From Baja to the Land of Fire: Planning & Preparing

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Six Months Over Land & Water
From Tijuana, Mexico to Ushuaia, Argentina

Theo put a lot of planning and research into his trip. Then there's his reading list...

Preparing
The first thing I did after deciding on traveling to Latin America was to buy Read this First: Central and South America from Lonely Planet. This gave me a first detailed glimpse into the details of planning and a basic itinerary.

Later I bought the Lonely Planet (LP) guide for Mexico, Central America on a Shoestring and South America on a Shoestring. I used the LP guide in Indonesia and really enjoyed it. I also love the name Lonely Planet. I read all their books and felt the anticipation rise steadily.

Most of the actual preparations happened in the two months before the 1st of November, T-day. In the first half of September I bought most of my gear. In the second half I was in Barcelona to do a Spanish language course.

In October I continued reading the guides and worked out a detailed itinerary, knowing well all will be different once I started traveling. I also read The Full Montezuma by Peter Moore. This is a fun story about him traveling through Central America in six months with his new girlfriend.

A friend of a friend of a friend will be living in my house, looking after the cats while I am away. He is moving in on the 2nd of November.

Even though Jacqueline (see Bio) just had a beautiful baby boy, Bas, with her new boyfriend Alex, she has enough time to be my homebase while I am away. She will take care of my personal affairs and help me in emergencies. She has copies of all important papers and documents. I keep her informed of my (daily) changes in my itinerary, and she keeps me informed of Bas and other world affairs.

I bought an open-jaw ticket one week before I left on the 1st of November: Amsterdam - London - San Diego, and a return ticket on the 9th of May: Caracas - London - Amsterdam (I can change the return date to a maximum of 12 months). The ticket cost USD$900.

I certainly recommend the Read This First book; it really helped. Back to top

Packing
I really enjoyed getting my gear together. I was like a child, really thinking in details and preparing for all known and unknown circumstances. I especially went crazy buying hi-tech clothing. Just love that stuff. I am taking my 65-liter Karrimor backpack, a heavy-duty daypack (for hiking and excursions) and a small cheap-looking daypack for strolling around cities and dangerous areas. I want to lie now but I won't, all my stuff together weighs 25kg. I don't know if this is a lot for six months of travel, but until now I have been able to carry this without any trouble.

For those of you who are interested, here is a basic list of my gear:

• LP Mexico
• Central America and South America
• Staying Healthy in Central and South America
• Latin-Spanish language guide
• Spanish learning book
• 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
• Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
• Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson
• 2 fantasy books and
• The SAS Survival Handbook

I am open to any remarks :-) Back to top

Budget & Money
TMy budget is about USD$10,000. This is USD$40 per day average (including everything: food, accommodation, local transport, excursions, etc). I think that mostly Chile and Argentina will be very expensive to travel. USD$1,500 is for a 8-10 day trip to the Galapagos Islands, and the rest for some internal flights (Panama City - Caracas, Rio de Janeiro - Caracas and probably in Chile and Argentina at least once). I already am worried about this not being enough; I think I will have to limit any diving to just 2 or 3 times.

I am taking some money with me in the form of traveler's checks and cash US dollars. This will be mainly for the most difficult countries (Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia). For the rest I hope to be able to use ATMs. Back to top

Health & Dangers
There are many risks in traveling through Latin America, enough to scare most people far away. In the weeks before I left I had all my inoculations done and read a lot about the basic health risks. Against malaria I will be taking larium. I know the controversy here, but I think it will be the best for me (I tested it two weeks before I left). I also brought a book with me: Healthy Travel: Central and South America by Lonely Planet.

I am taking a first aid kit with me with everything you can imagine and more (I really loved putting this together).

In the last three weeks I also made sure my body was healthy by doing an Herbalife vitality program a friend of mine advised. Wasn't sure at first, but this really worked for me.

I also have some vitamin supplements with me in case my diet becomes too shallow.

Concerning dangers like mugging, theft and robbery, all I can say is that I will just have to watch out and have some luck. I consider the highest risk a bus robbery. There is not much I can do about this, except not take too many night buses. I am also a little worried about buses driving into a ravine. We'll see, but I'm not going to think about it too much. Back to top

Itinerary
The basic plan is to go all the way from Tijuana down to Ushuaia, Argentina. Then back up again to Buenos Aires and Rio and Caracas. The countries I will NOT be going to are El Salvador, Colombia, Guyana, Suriname. The rest I will be visiting a few days to a few weeks each.

I feel there will be two parts: Mexico and Central America as the first part; South America as the second. I will be crossing from Panama to Venezuela and from here to Manaus, Brazil, so I can catch a boat up the Amazon to Iquitos, Peru, from there to Ecuador (Galapagos) and then south again.

As I said in the intro, I just want to be on the move. I will go visit the highlights of each country when I can, and visit more off-the-beaten-track highlights when I hear about them. I mostly like beaches (diving, on a boat, snorkeling, reading in a hammock with a tequila within reach, eating fish, etc), natural sights and archeology. Back to top


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