The day is finally here. After nearly eighteen months of planning and dreaming, I am sitting in the airport ready to depart for Guatemala. I am also suffering some ill effects from last night's goodbye effort, but it is nothing a good coffee won't fix.
Day one is just another day, right?
Rookie Travel Mistakes on Day One
In what I assume is a classic rookie move, my bag is way over packed. It only weighs 24lbs, but I can barely zip it up and it is more than a quarter of my weight. I feel like one wrong move and I'll end up on my back struggling to get up, flailing about like a wanderlust-struck turtle. My first item to tackle in Guatemala will be to reorganize and get rid of things. I suppose I don't really need the eighteen or so tank tops I have packed.
I keep waiting for either excitement or nerves to kick in for the trip, but I still feel really calm and neutral about the trip. I've booked neither my transportation from Guatemala City to Antigua tonight, nor the hotel once I get there; this is my first attempt at letting go and just spontaneously figuring it out as I go. I may be learning the hard way, and quickly.
A Whirlwind of Activity at the Last Second
The last couple weeks have been a whirlwind of activity: moving out of my apartment, quitting my jobs, and driving to Canada. I've spent more time than I could ever imagine in the car driving, in the banks waiting, and in border lineups groaning. But everything is finally organized. Or so I think.
It wasn't until I was sitting in the airport this morning that I began to wonder at some of the questions I've never considered before - like how does one replace a bank or credit card abroad if it's lost or stolen, which seems inevitable at some point? How do I file my taxes on the road when I no longer have an address to receive my documents at? All of these are questions I've never considered and never came up during countless world-traveler blog reading. I guess I'll be figuring that out as I go, too.
Anyway, the day has come and the boarding passes are printed. I am getting excited to be out in the world making mistakes and learning from all of the new experiences. I have a few activities planned for my first couple days in Central America and then a wide open itinerary with time for chasing sharks, scaling buildings, and getting over my aversion to real food (pizza, I will miss you).
