How many countries??? Oy.

The other night, Juliano and I were going through all the countries we plan to visit on our trip. Our heads were swimming as we tried to organize who needed what type of visa for which country and so on and so forth. What do we do with the car, what sort of paperwork, how do you get a visa if you are not flying and they want an itinerary, is my passport enough?  You want to see what??? My bank statement with -$0?  

I love Brazil's attitude about visas...quid pro quo....you demand one from me, I demand one from you.  I have to go through lots of hoops just to get into Brazil.  The whole visa thing definitely puts a crimp in our laissez faire attitude about time....we get there when we get there. It will be an amazing logistical feat to get this all organized....a challenge I am definitely up for. I am going to have to make an Excel spreadsheet!!

So here is the list we have thus far:

CENTRAL AMERICA/MEXICO

Mexico - we need Mexican car insurance and a promise not to sell the car, I am good, J needs to go to the consulate in Boston, yucko

Belize - these guys are tough

Guatemala - both good

Honduras - Good for 90 days

El Salvador - J needs a visa before hand, I can purchase one but since we are driving, I will do it ahead of time just to be safe.

Nicaragua - we can both only stay for 30 days

Costa Rica - we are both good, no visas required

Panama - 30 days but no visas needed

SOUTH AMERICA

Venezuela - Although I have been to Venezuela a number of times before for volunteer medical work in Barinas, it still surprises me that given the political climate, American citizens do not need visas. J is good to go as well.

Guyana - I can stay for 90 days but J has to get a visa which is a bit ironic since it is a South American county and very close to Brazil

Suriname - Just read an awesome article on the capital Paramaribo

French Guiana - we are good here for up to 90 days, I hear they have a pristine rainforest where we can get lost!

Brazil - Finally!  We made it but we have a long way to drive to get to Santa Catarina! 

There is so much information on the web, sometimes it is hard to wade through. Although I am using many lesser known but maybe more reliable for on the ground, budget traveling resources, I have to say that Lonely Planet online is an excellent place to stop.  The books are nice but the web is great for quick and accurate answers.

So there you have it....14 countries in say...5 months. Is it doable?  I sure hope so. Stay tuned as we break it all down and start the real work...the master plan.

Our Path, long as it may be...

Happy Mother's Day! I got you a map

Me and Mom at Obama's Inauguration

My Mom is cool.  She reads this blog and actually enjoys it.  She asked me if the route for our trip was all set as in if we had a clue where we were going. I though, damn, well that would be a good thing to include in the blog. 

I have been withholding trip specific information partly because there is so much but mostly perhaps because we are unsure - and maybe want to keep it this way.  So much of this trip - in my mind anyway - is lets throw it up in the air and see where it land.  No, not lets throw up, lets throw IT up....throw caution to the wind, take the backroad - not the one with banditos - turn off the GPS and just explore the world.

With that being said, I think it will make my mother and Juliano's mother much less anxious if we have SOME sort of plan.  I will do my best to provide our thoughts of a rough path.

Basic Route for Central America:   

1) Baja Mexico, ferry over the Mexico proper, 2) make our way across the Mexican countryside to Belize, 3) visit a program of the World Walk Foundation ( a group I volunteer with), 4) west to Guatemala, 5) visit a doctor friend there, 6) head south to El Salvador, which I sort of missed in my fabulous map making, 6) 0ver to Honduras, my cool mom volunteered in a bilingual school there, 7) down through Nicaragua to Costa Rica, some R and R and 8) then to Panama and Boca del Toro.  

From there we will have to head to South America by boat if we want to continue to drive ...but that will have to be tomorrow cause just explaining our CA trip made me tired.

Hasta Manana!

Driving the Pan America Highway

I received another book in the mail today, Driving the Pan-American Highway to Mexico and Central America: A Complete Guide for Do-It-Yourself Planning and Driving Through Mexico and Central America and I started to get a little nervous. Not about the trip but all the actual work it would take to get everything up and running. I like doing research, gathering facts and organizing information in three ring binders. But that can go on forever. I know there will come a time when we just have to go and say the information we have is enough, learn the rest as you go.

Sometimes trying to get all best information or the perfectly right answer is a way to avoid making the hard decision to let go and just go. For now, I will make my binders and be content to be as prepared as I can and discover the rest. Isn't that what it is all about after all?

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....

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.