I Have A…..Ticket

So we have what appear to be the bookends of our trip in place.  The tickets for Mexico City are in our hands (October 31, 2009) as are the reservations for The Galapagos (May 3 – 11, 2010).  So this then would seem to be our itinerary as it currently stands:

1. Mexico City (Oct 31 through Nov 8)
2. San Miguel De Allende (Nov 8 through Jan 1)
3. Oaxaca (Month of Jan)
4. Yucatan Peninsula/Belize/Guatemala (Month of Feb)
5. Costa Rica (Month of March)
6. Peru (Month of April)
7. Ecuador (Month of May)

The Galapagos will most likely kick off our stay in Ecuador: we will either come straight home after or finish up the month roaming and then come straight home.  In a lot of ways this is going to decided based on our traveling stamina and our cash

We will be spending a couple of months in San Miguel to get a good grounding in speaking/reading Spanish.  To that end, for the first three weeks (3 half-days a week) anyway, we have a reservation with a language school in San Miguel that comes highly recommended.

San Miguel to Oaxaca by bus is the plan, Stan.  Month in the the Oaxaca area, possibly more language school or just traveling etc.  Belize etc is just traveling, possibly some scuba diving.  Costa Rica, not sure of locations, most likely be varied.  Have had several recommendations but no definite plans: will rely on further recommendations by fellow travelers we meet along the way and then make it up as we go along.  We will most likely stay for a time in one area so we can go to a language school for a different take on Spanish.

A Picture Tells a Thousand Words

Here are some photos of the various parts of the remodel as alluded to in previous posts:

Painting the room

Example of the lights in the Laundry Room

Shot of the Completed Outside

 

Painting is Complete, Flooring is in and Cabinets are Going In

The Finished Room Looking East

The Finished Room Looking West

The Finished Room Looking North East

Note that in the last photo the doorway does not have a door.  I have made the door and just picked up the glass from the glazing company and the door should be installed by the end of the week.  Similarly with the cabinets, there are drawers and shelves which were in the process of being finished when these shots were taken which again will be in by the end of the week.

Like Sand Through My Fingers

Money is being spent on all sorts of necessary things: airline tickets, backpacks, related travel gear and so on and is still being spent on the house, a $100 here, $200 there and it all adds up.  Some days it feels like the title of this post.

We are in full planning mode for the trip.  Main tasks that have to be finalized here are booking our Galapagos trip and possibly the Machu Pichu one.  My list of tasks to be done before we leave (three pages long) has dwindled pleasantly down to relatively few items mostly pertaining to arranging our financial lives and such.

With the Galapagos trip there are just so many choices it is a bit overwhelming although in the end it comes down to how much we want to spend which relates pretty directly to size of boat (and thus services to some extent) and duration of trip.

With Machu Pichu the choices are a little simpler:  Do we want to hike or not?  If “yes” then we can either take the Inca Trail (http://www.apus-peru.com/inca_trail.htm) or the Salkantay Trek (http://www.apus-peru.com/salkantay_inca_trail_machu_picchu.html).  I am leaning towards the latter more for the possibility of solitude than anything else.  The Inca Trail does sound pretty good but we have to book now and once booked we can’t change our minds or travel date which is a tad restrictive considering that in general we want to be free to ramble where we please, when we please.

We bought ourselves really nice internal-frame packs on Wednesday, now we need to pack them up with what we think we want to bring and see just how bulging they are (hopefully not bulgy at all) and then figure out what we can give up to lighten the load.  We also plan to do a couple of day hikes with the packs loaded to make sure they are adjusted right and to begin the process of breaking them, and us, in.

We have bought our tickets to Mexico City.  We leave on October 31 for the first step on our odyssey or is that oddisee (grin).  Off to look at Frida Kahlo’s house, Inca ruins and so on.  From there we plan to head up into the hills North of the City to San Miguel de Allende and settle ourselves in for a month or so of language study.  The San Miguel area has lots of other cool towns nearby to visit so it should make a good base.

We figure to be in Mexico for several months, at least through Christmas before we head South.  We may head over to Belize for some diving and to pop across the Guatemala border to go check out Tikal (http://mayaruins.com/tikal.html).  If we head over towards Belize we will probably also spend some time in the Yucatan (Chichen Itza (http://wikitravel.org/en/Chichen_Itza) and so on.

Heading further south we intend to go to Costa Rica, jumping over Guatemala, Nicaragua etc.

Haven’t really settled on a time frame for most of this. In large part our plans will be corralled by our Galapagos trip and possibly our Machu Pichu trip.  Suffice to say that from Costa Rica, we will either head to Ecuador and travel around for a while before or after going to the Galapagos and thence to Peru or we will head to Peru first and thence to Ecuador.

Our only two limitations being money and in the end time – Darcie must be back to start teaching by August 2010.

The Tunnel Has Gotten Very Short

Right.  So I wrote the last post several weeks ago and intended to add photos to it thus it didn’t get published right away.  Then I didn’t take the photos… and so we come to this new post shortly on the heels of “Dust Everywhere”.  Oh, and the dog ate my homework, really, Miss.

Since the last post we have been working constantly it seems to finish and go on our trip.  We have in fact installed the floor and slapped two coats of urethane on it.  I have built and installed the cabinets and Darcie has plied them with two coats of urethane.  Darcie has sanded and urethaned the windows and the door.  And praise be, we have a working washing machine again – substantially quieter than in its previous location thanks to a solid floor and a level installation.

Darcie has been the sanding/oil/urethane queen these last two months:  she has sanded and oiled two outdoor tables, 13 outdoor chairs five of which are really more than simple chairs, 10 windows have been sanded and urethaned, as have one door, one floor and 17 lineal feet of cabinets.  Somehow she also got time to help paint the laundry room and did a bang up job with the faux finish – it looks great (photos to follow).

I installed the outdoor lights, built and installed the door into the crawl space under the house, and today I made seven light bases on which to mount the puck lights we are using for the room.  Puck lights are not supposed to be used in the way that we are using them since in theory they can get quite hot (read fire hazard) so to help them keep cool and provide some buffer between the lights and the insulation I have made these neat tapered triangular bases from solid maple (photo next time). 

I also installed one of the two gutters yesterday just in time for the first storm to come slamming into the Bay Area.  I am happy to say that there appears to be no leaks and the outdoor lights still work (grin).  Unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to putty up and prime the outside so the wood around all the nail holes is sucking up the rain and swelling in weird and randomish ways.  Can’t say I am too happy about this but it is out of my control at this point.  Hopefully it will dry out flat before it actually does get puttied and painted.

On a final note we have booked our tickets for the first leg of our trip, Mexico City, and made a hotel reservation. Mexico here we come.

Nick

Dust Everywhere

We have entered the final leg of the remodel – the interior finishing.  The sheetrock has been hung and been subjected to 4 coats of mud and a little sanding as necessary for the most part until today when the final coat was sanded smooth.  Even though we hung plastic sheeting up to help limit the spread of the insidious mud dust there is still a fine layer over everything in the kitchen and out into the dining room etc.  It would have been a lot worse of course if there had been no tarps.

The walls are ready for a damp toweling and the first coat of primer to see how things look and then we will be off painting, installing flooring and reinstalling the washing machine.  I hope to get all this done by the end of the week.  I also am making cabinets for the room but those have been delayed a bit by very warm weather over the weekend and being under the weather today.

Once the inside is done we will then go and work on painting the outside.  We are going to stick with the yellow body and white trim theme that the house currently has.

As with any project I would like to be done and of course the only way to be done is to work hard but I am feeling a mite lazy after five weeks of pushing.