Planning Our Route

Happy first day of 2014, everyone!  Tanya and I are sitting in Kaladi Brother's doing our internet business.  We do not have internet at home (another way to save money!!), so all internet things we either do on our phones or at the coffee shop with laptops.  And some things are just easier done with laptops.  Anyway, Kaladi workers are volunteering their time today, and all the money the coffee shops earn today go towards charity.  This year, it's for Children's Lunchbox - a great local program, if I do say so myself.

Alright, trip stuff.  Tanya had drawn our route on a map for us to post for you.  I asked her, "Can you blue tooth me the route?"  This is what she sent me.

And then she said, "Now, would you like the route?"

On that note, a brief overview of our trip:

- Anchorage down to Santiago, Chile (with a few stopovers in between)

- Easter Island

- Back to Santiago

- Up to Quito, Ecuador

- Guayaquil

- Galapagos Islands

- Back to Guayaquil

- Down to the border, eventually to Mancora, Peru

- Piura

- Lima

- Cusco

- Sacred Valley

- Machu Picchu/Aguas Calientes

- Cusco

- Puno

- Lake Titicaca

- Arequipa

- Arica

- Calama

- San Pedro

- La Serena
- Pingüino de Humboldt National Reserve
- Constitucion
- Viña del Mar and/or Valparaiso

- Santiago

- Santiago back to Anchorage

We are flying in and out of the same city because round trip tickets to one city are cheaper than two one way tickets to different cities.  Once we fly up to Ecuador from Chile, we'll mostly be taking buses back down so we can hit a bunch of places in between.  We'll be taking different forms of transportation (plane, bus, train, taxi, boat), though, depending on the distances between where we are and where we want to go.

Money Saving Tip:  We did not hire a trip planner of any kind.  Tanya is doing ALL of it.  Also, she is really, really good at it.  So we got plane tickets and bus tickets and hostels, etc. with her researching the best deals available and getting most things months and months in advance to ensure our spots.  In fact, that's what she's working on right now.

In eight weeks, we will have visited three countries...

...plus 4-5 islands between the Galapagos and Easter Island...

And distancing a total of 28,541 miles!!!

In the meantime, we'll be living the dream here in Alaska.  There are lots of different kinds of preparations we're making, so stay tuned.

There is ONE thing I need from you, dear readers, though, and that is, do you have any book suggestions before we go on this trip?  Anything you think I should read in preparation for visiting these great lands?  Any and all suggestions are much appreciated.

A blurb for those who don't live in Anchorage...

Don't worry, moose! I'll only shoot you with my camera.

This little lady was wandering through our neighbourhood the other day.  Moose are REALLY common here, and we see them all the time.  To me, though, it never gets old!