Big, huge, ginormous announcement!

One of the wonderful parts about doing an indefinite round-the-world trip is the flexibility it provides. Doing preparation (versus planning) lets you look from different angles. When you arrange travel as you go, you aren’t a slave to a fixed itinerary. Slow travel is such an awesome way to truly experience a place, its culture, and people. And that is precisely one of the things that has really bothered me about our current itinerary. Until we hit Paris, every place we visit is less than a month. We don’t go much beyond that until we hit India when we can stay up to 6 months if we want.  The pace of our trip has really bugged me.

So have the logistics. There is a lot to Central & South America, and our current plan has us only in Ecuador for 3 weeks before heading to Europe. At some point I’d like to spend a good amount of time exploring all those countries, and Antartica is also one of the places we want to visit. Can’t visit 6 continents and say okay that was fun and quit can we?

After pondering things, I had a sudden idea. One of those that pops up and greets you with so much truth to it that you instantly say “YES! That’s it!” And then you look back and think “Duh! Why didn’t that occur to me before?” Yesterday was one of those moments. The excitement stayed with me all day. When I picked up Tigger, I began presenting the idea to him, and he immediately said “I see where you’re going with this.” So I asked him where I was going. He told me, and he was right. Since we’re a team, we made the decision as a team. Hurry up and get to the point you say? Okay.

We’re radically changing our itinerary. We’re going to begin with Central America and slow travel our way down through South America, hitting Antartica while we’re down there, before continuing our journey to the other side of the world. We’ll be in the Americas for probably a couple of years minimum. While we’re down there, might as well visit Easter Island, too. We’ll also probably add some destinations to the Africa portion of our trip so we can explore more of that continent as well. We have time, as far as any of us know, so there’s no rush.

Our departure date, however, won’t be changing, even though I’d REALLY like to make that earlier. There is still a lot to do before we head out, so we might as well avail ourselves of that.

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47 Comments

  1. Very cool! So far I’ve only been to Costa Rica, Colombia, Ecuador & Galapagos Islands, but what we’ve seen of Central & South America we love. If you haven’t been there, I highly recommend Cartagena and the nearby Rosario Islands. It looks like our next big trip will be 10 days in the Peruvian Amazon, and we’re hoping to get to Belize this year as well. Best wishes for a great year of travel!

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    • I spent 5 days in the Peruvian Amazon in 2010, and it was AMAZING! Wouldn’t mind spending more time there at all. Haven’t been to Colombia yet but looking forward to it. Sounds like you have a wonderful year planned!

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  2. Sounds amazing!! That slow travel will give so much to you and Tigger too.

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    • I definitely agree! Thanks

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  3. Great News. Later you will be wondering why you almost left Central and South America off the list. You won’t regret it.

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  4. Yay! You will get SO much more out of your trip this way. I did 15 countries in 6 months when I started and I laugh when I think back to those days. Now I just travel, with no plans – OK, maybe a vague idea of where I’d like to go, but it never ends up happening that way anyway. Leaving yourself open to experience things that put themselves in your path is so much more exciting and rewarding. Good for you!

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    • Wow! That was quite the itinerary you had!

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  5. Just got back from Easter Island and it was life changing, hit me up if you need any suggestions. And well, Antarctica, that’s #1 on my Bucket List. So awesome you’ll be making it there. I love love love South America!!!

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    • Me, too! I got to live in Ecuador for a few months and spent a few weeks in Peru recently. Phenomenal continent and people. Will prob hit you up when we’re getting close to making the trip to Easter Island. Appreciate the offer!

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  6. Getting closer and closer .. eh? Congrats!

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    • 2 months! Can’t believe it!

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  7. You guys are TOO CUTE.
    “I see where you’re going with this.”
    So I asked him where I was going.
    He told me, and he was right.

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    • He keeps me laughing that one. 🙂

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  8. Your son is a very lucky boy.

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    • It was going to be one of the latter things we did. I like this plan better. Been to 4 continents so far, and this is a biggie to cross off.

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  9. Great news! We’ll definitely have to keep in touch and try to meet up in SA!

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    • That would be most awesome!

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  10. Slow travel is the way to go. I keep reading travel blogs about people rushing from one place to another, like they are just trying to collect bragging points for having actually been to a place for a couple of days. Traveling is more than just visiting a place; you need to experience a place through the people and culture. That is the way we are planning to travel on our RTW trip. Nice and slow and spend at least a month at each location. Plus, the slower you go, the cheaper it is and the longer you can travel.

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    • That is definitely what I didn’t like short outed former plans. Can’t absorb
      a culture or place adequately in a rushed visit.
      On Feb 28, 2011 12:24 PM, “Disqus”

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  11. I just had a similar revelation. If you have the time & means, there is no rush. Enjoy each place until you feel like moving on to the next!

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    • Yep. Slow travel is the way to go if you can swing it. That’s for sure!

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  12. I’m from Colombia, even though we might get some bad rep I still think its a beautiful place, although I kinda don’t like how every other girl now has fake boobs and all they care about is a husband with money…besides all that stuff the people are great and there are a whole bunch of different places to visit.

    Starting with Cartagena.

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    • I agree that Colombia gets a bad rap. We’ll be spending some time there for sure.

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      • I’m glad to hear that, if you ever need a cab driver to take you around the city in Cali let me know I’ll get you in contact with my uncle, he’s lived there most his life now but he use to live in NJ and he still speaks english, pretty nice guy. I’m actually in the process of building him a site, but I still got work to do.

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  13. Awesome! I saw the news on Twitter and had to see your post for myself. 🙂 This is indeed a big leap. I’m excited for you and wish you all the best as you continue to travel!

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    • Thank you very much!

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  14. Wow—South America. Sweet dude. Always wanted to go. Sorry we wont see you in Thailand sooner, but it’s going to be a wild ride none the less 🙂

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    • Yep. Starting in Mexico & working our way down. Although I was so tempted to
      just go to Thailand first.
      So looking forward to it!

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  15. A couple of years?

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    • That’s just for Central & South America & Antartica. Could take longer. And then we head to Europe after that for the next continent. 🙂

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  16. Congratulations! You are just behind us. I have tons of tips, contacts and ideas for you. The biggest bummer for us is, we won’t see you in Ecuador in May. Oh well.. We’ll connect yet!
    Happy and safe travels!!

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    • Yes, that was a big bummer for me when I decided to make this change, but it’s a small world. We’ll definitely connect. 🙂

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  17. Well done on make a decision. Personally I enjoy mapping out travel routes, leads to discovering so much more. Also helps to keep one’s mind focused on the tasks needed to get you there.

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    • I like researching and coming up with possibilities, but I don’t want a fixed schedule. Like leaving room for flexibility and spontaneity.

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    • Slow is the best way to go in my opinion!

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  18. That’s awesome. Especially knowing you guys will be hitting up Easter Island and Antarctica is jut great. Good gor you guys. 🙂

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    • Thanks! It’s so exciting to be able to get all that different culture in at a slow enough pace to really absorb it. And Tigger will have plenty of time to learn Spanish. 🙂

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  19. Brilliant news and a very exciting change of plans!

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    • Merci! Feels so good to feel like things are solid now.

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    • Thanks, man! Oh, pics won’t be a problem at all! LOL

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    • Thanks! I’m even more excited. Been waiting to buy airfare tickets because it still felt open to me, but now it feels like we’re good to go. 🙂

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