...and They're Off!! - In a month. Or so.

Knee deep in planning, I've decided to procrastinate. Amid settling the funding, contacting potential volunteer locations, finding out which immunizations I'm going to need and gathering supplies, I decided that now was also the best time to begin blogging. And so, my valued and faithful followers, welcome to the documented beginning of our trip around the world!

There are a number of things that remain to be done, but not many of them are particularly interesting, unless you're planning a trip of your own - which, of course, I'm going to assume everyone is. Right now, the list looks something like this:

1) GAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!

2)UNGHANNG!

3)*gasp gasp wheeze pant*

4)BWRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAR!!!!

...needless to say, this thing is taking a lot of energy to throw together. I'm beginning to realize slowly that a trip around the world takes a bit more planning than a road trip to Edmonton. And given that my roadtrips to Edmonton (all one of them) were never very well planned (right, Bob?), this is a big step for me.
Hence, I am procrastinating.

This is the itinerary as it stands now:

• Toronto to Cacun
• (Mexico)
• Chichen-Itza
• (Belize)
• (Honduras)
• Trujillo
• (Nicaragua)
• Rio Coco
• (Costa Rica)
• (Panama)
• Panama Canal
• Peru
• Volunteer
• Bolivia
• Cochabamba
• Brazil
• Iguacu Falls
• Amazon

• Portugal
• Fatima
• (Spain)
• (France)
• Lourdes
• (Italy)
• Pisa
• Vatican City
• Blue Grotto
• (Austria)
• Hungary or Czech Republic - Poland
• Ukraine
• Volunteer
• (Romania)
• (Bulgaria)
• (Greece)
• (Turkey)
• (Syria)
• (Israel)

• Egypt
• Morocco
• Casablanca
• Mauritania
• Senegal
• Guinea
• Côte d’Ivoire
• Ghana
• Togo
• Volunteer
• (Benin)
• (Nigeria)
• (Cameroon)
• (Central African Republic)
• (Democratic Republic of Congo)
• Congo River
• (Burundi)
• Bujumbura
• (Tanzania)
• Mount Kilimanjaro
• (Zambia)
• Victoria Falls
• (Zimbabwe)
• (South Africa)
• (Namibia)
• (South Africa)
• Fly to India

• India
• Volunteer
• Nepal
• Volunteer
• (China)
• Great wall
• (Japan)
• Mount Fuji
• Buddha
• Laos
• Thailand
• Malaysia
• (Philippines)
• (Indonesia)

• Australia
• Hawaii
• Home

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Small potatoes, right? The only change we may make at this point is the visit to the Rio Coco in Nicaragua. Apparently in Northeastern Nicaragua and Southeastern Honduras there are some fields of unmarked landmines... and as cool as it might be to tell the story of crossing a field of landmines, there are few enough people who live to tell such a story that we're not as keen to do it as before...

And so, the game continues. I'll be sure to give you all the ugly details as we slog through the plans, and maybe even give an antecedent story about our trip out with Club Pat in B.C.
It depends on how badly I need to procrastinate later.

Peace! - Andrew