Well, here I am in SF with 17 days to go before I embark on my BIG South American Adventure! So much to catch you up on...
1. Yes, I will be traveling to South America
2. For how long? 2 months and 19 days March 31st - June 19th
3. Where in SA? Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Equador, and Peru
4. Main objective: mejorar mi español!
5. Secondary objective: adventure of a lifetime!
As most of you know, I've had a new hobby for the last year and a half: aprendiendo español! Learning another language has truly been an amazing experience and has been so much more to me than vocab and verb tenses. Who would have thought that I'd take a liking to salsa dancing y musica latina? Not me! I really feel that I've learned a lot through my classes here in SF, though I think it's time for true immersion experience to push me to el siguiente nivel.
At first I wasn't sure if I should study in el idoma en España o Sudamerica pero... Dan told me that he, too, wanted to plan an extended trip to a Latin country. No. 1 on his list: Buenos Aires, Argentina. Perfect place to start the adventure!
Sooo... at the end of January, when I decided that I was 100% set on making this want a reality, I asked my boss for a sabbatical (thank you Kris!) and bought a few travel books. After thumbing through The South American Handbook and Lonely Planet's South America on a shoestring for a few weeks, I was ready to book my flight! Into Buenos Aires, Argentina, out of Lima, Peru. Yay!
Machu Picchu, being on the top of my Must See List, was the first thing I booked after airfare. Turns out that reserving a spot on the famous 4 day Inca Trail hike to Machu Picchu is highly competitive - in mid-February the soonest we could make reservations was June 12th, which was nearly sold out!! Phew!
The next few weeks were spent on travel blogs and asking around for travel advice... lots of research... lots and lots! Thanks Dad, I know this "problem" runs in the family ;) Unfortunately (or fortunately?) the more I learned, the more packed my itinerary became! Now the intercontinental flights are booked, and the itinerary roughly 85% set! I will try to upload the itinerary to share.
That is all for tonight - more to come :)
Adios por ahora!
Kristen
Disclaimer: I am a first-time blogger - please bear with me!
It's all very exciting! I'm glad we'll get updates on here (or via email) to know how you're doing. Wish I could do something like this too! :)
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