Preparation for this trip (the dreaming part) probably started when I was still on my first Mexico trip; it's really a completion of what I started almost 6 years ago. When my job ended this January, that's when the planning became a full-time gig. Full-time means a few hours a day. It's harder than you think. Really!
I decided to go now because I really feel this trip will take a certain amount of physicality to do it right and I'll never be younger than today. Probably should have done this trip 20 years ago. Oh well. I'm fully aware of the potential dangers. Just read for yourself the http://www.usembassy.gov/ travel warning for Mexico, or any of the individual country embassy crime lists, and you'd lose some sleep, too. I'm not interested in becoming another one of those statistics, it's just that my desire to see and experience this part of the world is greater than any fears I may have. I'm optimistic. (Of course, that could change at any moment. I reserve the right to turn tail while crying for mommy at the drop of a hat). To quote a song by the late, great Steve Goodman:
You better get it while you can
If you wait too long
It'll all be gone
And you'll be sorry then...
From the cradle to the crypt
Is a mighty short trip
So, you better get it while you can
With all the research and planning I've done, I still can't control the bad guys or the weather. So, this is just my attempt to get some of "it" (as defined by each of us, I think) while I can. And that's the deal.
I decided to go now because I really feel this trip will take a certain amount of physicality to do it right and I'll never be younger than today. Probably should have done this trip 20 years ago. Oh well. I'm fully aware of the potential dangers. Just read for yourself the http://www.usembassy.gov/ travel warning for Mexico, or any of the individual country embassy crime lists, and you'd lose some sleep, too. I'm not interested in becoming another one of those statistics, it's just that my desire to see and experience this part of the world is greater than any fears I may have. I'm optimistic. (Of course, that could change at any moment. I reserve the right to turn tail while crying for mommy at the drop of a hat). To quote a song by the late, great Steve Goodman:
You better get it while you can
If you wait too long
It'll all be gone
And you'll be sorry then...
From the cradle to the crypt
Is a mighty short trip
So, you better get it while you can
With all the research and planning I've done, I still can't control the bad guys or the weather. So, this is just my attempt to get some of "it" (as defined by each of us, I think) while I can. And that's the deal.
Researching for the things I needed or wanted to take along, places to go (or not to go, maybe just as important), studying my Spanish (the first two levels of Rosetta Stone), going to the gym so I could do stuff when I got to where I was going (thanks to Kyle Zick for training me). All this took time, and some of it's still going on. The tent, for instance, was a 10 month process from when I first located the website in October to getting it shipped from Australia to installing it on the roof in early August. It would have been late July, but the Feds decided to hold onto the container the tent was shipped in for about two weeks for "further x-rays" in Long Beach. Then the tent needed to be reinstalled two weeks later due to some non-compatibility issues between the tent and the roof loading bars (which I bought specifically to handle this particular tent!). Besides a gazillion websites, the picture below shows all the various maps and guidebooks I studied (over and over) to come up with "the itinerary" listed in the prior post. No GPS for this guy.
What also took awhile was finding and securing vehicle insurance for Central America. Thanks to Tina Burberg with Sanborn's for helping me get that just in time (I'm writing this on 9/19). There's apparently only one company that offers that. And you pay for it, too. This was separate from the standard Mexico policy that Sanborn's offers.
I never did get health insurance. What the heck, I haven't that for almost 9 years as it is. I did get malaria pills and cipro. (for traveler's diarrhea) from my doctor, however. Add those to a 250 day supply of my regular meds. and I probably have more drugs on me than the dealers. I am so screwed.
What also took awhile was finding and securing vehicle insurance for Central America. Thanks to Tina Burberg with Sanborn's for helping me get that just in time (I'm writing this on 9/19). There's apparently only one company that offers that. And you pay for it, too. This was separate from the standard Mexico policy that Sanborn's offers. I never did get health insurance. What the heck, I haven't that for almost 9 years as it is. I did get malaria pills and cipro. (for traveler's diarrhea) from my doctor, however. Add those to a 250 day supply of my regular meds. and I probably have more drugs on me than the dealers. I am so screwed.
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