Progress – Itinerary Developments
With less than 9 weeks until takeoff, I thought I’d share our planning progress and an updated itinerary.
Our first stop is Cancun, Mexico. We’ll get a little relaxation on the beach, and then we’re on the go. We have four weeks from landing in Cancun to make it to our first home stay near Mastatal, Costa Rica. During these four weeks, we will visit Chichen Itza, Ambergris Caye, Belize; Mayan ruins in Tikal, Guatemala; more Mayan ruins in Copan, Honduras; a stay on Ometepe Island, Nicaragua (composed of 2 volcanoes); and then making our way through the National Parks and Beaches in Western Costa Rica before meeting our host family for a month. Here is a brief description of our Costa Rican home stay setup through helpx.net…
“We are working on new construction projects building more cabins, a network of trails, and organic gardens. We also have plans to plant orchards of fruit trees that will enable us to harvest fruit for our restaurants, as well as provide food for the native animals and birds that live on our land (monkeys, deer, racoons, wild pigs, toucans, etc). You can see many photos of these animals and more on our facebook page, see link above. Providing natural land for our horses is also important as they provide opportunities for volunteer to explore the land on trail rides.
We have now grown our business into another area and have a new restaurant in the village of Mastatal. Tourists will be able to stay in our cabins and experience the beautiful views and explore the national park La Congreja. Swimming in waterfalls and is also an activity our guests will enjoy. The area is also known for its exotic plants including the near-extinct Plinea Puriscalence tree that only exists in this small community.
Our farms are also home to cows, pigs, chicken, and goats providing local milk, cheese, and meat for our family and our guests. The area has many frogs, insects, which may allow us to build a Serpantarium one day. We would also like to create a Butterfly Garden, a Tilapia pond, and an garden for medicinal plants. We host volunteers from all over the world that are working with us to make these dreams a reality..”
Leaving this home in Mastatal ,Costa Rica, we have approximately 8 days to spend traveling East through Costa Rica and into Panama. After this time, we will cross the Caribbean and enter Colombia arriving in either Cartagena or Turbo (still being determined). Either way, we will spend a few blissful nights on the San Blas Islands*. From our arrival point, we have allotted 25 days to get from either Cartagena or Turbo, Colombia to Iquitos, Peru. Those 25 days will include visiting Medellin, Colombia, crossing international borders into Ecuador, swinging on the “Swing at the End of the World*,” traveling East by bus into Coca, Ecuador and catching a boat ride that will take us to the “capital of the Peruvian Amazon,” Iquitos. The ride from Coca, Ecuador, into Iquitos*, Peru, takes at least 8 days. We are fascinated by the idea of at least 400,000 people living in Iquitos, Peru, a city that cannot be reached by road, only boat or plane.
From Iquitos, we fly overland to Cuzco, Peru to embark on the traditional 4 day trek on the Inca Trail into Machu Picchu*. After taking a day or two to rest, we will be on our way into Bolivia via Lake Titicaca*. We also hope to visit the world’s largest salt flat while in Bolivia at Uyuni*. From there, it’s South and across international borders into Argentina. We have set up another 3 week home stay near the Mendoza area, ie heart of Argentinean wine country. A brief description, again from helpx.net…
We grow tomatos for drying and later processing between the months of September thru to May.our season really gets going from the end of August with seeding the green houses, there after plenty of care and planting out around mid November. Harvesting and processing from mid January thru to March.
Experimental project this season is growing tomatos with drip irrigation and mulching………..interesting?!Agro tourism comes along with the project. Our finca is turn key, from seed to green house to planting, harvesting and processing. We have 5 llamas, 1 horse, 1 donkey, Jenny, she talks alot, 5 dogs and 7 cats…
The final section of the trip puts us in Argentina and Chile. After our home stay near Mendoza, Argentina, we will take a six hour bus ride West through the Andes to Santiago, Chile. We will spend a couple nights here and then take a flight over to Buenos Aires, Argentina. (I’m sure some of you might think this route is a bit counter productive, going West to go East, however bizarre flight prices have pushed us to create this route to stretch that dollar a bit farther.) We intend on spending a few nights in the city then renting a car and roadtripping 13 hours North to Iguazu Falls*. After the visit to the falls, we will drive back to Buenos Aires, return the car, and fly to Ushuaia*, the southern most city in the world. We will have about 12 days to make our way North from Ushuaia, Argentina, to Santiago, Chile. Two long bus rides will take us from Ushuaia to Punta Arenas and Punta Arenas to Puerto Natales with stops to visit Tierra del Fuego National Park* and Torres del Paine National Park*. From Puerto Nateles, we catch a 4 day / 3 night ferry* through the Chilean Fjords. From Puerto Montt, there is a one final long bus ride to Santiago, Chile. From Santiago, it’s time to go home!
161 days, 13 countries,5 flights, 3 boat rides, 2 home stays, Inca Ruins, Mayan Ruins, Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico and Panama, The Andes, The Amazon, Patagonia, etc. etc. etc…
I’ll update soon to include a list of gear and other planning details. Until then, Cheers! Follow for more updates… takeoff in 9 weeks!
All *’s above have links below!
http://travel.nationalgeographic.com/travel/world-heritage/chichen-itza/
http://ambergriscaye.com/index.php
http://www.tikalpark.com/
http://thisishonduras.com/Copan_Ruinas.htm
http://www.ometepenicaragua.com/
http://sanblas-islands.com/
http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/swing-at-the-end-of-the-world
http://wikitravel.org/en/Iquitos
http://perutreks.com/
http://www.laketiticaca.org/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salar_de_Uyuni
http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/303 (Iguazu link)
http://www.interpatagonia.com/ushuaia/index_i.html
http://www.navimag.com/site/
http://www.tierradelfuego.org
http://www.torresdelpaine.com/ingles/
Just wanted to add a quick,huge thank you to my friends, family, colleagues, and community for all of their support. None of this would be possible without you. So much gratitude to you all.
Infinite Geography 