Trip Preparation

It's Sunday 16th December. In 5 days we leave Pine Cliff at the start of a two month overseas trip to 5 countries. I have not begun to pack. We still have vaccinations to get and lots of things to organise. Instead of doing any of these I am instead setting up this blog. I am the king of procrastination!

This trip has evolved over the last six months or so to now include America, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, back to America and then Japan to finish off. The trip started around an idea that it would be great to go and visit our friends Barb and John and their kids who are Canadians currently living in Chile (more explanation later). From that initial thought we moved on to "well we should really see a bit more of South America if we are going to go that far" then on to "how can we get there cheaply". As a result we now find ourselves getting to South America via Japan and America (very long way round) and leaving at 10pm on Christmas Eve. Needless to say the girls are not impressed with the idea of having Christmas on a plane but are somewhat reconciled with the idea that we will actually have Christmas day twice.

We will be experiencing South America at the height of Summer, North America in the grip of winter and skiing in Japan. Part of the reason we have not begun to pack is because it is going to be a nightmare. The fact that harvest only just finished two days ago, school/sport/music is as frantic as ever, Tammy had to have a wisdom tooth out last week and I got sick from my yellow fever vaccination has also added to our general state of unpreparedness.

Anyway here's hoping this blog is reasonably interesting and we manage to keep it up to date!