On our way...in a year.

Well very soon, anyway....so just a quick update. 

Juliano and I are embarking on the adventure of a lifetime at the end of summer next year. We are traveling across the country - not sure whether we are taking the northern or southern route. I would love to drive as much of old Rt 66 as we can.  We are hanging on the beach in Cali for a few weeks. Then we are traveling by car, truck, or van through all the countries of Central America to Panama. We are then shipping the car to Venezuela, while we take a relaxing break on some Caribbean island.  We are driving the East coast of South America all the way to southern Brazil, hopefully in time for Christmas. Once in Brazil, we will lounge on the beach, drinking Corona, dancing the Samba, enjoying Carnival and plotting ways to never come home again.

That is the plan....now here is what we have to do to get there....a whole lot.

1) Brazil visa issue - Juliano has been in contact with the Brazilian embassy in Panama.  Thank goodness I can get a visa for Brazil through them.  They have a ton of paperwork requirements, including three recent bank statements.  Not sure how that is going to work but we will figure it out.

2) Jul also got paperwork requirements for driving into Mexico...man there are a lot of

 requirements to do this.

3) I am writing an email to be sent to all the embassies so we can get free information! 

4) Last but not least and the most important, a friend is loaning me Rosetta Stone so I can learn Portuguese.  But what about our Spanish?  Oy.  That is two languages plus English.

I have had to tone down my excitement about this a little because I was getting to anxious to go and not getting any work done or taking care of my life.  But J and I are both paring down our lives, budgets and watching what we spend. We have to save and save and save. 

So that is where we stand. More tomorrow. 

Taking the less expensive route

We are visiting 14 countries on this trip. That is a hell of a lot of guide books, which seem absolutely essential in navigating our way through Latin America. We'll need road maps, camp sites, hostels, historical attractions, what to do and not do, must see, must avoid, practical information so we don't go in totally blind. There is so much to know and plan for, unless you truly want to go vagabond style and do no prep work. Sounds a little dumb to me.

Anyway, giving the number of countries, we are going to have to buy a lot of travel books.... Lonely Planet, Let's GO, Frommer's, Fodor's, etc...it seems endless. But because I am cheap...and maybe smart, I've decided instead to research, research and research free guides and information on the internet. There are sites such as Drive the Americas, BootsnAll, forums in Portuguese, Thorn Tree forum, they are everywhere and they are free. We are writing every consulate and asking for information.

OK, so I am going to waste ink on the printing but I think if I can pick and choose what information we want as opposed the ton of additional information we don't need in the book, won't that also save money and trees? At the end of the day, we will have a totally tailored informational guide.

Today I am working on Belize cause it is the first in the alphabet and the smallest country. It is still a lot of work but you also run the risk of finding much more interesting information this way. Just look at this amazing photo I found online and NOT in a quidebook. I am DEFINITELY going here.

Aerial of Blue Hole in Belize

I am copying, pasting, and printing to my little wanderlust hearts content. It may be burdensome but the fun is in the journey. And it is cheap.

Anybody have suggestions of internet sites to visit or books they would like to loan, let us know.

Travel Books Galore!

We got our first travel book in the mail today!! Juliano is reading it to me in bed as I type this post. I was so excited to get it today but I couldn't even open it until he got home.

Traveler's Tool Kit: Mexico and Central America

Goal 1 - To inspire you to travel revealing the rich rewards that can change your life forever.

Goal 2 - To address all the inhibitions that some people use to persuade themselves they can't travel.

Goal 3 - To empower you to visit places of your dreams

Goal 4- To guide you through one of the most fascinating regions of the world.

Those are some mighty big goals...life changing, empowering, letting go of inhibitions?. Who would have thought a little ol' book could do all for you...who needs a therapist?

This actually sounds like a very useful book. I plan on reading all 549 pages, when Juliano isn't reading it to me or hogging it all to himself. He is driving all 7,000 miles so he needs all the help he can get. He laughed out loud when he read that last line...

Off we go....

All who wander are not lost.....

Juliano says in Brazil the word vagabond is a slur word, used for someone who is lazy and wants easy money. Our blog title is sort of ironic then, since we are far from lazy and going to be spending lots of moneyI decided to google vagabond to see what sort of interested mix they would throw my way.

I got the usual Wikipedia right off the bat. A vagabond is an itinerant person.. A vagabond is characterised by almost continuous travelling, lacking a fixed home, temporary abode, or permanent residence. Vagabonds are not bums, as bums are not known for traveling, preferring to stay in one location.

Good to know we aren't bums. Of course Merriam AND Webster had to throw their two cents in....Middle English, from Anglo-French vacabund, from Late Latin vagabundus, from Latin vagari to wander, Date: 15th century 1: moving from place to place without a fixed home : wandering.

I did find a surprising array of other vagabond related links, Vagabond Inn, The Vagabond in Miami, apparently a club, Vagabond Sportfishing, the Vagabond Travel Guitar....very cool, something every vagabond should own...book results, video results...The Vagabond's House Inn, which is very ironic, because bondies don't have houses....just look it up in Wikipedia....the Eagle Creek Travel Gear Vagabond Bag
.....I might need one of those ...hmmmm HERE we go.... Your Inner Vagabond Coffeehouse and World Lounge, complete with music, bellydancing, comfy couches and java.... who would have thought? My inner vagabond is all about coffee, bellydancing and the world's biggest living room as this place is called. That is pretty cool.Guess its not so bad to be a vagabond....

And so it begins...

My boyfriend, new boyfriend mind you, and I have decided that in a year and a half we are going to quit our jobs, relocated to southern CA and drive the Pan American highway all the way from Mexico to Panama then make our way through South America to his home in Brazil. We must be absolutely nuts....stark raving mad.

I am so excited I can hardly stand it...and I just don't know where to begin. So I thought I would start a blog of my journey to get to my journey. My plan is to blog each step of the way, offer solutions I find, lament about problems I run into, pass on suggestions and just basically share my path to what I hope will be a turning point in my otherwise mundane sort of life.

I have nothing tying me down so why not venture off to the great unknown and suck up all the life I can while I have the chance.

I hope you enjoy my journey as much as I enjoy sharing it with you.
Mellissa

PS Juliano, the other half, is at work, but this is his adventure too, so I post for both of us.