Thoughts on / Impression of my journey
The date of departure is coming closer still, and I’ve fnally got around on doing some serious thinking on my travels. I’d forgotten how much preparation goes into traveling. You have to think of a thousand things that still have to be done before you leave. Here are just some thoughts on my travels and things that still need to be done.
Mode de voyage
My ‘mode de voyage’ will be quite unplanned. The countries that I’ll be visiting for sure are Mexico and Guatemala. Any other countries that I might visit, I’ll see along the way. I have no fixed itinerary, and no must-sees planned yet. I’ll basically go with the flow, taking it easy, and in the process meeting new people, having fun, getting to know the locals, their culture, the food, appreciating natural beauty, and improving my Spanish. On my last travels I did a lot of moving around, staying in places for only a few days, which became a bit exhausting after a while. This time I’ll stay in places for longer stretches at a time, and get beyond the somewhat superficial touristy impression of destinations. I’d like to stay close to the coast, I love the beach. Might do a bit of diving too (i have my PADI thing). I heard there are some magnificent diving spots in Central America.
Travel budget
Thanks to my parttime job I’ve been able to save up enough for my two months in Central America. I reckon that my daily costs will be around 20 euro (about 25 USD), implying my total travel budget is about 1200 euros (1500 USD). This is just a very rough estimate though, one might even say it’s a complete guess, so it could turn out to be more expensive. Having a creditcard and being able to overdraft my bank account, extra expenses will probably not pose too many problems.
Packing
I’m still working on making a packing list, taking with me only the bare essentials. Yes, I like to travel as light as I can. Every gram is precious. My backpack is 35 litres, comparable to a normal daypack. This doesn’t leave much room for a lot of extra ‘just in case’ stuff.
Writing
I always keep a travel journal on the road, and will do so during this trip too. Also, I’ll try to write some useful content to place on my baby WorldBackpackers.net, such as travel stories and destination guides. I’ll also try to hit an internet cafe once in every while, and when I do I’ll post an update on my whereabouts, experiences and plans in this very travelog.
Photography
Photos are a great way to remember your trip by, and to give an impression of all the things you’ve seen and done. So my camera will definitely accompany me in Central America. I’ve been thinking about getting myself a digital camera (everyone seems to have one these days), but I’ll probably just stick with my old fashioned simple camera: no zoom, no nothing, just plain simple click and go.
Music
Music is very important to me, and I always take a collection of my music with me on the road, couldn’t survive without it. My sweet sweet girlfriend - I’m going to miss her terribly - bought me an MP3-player, which is a really cool and handy way to have loads of music with you, while taking up very little space in your backpack, and being able to survive rough environments thanks to the fact that it doesn’t have any mechanical parts. This reminds me that I still have to figure out which albums / songs I’ll take with me.
Literature
I still have to buy a guidebook on Central America. I’ll probably go for the Footprint guide this time. I’ve always travelled with well-known Lonely Planet books. But I’d like to try out some other and less widespread publishers too, and a big advantage of Footprint is that their Central America edition also includes Mexico (other publishers made them into different books). Apart from a guidebook I’ll bring a reading book, namely Jack Kerouac’s ‘The Dharma Bums’. I love Kerouac, currently re-reading his ‘On the Road’ again. As is quite common among backpackers, I’ll probably do a number of book exchanges along the way, to keep my mind occupied in boring times (bus travels).
Malaria
I’ve never been to a malaria infected region before, so this will be my first time. To prevent getting ill or dying and stuff from them little mosquito bites, I will take preventive malaria pills with me (proguanil it’s called), which I will have to take daily once I’m in malarial areas (southern Mexico, entire Guatemala, …). Apart from the pills I’m going to buy insect repellent with DEET, and a mosquito net to hang over my bed / hammock / whatever.
Weather
When I’m in Central America, it will be rain season, or so I gather at this point. That kind of sucks, but I heard it isn’t too bad because it’ll only rain like really hard for an hour or two during the day, and after that it’ll just stay dry. I’ll bring a poncho with me, or buy one there.
Sleeping
The first nights of my stay in Mexico are booked. I’ll be staying in hostel ‘Moneda’ in downtown Mexico City. I thought it was wise to make a reservation beforehand, because I’ll be arriving in Mexico City late in the evening, and there’s nothing worse than having to look for a place to sleep after an exhausting flight in a big city you don’t know. For the rest, I’ll probably be staying in budget hostels, guest houses, etcetera. I don’t really know yet. I also hear it’s really common to just sleep in hammocks, so I might buy one there on the market. I’ll have my small, light, made-for-summer-temperatures sleeping bag with me, strapped on the outside of my backpack.
Transportation
I’ll probably be doing overland travel during the whole trip. But then again, you never know… I might be visiting some islands. For overland travel: this means trains, buses (can’t wait to try out the infamous ‘chicken buses’, named that way because they usually carry more livestock than people).
Finally
For the rest I’m hoping to just have a frikkin great time, meeting interesting people and just having a blast. I love the backpacker culture, so I hope to encounter as many backpackers and backpacker hotspots along the way as possible. I’m kind a tired of typing right now, so I’m gonna call it a day for this post. I hope this long text will give you an impression of how I’ll be traveling and taking care of things along the way. I’m interested in all opinions, questions, etcetera. So if you’d like to reach me, you can send an email to james[at]worldbackpackers[dot]net.
All the best. James.
