3... 2... 1... Happy new year!
This entry was posted on Thu, 28 Dec 2006 18:04:00 GMT and is filed under uncategorized.
Finally... months of preparation are culminating this weekend. We've left our jobs and houses, sold one car and lots of junks, and packed everything into storage. We got vaccinations for Yellow Fever, Hepatitis, Typhoid, and Tetanus, plus weekly Malaria pills. We bought storage insurance, traveler's health insurance, Mexican liability insurance, and airplane insurance (which turned out to be the main limiting factor in terms of route, as South America was excluded). After reading countless pages and web sites, talking to officials and pilots in several countries, and buying enough equipment to fill up a small airplane (quite literally), we're as ready as we'll ever be to travel to where our careful planning is probably as useful as good intentions.
On the first second day of the new year, we'll load our Cherokee 140 (N4375F, shown in the top bar) with our remaining bags and some snacks, and head south. Away from the snow of New Mexico toward the beaches of Old Mexico. This map shows where we currently plan to make airplane stops, spending some time traveling on the ground in each region of Central America:
The stops shown are:
- Laredo, Texas
- Tampico, Mexico
- Villahermosa, Mexico
- Merida, Mexico
- Chetumal, Mexico
- Tikal, Guatemala
- Le Ceiba, Honduras
- Roatan, Hondoras
- Liberia, Costa Rica
- Panama City, Panama
- San Jose, Costa Rica
- San Salvador, El Salvador
- Guatemala City, Guatemala
- Veracruz, Mexico
- Tampico, Mexico
- Laredo, Texas
And then back to Albuquerque, New Mexico, two months and many dollars later.
You can see the map in better detail
here. An itinerary that we plan to update throughout the trip can be found
here.
We will miss our routine and loved ones in NM, but are looking forward to all the new experiences: the cultures, the photographs, the languages, the flying and the bugs.
We will try to update this journal weekly and welcome any comments or questions.
Hasta la vista!
