Your mission, dear readers, should you choose to accept, is to determine how we will spend our time in South America. (You didn’t think we were just going to let you visit our blog and not do any work, now did you?)
You will need to keep the following in mind:
1. We will have approximately 22 weeks. Though we don’t have exact dates yet, for now we will assume the dates to be October 19 through March 21.
2. In this time period, we would like to visit: Nicaragua, Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina.
3. We must start in Nicaragua.
4. We must end near a major airport with international flights.
5. We must be in Peru (on the Inca Trail to be exact) the last week of December/first week of January.
6. Things that we are intent on doing include: the Inca Trail (4 days + acclimation period in Cusco), Roraima in Venezuela (5 days), Spanish lessons in Granada, Nicaragua (1 week), the Galapagos (7-10 days), hike the Circuit or W in Torres del Paine in Patagonia, Chile (5-7 days), Amazon tour [unsettled on location–Peru, Bolivia, Brazil–you pick] (4-7 days).
7. We would like to minimize flights/optimize overland transport, while at the same time not burning days and days on travel.
So what do you got? Is there just absolutely no way for us to fit all of this in or is this entirely doable?
Post your best attempt at an itinerary in the comments. It can be as basic as Weeks 1-3 Nicaragua or as detailed as Day 1: Arrive in Managua, Transfer by bus to Granada. (We would seriously owe you if you did that!). Whoever ends up closest to our actual itinerary (as lived out by us, not planned by us) could win a prize. (Then again, they also could not… And then again, I could just mail you a postcard and call that the prize…)
Now that Jeff and I have given notice to our landlady that we’re moving out in two months (!!!!), this is our next big project, and let me tell you, it’s not as easy as it should be. There’s always “what about this” or “well if we went this way, then we could…” And yes, yes, we hear you about not over planning, leaving room for spontaneity, etc. We will, we will. We just want to have some kind of rough itinerary planned out. Maybe we’ll get going and toss it out the bus window. Or maybe we’ll stick to it like peanut butter on jelly (ewww…have I ever mentioned that I have never eaten that very weird food combo…). Only time will tell. For now, give us your best shot.
Come on, you just know you want to tell us where to go.