I truly love planning trips. I’m a bit obsessed with it actually. Once the trip actually happens I think back to how much work (play) went into the planning and enjoy it all the more.
Picking the Location
We were invited to share a house with friends in Costa Rica. My goal is always to expand on whatever location and see more. So…. since we are so far south why not find a cruise that can bring us all the way home instead of flying? What started as a 10 day trip to Costa Rica is now 64 days exploring a bit of Peru and Argentina followed by a cruise for 36 days to get us back home. See cruise map below.
This is how I get so carried away, literally.
In 2003 we cruised from San Diego south to Valparaiso, Chile. Most of the passengers on that cruise stayed on the ship when we got off and sailed around the horn (tip of South America). We were so jealous of their wonderful adventure and have always wanted to go back. Also many passengers took that particular cruise to see Machu Picchu (from Lima) which is a rather expensive (about $3,500/pp) 3 day excursion if booked through the cruise line. Punta Arenas is the jumping off spot to Antarctica if you have that goal in mind. Antarctica it is a 6 hour flight, not really close at all.
Going South when the airline industry wants to go North
We have two weeks after Costa Rica before we get on the ship in Buenos Aires. Again, since we are so far south we should explore more of South America. As I looked for airfare south to Buenos Aires from Costa Rica I got frustrated because all the flights routed through Houston or Florida or other points north such as New Jersey. 26 hours later we would end up in Buenos Aires. I followed the advice of my favorite travel blog: Nomadic Matt’s Travel Blog Matt recommended looking at the final destination to see where flights might be coming from. Voila…. Lima was a better choice. We will fly from Costa Rica to Lima, Peru. Since we had to change planes anyway I decided we should stay in Lima for a few days. From Lima we will venture over to Machu Picchu. The challenges of planning that trip are in the post Machu Picchu Planning.
NEVER STOP MOVING 