Pura Vida, Mañana Mañana and other useful phrases...

8 months of llamas, llemurs and llurvin!

YAY!! I did it!! My second last day of work and I've finally managed to knock up an itinerary (yes, MY CONTRIBUTION!) for our trip. It's for Glen and my parents so they can track us through the continents. Although, knowing my parents, it'll serve to be an excellent place mat for my mother's Chicken and Herb Soup. Nevertheless, I do like making itineraries and since this is my second last day as a travel agent bitch, it is fitting that I be the one to do a custom itinerary for a demanding pain-in-the-arse client, ie me and Glen.

So, I have decided to post it here - enjoy!

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SANDRA AND GLEN - AUG TO APR ADVENTURE

1. 19 AUG - 22 AUG :

San Francisco - Sightseeing
    - HI Hostel, San Francisco, Union Square
    1-415-78856004

2. 22 AUG - 20 DEC:

Costa Rica Rainforest Outward Bound - Spanish Immersion Adventure - see itinerary or go to http://www.crrobs.org/courses/sia/itinerary/index.shtml
    - CRROBS, PO BOX 1817-2050, San Pedro, San Jose
     1-800-676-2018

3. 20 DEC - 5 JAN:

Unplanned as yet - will be travelling from San Jose through Colombia to go into Ecuador. Likely itinerary will be SAN JOSE - CARTAGENA - BOGOTA - QUITO. Make friends with the local drug lords, Juan and Carlos. Get picked up by guerillas, wearing gorilla outfits.

4. 5 JAN - 14 JAN:

Quito - Start Galapagos tour with Gap Adventures. The trip is called Land Galapagos - Multi Activities. See http://www.gapadventures.com/tour/SEGL for details.

5. 14 JAN - 17 JAN:

Kicking back in Quito, and contemplating our fabulous Galapagos trip. Maybe take a trip into the jungle, and make friends with a howler monkey.

6. 17 JAN - 1 FEB:

Again, unplanned as yet. We will be flying from Quito to Caracas in Venezuela on the 17 Jan, however, will be trying to make our way to Cuidad Bolivar as soon as possible by coach, or train. From there, we will go to Angel Falls if we can, before bussing onwards to Manaus in Brazil. In Manaus, we will be literally throwing ourselves into the Amazon Jungle to commune with the natives and the pumas. By 31 Jan, Glen and I will hopefully be crowned King and Queen of the Jungle by then.

7. 1 FEB - 5 FEB:

Arriba!!! Rio Carnivale!!!  Fly from Manaus to Rio De Janeiro to join the Carnival festivities!
    - Arcos Rio Palace Hotel, Av Mem de Sa 117, Lapa
    +55-21-2242-8116

8. 5 FEB - 24 MAR:

Join Budget Expeditions tour - called Pacific to Atlantic. It’s a 7 week journey from Rio to Lima.
See http://www.budgetexpeditions.com/tour/South+America/Pacific+to+Atlantic/109 for details.
              - Hotel Riazor, Rua Do Catete 160, Catete (Joining hotel)
    +55-21-2225-0121

9. 24 MAR - 26 MAR:

Hang around Lima for awhile. Buy a big poncho and ride llamas all day. Call ourselves Pancho Ralph and Panchita Nina.

10. 26 MAR - 05 APR:

Fly from Lima to Santiago and enjoy the last final days of our trip. This part is also unplanned but depending on finances, should go as follows.

WITH MONEY: Head north to the pretty seaside resort towns. Stay in beautiful hotels, and have hot showers and massages and cocktails for the first time in months.

NO MONEY: Stay in the airport - try to perhaps rent out a locker for our stuff. Take turns sleeping on the most comfortable looking chairs in the transit lounges. Try to suck the starch out of our shoelaces for nourishment. Cry.

11. 5 APR - 7 APR

HOME!!!

Sitting in Sandra's shop (watching her type)

Howdy,

I am wearing my blue checkered shirt and I am in a cowboy mood. Sandra and I have spent the last few hours putting together a list of numbers and itineraries and contact details for both families and ourselves.

Things are progressing really really well. We had a home open on Saturday and might have found some tenets for our house while we are away. This is a huge load off our minds and lets us move on to the next hurdle...Packing. We have started to box up the house and we can start moving our possessions to Sandra's parents house, This just means that we have no free nights before we move. All is good though.

We are now on week 4 of our "5 weeks and counting" list. It is so close I can taste the cervezas already.

I will put up on this blog our itinerary and some other details in the near future - if I can work out some of the technical stuff though. Not so tech savvy, but I am OK to press buttons.

Hasta La Vista (stoopid terminator quote)

Glen

Beam me up Scotty

I love lists. I have created a list for just about everything and I love it.

I know, I’m sad but bugger it, it makes me happy.

Sandra and I will go on our final shopping trip today with a list of the things we need to get. It is the final step before we are ready with the things we need for our trip. It all kind of started accidentally, I was procrastinating about cleaning the house and so Sandra and I both decided to go shopping instead. Sunday in Perth was really good, we found some great bargains and we chatted about our trip and organised what we need to do in the last four weeks in Perth. I am getting so excited about the trip, I know that I have mentioned this before but this adventure that I am going to do with Sandra is the coolest thing I have ever done including dressing up as a Klingon/Romulin half breed and taking out the best dressed award at a Star Trek convention (I am joking of course… the Klingons would never breed with a Romulin Pah Tek)

What I do want to say is that I don’t get shopping nowadays. It used to be that the price that was asked for is the price you need to pay, or that is how it was when I was growing up. Now people throw discounts at you like there is no tomorrow. We have not bought one thing for our trip retail. This should not sound surprising if I was a bargain hunter and badgered the shop assistants for a cheaper price. I am not. They just give it to me as a matter of course through the conversation. It does make me wonder though, are all products marked up extra high with these “sweeteners” accounted for in the original retail price? If that is the case, forget the discount and ripping off customers who are in a hurry and don’t have time to search for the best price, just set the price at what you want to sell it for.

I think I mentioned before that we had to change our trip to include Venezuela. We were chatting to Yvonne (Spanish teacher) who is from Venezuela and she mentioned that it is a tad rough. She then regaled us with a tail of how she was opening the garage door to her unit when a guy came by with a machine gun and told her to get out. Then she mentioned that most Venezuelans carry guns, as crime is so commonplace. Sandra and I are now shitting ourselves… I wonder if we can hire bodyguards who can pack heat? That would be kinda cool.

I don’t think that people will believe me when I say that I am not a geek, oh well, Klingons rule, Live long and prosper.

Glen

5 Weeks and four days to go...

The last time I wrote, we had the luxury of time and I did not have to organise things like who is going to have my car, motorcycles etc. With only a few weeks left, things now have to go into overdrive and I actually have to get my ass in gear. The last few weeks have been busy at work. I work in a secondary school in Perth, which throws up challenges on a regular basis. I look after the relief requirements of the school as well as teach Fencing and occasionally chivalry. I have recently had “precious moments” with students who think that are the shit and teachers who happen to think that the sun shines out of their ass and are too busy to do the internal relief that I need them to do. I really like the Admin that I work with but teachers, well they just annoy the fuck out of me. Enough bitchy bitchy. Remember that it is Pura Vida and we will be happy gringos.

Sandra and I have just been doing Spanish lessons recently which is more fun than I had expected. Sandra will come home and gibber to me in nonsensicle Spanish and I sound like I have had years of alcohol abuse. I recon that if you were to listen to me it would be like hearing Heeellloooo (pause pause pause) Hooooooow Arrrre Youuuuuu in the morrrrrrning miss. Even though I was actually asking for the time and where I can buy a beer.

I think that when we land, we will be able to find the toilet (Donde Esta el banyo) and explain where it is in a variety of ways (El Banyo esta aqui) and ask for things top be said really slowly. I can kind of understand with the words that make sense if they do not speak so quickly. We have this CD collection with a whole load of Spanish instruction but they speak so fast, I end up repeating what I think they have said but I know it is wrong. This is not good when I kind of like to be (to the point of anally retentive) correct.

Yvonne who is from Venezuela, has been teaching us and has been the best teacher, she is patient and laughs when I insult Sandra in by calling her Tarco (pig headed). I like people who like me more than Sandra.

The other joy of what we are doing is we get the chance to drug our cat. My parents have, after months of stress and pressure from me, have finally consented to take our cat off our hands while we are away. Our cat (Gypsie) is a real scaredy cat. She is scared of everything from dust bunnies that have taken up residence under our bed to irregularly shaped leaves that look at her funny. My parents live in Bunbury and there is no way that she will be able to handle the car trip of 180 Kilometres. So what Sandra and I have to do is go to the vet who will give us a trial run of kitty sleeping pills just to try out so that there are no side effects on the trip down. We get to drug our cat. I know that this is cruel but we will get to watch her get all dopey and drunk and then we get to play with sleeping floppy cat – I assure you, photos will come.

Expect to see more blogs in the future as we start counting down

Hasta Luego (which I know that I might have spelt wrong)

Glen