestring), so there will be no Four Seasons or all-inclusive resorts for us.

• November 5 - November 27:  Ecuador.  A week in Quito before making our way down the spine of the Andes through Cuenco to the Peruvian border.
• November 28 - January 31:  Peru.  December will be spent volunteering at Bruce Peru in Trujillo.  We will take January to travel throughout the country, likely focusing on the southern Andes around Cusco and possibly making our way into the Amazon.
• Febuary 1 - March 7:  Chile.  We will travel by bus as far south as we can, hopefully making it into northern Patagonia, before backtracking to Santiago to meet up with Magge's mother and stepfather, where we will leave for Easter Island.
• March 7 - March 13:  Tahiti.  The only reason we're visiting French Polynesia is because it's the most direct route from Easter Island to New Zealand.  It's a truly unfortunate situation.
• March 13 - April 10:  New Zealand.  As of now, I suspect we'll spend a week on the North Island and three weeks on the South Island.
• April 10 - May 5:  Australia.  We'll begin in Sydney and then head to Queensland, where we plan on doing some scuba diving.
• May 5 - June 18:  Southeast Asia.  The plan here has not been nailed down yet.  We are flying into Singapore and are fairly certain we'll visit Thailand and Vietnam, but the dates are still up in the air.  Malaysia and Cambodia are still up for consideration.
• June 18 - June 25:  Jordan.  The primary goal for Jordan is to visit Petra.
• June 25 - mid July:  Greece.  I've already received some requests from folks to meet us here, but my parents and siblings have first dibs.
• Mid July - mid August:  Italy and Croatia.  We're meeting Magge's mother and stepfather in Croatia.
• Mid August - mid September:  France.  Here's where I get to test how much the French enjoy my jokes about the French.
• Mid September - early October:  Spain.  There's an outside chance we'll dip into Portugal.
• October - November:  South Africa.  Most of our time will probably be spent in Cape Town and the surrounding area.  We will do 1.5-2 months of volunteer work here.
• We will have some transit stops in London around our time in South Africa.  We may decide to spend more time in the city if the budget and schedule allow for it.

Prepare for Cross-Check

What began a year ago as merely a desire to do something different has taken shape as a yearlong trip spanning roughly 34,000 miles. The humor website Stuff White People Like has an article deriding taking a year off. As a fan of that website who often laughed at the other objects of scorn (such as being an expert on YOUR culture, expensive sandwiches and threatening to move to Canada), seeing that article soon after I had made the decision to take a year off was a punch to the gut. It wasn't enough of a gut punch to make me reconsider the trip, but it did make me scrap plans for an email distribution to keep people updated on our travels and instead make this website. Now, only those who really want to be updated (i.e., my mother, Magge's mother and maybe a handful of others) will be and there will be no unnecessarily clogged inboxes.

I will try to update this website as often as I can, as well as making sure Magge writes every once in a while, as I'm sure her entries will be less cynical and more emotionally fulfilling to read. We leave for Ecuador in two weeks, and I will post a few times before then, including our general itinerary so you can start thinking about where and when to meet us.