OK. So here is the first post to the travelogue. On these pages we will keep up to date a log indicating where we are, what we’ve seen, and what kind mood we’re in.
Right now it’s about a month and a half before we leave. Here is where we are with the preparations:
–Gear: After embarassingly frequent trips to REI (the sales people actually are on a first-name basis with me), I have what I hope are all the supplies we will need. I’ve probably bought too much stuff, as I have been planning this trip for over a year now, but we’ll just have to learn the hard way (the only way I ever learn). You can see exactly what we are bringing with us in the FAQ section.
–Airline Tickets: Going back and forth, searching all over the web reading travelogues and asking other long-term travelers, we have finally settled on a travel agency and itinerary. We bought our tickets from AirTreks in San Francisco. Our agent there, Glenn, was very helpful in getting us to decide on a final itinerary and getting us a good deal on the airfares for the parts of our trip that require flights. While in the AirTreks office, we met Edward Hasbrouck, who is writing the travel guidebook that I was reading at the time. Our full pre-departure itinerary is available on the Maps section.
–Accomodations: We’ve even managed to book accomodations for the first few days of our first destination, the Cook Islands. Most of the guidebooks say that pre-booked accomodations are required. Whether or not that is enforced or not, I don’t know, but we booked 5 nights at the Cook Islands Lodges just to be safe.
–Wedding: Oh, and we also have a wedding to finish preparing for. Just 10 more days! Seems really soon…