USA — Page 12

A taste of our own medicine

August 6, 2009 By Danny

We finally arrived in Lima this week, where we will be for much of the month of August. One of the reasons we’re staying here for awhile (and we do indeed have many) is that we needed to spend some time in a capital city in order to get our visas for Bolivia and Brazil. Each of these countries puts citizens of the US applying for a visa through a similar process that we put their citizens though…let the fun begin.

We decided to start with Bolivia first. This is because we will be entering Bolivia before Brazil and that their process is possible to finish within a day. Arriving at the Embassy first thing in the morning with our passports we began to fill out our paperwork and went to pay the fee. This was not enough, we needed to “create” a complete travel itinerary (which isn’t so easy since we’re backpackers) and make a reservation with at least one hotel. We also needed to prove financial solvency (photocopy of a credit card) and immunization against yellow fever.

Overall this wasn’t too terribly much to ask of us and the process from beginning to end lasted about 2 hours. Brazil will be similar but will need some more specific information such as proof of onward travel. The thing that is really irksome to us is the price, $135 each just to enter the country for 90 days; pretty steep when you consider that with the exception of these two countries we expect to pay a total of zero dollars to the nations of South America.

Is this fair? As much as I hate to say so, I think it probably is more than fair. For a member of one of these nations to enter the USA, they must also prove financial solvency (in far more detail than a photocopy of a credit card), submit themselves to a series of interviews, and of course a background check by none other than the NSA. Often just getting to and from the interviews, since they are conducted at our Embassies or Consulates can be a financial hardship, but then there is the $135 fee on top of that…which could be a month’s wages.

Obviously many readers will recognize why it is so difficult to enter the USA. We have many people who try to come illegally and for illegitimate reasons…problems that many other nations simply don’t have. But at what cost does this security come; by keeping would-be tourists away do we breed more anti-Americanism? Until our system is fixed its only fair that we take a spoonful of our own medicine.

Packing for South America

July 13, 2009 By Danny

Our time in the USA quickly came to an end and yesterday we began our trek through South America. While we spent most of the time being stuffed with delicious food (there goes the weight we lost from Central America), we also spent an inordinate amount of time at outdoor equipment stores like REI. In fact we went to two different REI’s in the Atlanta area. After four months of use a lot of our equipment had either failed or begun to fail on us so it was time to exchange and resupply. We’ve added a number of gear reviews to the website if you are interested and as always you can get an up to date list of our pack contents on the gear page.

We traded out clothes that weren’t cutting it, mostly things that were easily torn or didn’t live up to the rigors of travel. For Danny this was a few shirts and a pair of pants. Jillian traded out some undergarments and shirts, added a travel dress and took out a pair of capris.

Because so many people have asked about what is in our packs and how much we actually have, we made a video of how to pack a backpack that will give you a visual of how things fit.

New Travel Plan

July 10, 2009 By Jillian

Admittedly traveling has been different than we expected. But that again that is to be expected right? The weird thing is that the more we travel the more we know that we aren’t seeing even a fraction of what is out there. Since we don’t have any set travel plans our “plan” is constantly changing. Recently we’ve been thinking more and more about our general trek around the world, realizing that we can’t see the whole world the way we want in two years.

Our goals for the trek are simple: take a long and serious break from our careers to make a difference in our lives and the world, go places and do things that we’ll probably never be able to do again. (Idealistic, I know!)

The recent upheaval in Iran got us thinking about where we really wanted to go and what type of travel experiences we want to have. Which of course led to changes in our proposed itinerary. We’re off to South America next so we have some time, but the new idea is after Africa and the Middle East to overland from to China via the silk road. Thoughts?

Homecoming

July 9, 2009 By Jillian

Forgive me for saying this but I thought it would be a lot harder coming home for the first time. When we set off on our journey we never expected to be stopping home so quickly. In fact I believe we told people that if we come home early it will only be for an emergency. Needless to say there was no emergency, the timing just sort of worked out and we decided repatriate ourselves in time for our friends wedding and a short visit with our families.

Being home for the first time since border crossing in March has been a lot easier than expected. The comforts of home have not been forgotten although new habits die hard. Like remembering where to put your toilet paper. Ok, that sounds dirtier than it is. In Central America you can’t flush anything, even toilet paper, its all disposed of in a trashcan. Needless to say things are different back in the USA. In almost every way imaginable they are more comfortable, less unknown. From the hotel rooms with soaps, towels, and even TV and air conditioning to the airplanes with amazing leg room (comparatively speaking) and even the faucets that turn on and off without touch.

So its been good to be home and to visit, but by no means are we done traveling. Coming home has reaffirmed our desire to keep traveling despite the difficulties and reaffirmed our decision to do this trip. Four months just doesn’t feel like its been enough.

Report Card #1

July 8, 2009 By Danny

So now we’re home in the states for a week so we’ll take this opportunity to take stock of how we’ve done so far and what it is we need to change. Overall, it looks like our preparation has paid off. We’ve rarely been without something we’ve needed and have never been completely unprepared. Since leaving the US we have not met another backpacker with smaller packs than we have (we do have the added benefit of being able to share a few things) but we have met many with things we wish we did have.

Our supplies have treated us well but we are swapping a few things out that don’t seem to be standing up to the wear and tear we put them through or just aren’t quite perfect enough for our uses. Mostly this has to do with our wardrobe…we’ve put several reviews up this week and several more are coming. Once we’re done with all our trips to REI and repacking our bags we’ll update our gear page and link to the reviews we’ve written.

As for budget, which is what we are most concerned with on a daily basis, we’re spending less than we budgeted but a bit more than we had hoped to spend. All in all though we’re not in such a bad position. Reminder, these numbers are updated each time we finish a country on the $$$ tab.

Country	Days	Food	Lodging	Activity	Trans	Misc*	Daily Avg
Mex & C. Amr.	111	$17.76	$10.33	$23.31	$20.50	$7.35	$79.25
Mexico	29	$13.71	$9.57	$21.64	$31.80	$6.50	$83.22
Guatemala	36	$19.37	$10.17	$28.18	$7.69	$6.79	$72.20
Belize	4	$22.17	$0.00	$7.75	$51.35	$14.42	$95.69
Honduras	20	$18.44	$11.23	$27.47	$22.96	$4.12	$84.22
Nicaragua	7	$19.21	$9.31	$13.76	$7.94	$3.03	$53.25
Costa Rica	10	$18.88	$15.28	$12.60	$11.60	$6.25	$64.61
Panama	5	$19.10	$12.00	$28.50	$18.64	$7.00	$85.24

MEXICO: Our first country so we weren’t so savey yet. Having said that, we didn’t so do badly. We did some expensive activities, several of which we would not pay so much for now. Overnight buses and couchsurfing helped to keep lodging low but those same buses made for some high transportation costs.

GUATEMALA: This is a very cheap country. We could have lived there very inexpensively, especially given how long we spent there. Spanish school is the sole reason for this being as expensive as it was. Additionally, living with a host family proved to be far more expensive than had we lived alone.

BELIZE: Only went here to visit some family and had a wonderful time staying at their fancy (free lodging) house. Getting there and back from Honduras, by boat, proved to be a very expensive endeavor.

HONDURAS: Another cheap country, but we spoiled the budget here by getting PADI certified. How dare us! Add to that the expense of transportation to some isolated villages in La Moskitia and the island of Utilia and this country looks more expensive than it really was.

NICARAGUA: Not really any cheaper than Guatemala and Honduras, but as we didn’t have any major adventures here we were more on target with our spending. That being said, this spending still represents a few small splurges.

COSTA RICA: Really proved to be too expensive for us to do many of the things we had hoped to do…so we visited some monkey infested beaches (mostly free) instead and continued onto Panama earlier than we intended.

PANAMA: Home to our most expensive hotel room, two overnight (low lodging costs, high transportation costs) bus rides, and finally some awesome whitewater…oh, and a canal!

A taste of our own medicine

Packing for South America

New Travel Plan

Homecoming

Report Card #1

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Banking on the Road

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