The journey begins in the most mundane of trials.

Tomorrow we head south, and south, and south. Tonight we are in the hotel. At 4AM we go into the belly of the beast. Arriving in Lima at 5AM on Sunday.

Preparations continue, including obsessing about clothes, travel plans, bugs, and security. We are coping!

My intrepid travel companion pointed out that I had made an error on our last day in Lima. We are actually there for 36 hours instead of the 12 I had assumed. Unless we plan to sleep in the park, I will now need to find one more days lodging. I thought I was done. <sigh>

I’ve never been South of the Equator, nor to South America at all. It seemed like it was time.

To show you how naïve I was about the place, I thought – hey as long as I’m in Peru I should go and check out these other places. WRONG. South America is big, like really big. Screen Shot 2017-06-05 at 2.11.40 PM

Less than 2 weeks to go before we leave, which means that it is time to panic. Not enough time to fix the things that need fixing, like passports, but too much time to relax and say “Oh well….”

I THINK I have everything arranged that I need to – places to stay in Lima, Cuszco. Air transport arranged, train tickets purchased. What am I missing? I guess I’ll find out when I get there. You would think that I was going to Mars, gone for years instead of just 2 weeks. Jeez

Too much time spent, time to get going and forget the arrangements.

June 30, 2016

After the day off, we decided to pull out the stops. This part of the world (confluence of Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea) is known for Whale Sharks. We joined a boat tour to “swim with the sharks”. It was awe inspiring and scary. A highlight of the entire trip.

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After the great Whale Shark experience, we deserved a quite dinner on the beach, and a beautiful sunset.

June 30, 2016

Lazy day, hanging out at the beach, riding bicycles into town. It is worth noting that there are no paved streets on the island, also that it is very hot all the time. The temperature was in the 90’s every day and of course being near the ocean, quite humid. One gets use to it, and the solution is just to not move around much, or get into the water at every opportunity. A perfect excuse for vacation life in the islands.

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How we spent most of our time in the Caribbean.

June 28, 2016

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1st full day in Holbox. Decided that a boat trip sounded fun. Chartered a small boat to take us on a 3 hour tour (couldn’t help but think of Gilligan’s Island). Visited a number of locations on the boat, including Passion Island, Fuente de la Juventud, Flamingoes’ wading along the shoreline.

June 27, 2016

We arrived in Isla Holbox (pronounced OL-BOS, in Mayan dialect) after a 2 1/2 hour ride through the jungles of Northern Yucatan. Beautiful, hot, sandy spit of land off the coast of Yucatan, across from Cuba. A short ferry ride across Yalahau Lagoon, put us in the town of Holbox, population 2000. The Seagulls are fighting over dead fish at Raices Restaurant, which is on the beach. Everyday at Sunset, a Mayan who works at the restaurant blows a conch shell to the setting sun.

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Today we arrived in Cancun, our attempt to escape the wilds of the North Country. This time we escape to the wilds of the tropics.

This has been the most ambitious and involved travel outing yet. Seven countries and well over 12,000 miles covered in almost 4 weeks. Quite an accomplishment. I look forward to the next installment.

travel route