Occasionally, someone will listen to my plans to travel the world and admire me for my spontaneity. At that point, I have to laugh because I am one of the least spontaneous people in the world. This mental image of a gypsy girl on the road following her dreams is in reality a sham.
Every big step I take may seem spontaneous, but in reality it is almost always after a careful analysis of the risks and benefits or hours sifting through Google search results. So when I say, "Hey, let's jump out of that plane!", it really has nothing to do with my wild side, and much more to do with a pie chart telling me the statistics of crashing to my death are pretty slim.
This inability to be completely spontaneous means I know pretty much exactly where I am going to be for the first six months of my trip, practically down to the day. Everything I had read about long-term travel tells me this is the completely wrong way to go about this trip, but I haven't quite figured out how to change this about my nature.
Thus, here is the rough (or not so rough) itinerary of my planned twenty-month trip.
Starting in South America
August 21st, 2015. I depart Canada and fly to Guatemala to begin my adventure. And it will definitely be a journey, because despite living in Arizona for over three years, I only speak about three words of Spanish. I like to think "hola" and "taco" will cover most of my basic needs in Central and South America though.
The plan for Central America is a quick three or four weeks through Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
In September, I will fly to Colombia for sixteen days, the longest I plan to stay in any one country. After that, I have to make my way through Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina and Brazil before the end of December.
The most exciting part of my trip will most likely be the very expensive, not-at-all-budget-friendly 11-day trip from Argentina to Antarctica. Seeing as I moved to Arizona precisely because I hate cold and snow, I'm not sure this was one of my better decisions. I also worry that the only reason I am going is so that when I eventually settle down and get back to dating, I'll be intriguing: "You see that girl? I have to talk to her because she went to Antarctica."
Onward to Africa
The day after Christmas I fly to South Africa to begin a 54-day overland safari throughout South and East Africa. I am not a huge fan of being dirty and on a truck for hours a day, but I am a big fan of adventure and not being lost in Africa, so this seemed like a smart and economical decision.
I have plans to spend a week of my life climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro with my sister in February (again with the cold, snow and poorly thought out decisions) followed by six weeks in Madagascar and West Africa.
After that, nothing is booked or planned. While I may not be spontaneous and may have a love of spreadsheets and graphs, I realize there is no sense in planning every aspect of a trip a year before it happens. I could be horribly homesick, fall madly in love with raising goats in Africa, or break my legs falling over Victoria Falls, so over-planning is something I am trying to let go of. By then I hope to have acquired some useful skills in being spontaneous as I gallivant throughout the Middle East, Europe and Asia.
Until I learn that lesson though, I'll keep printing out spreadsheets to put in my color-coded trip binder.
