Lao-tzu said "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step", not quite true, mine it would appear begins with a sleepless night; a combination of excitement and anticipation is keeping me awake.
I think it has yet to sink in that this is going to be the trip of my lifetime and not the normal 2-3 week luxury holiday that I've become accustomed to - I've never travelled for more than three weeks before and for all of the trips I've done in the past I've had the good fortune to travel with Caroline, Marc or Abby; all of whom are first class travellers in every sense of the word!
With that in mind it's going to be interesting to see how Abby and I fare exploring South America staying in hostels, home stays estancias and maybe just the occasional Boutique Hotel.....
My rucksack which took up residence in my living room a few weeks ago has now been packed, I have to say with a worryingly small amount of things and not a single pair of heels - at no stage of this trip will I be more than 5'8" which may be a good thing as I hear that the men are very short (apart from those that are on horses).
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| Totally impractical for Machu Picchu I guess...? |
My iPod is almost fully loaded with:
Iris by The Goo Goo Dolls; A Night on the Town with The Rat Pack; Fall to Grace by Paloma Faith; Prince, Muse, Lady Gaga, Black Eyed Peas, Rhianna, Duran Duran, Placebo, The Divine Comedy, Julia Fordham, Pink, Groove Armada, Hard Fi etc......
And thanks to John and my Dad a wonderful selection of classical pieces, most notably, Fantasia On a Theme by Thomas Tallis by Vaughan Williams and Cello Concerto in E Minor Op 85, Adagio Moderato (Elgar) - beautiful pieces of music and as my Dad said if I feel that I need a bit of England Thomas Tallis is it in Music.
My kindle, well that's a different story (no pun intended), one of my first observations is that the transition from CD to Digital was a far easier one than from paperback to eReader..... Whilst I accept that it is the most practical option for travelling (can you imagine if I was actually having to carry 1,500 paperbacks around with me) I doubt that my relationship will be a long one, I'm already craving an affair with a real book. Any way I have loaded some 'comfort blankets' Great Expectations (Charles Dickens) and The Box of Delights (John Masefield) and lot's of considerably lower brow literature of the chick variety.
So, with my iPad fully charged, copies of National Geographic, National Geographic Traveller (easily the best travel mag published) and Red all in my hand luggage for inflight entertainment along with a secret stash of Earl Grey and Peppermint Tea bags I am good to go.
See you in Bogota!
Raine x
