Welcome to the first post, The planning is going really well in that we are not really planning the trip at all. It worked well when we headed off to Europe with backpacks and nothing else so why change a winning formula. Besides planning implants expectation and lack of expectation means lack of disappointment if a plan fails. To date we have bought the tickets and that finally confirmed that we are going. Up to that date I had notions about going away for a year but when you invest heard earned cash into a project it suddenly takes on a whole new prominence. It focuses the mind and gives you a deadline. It means that you can finally tell your co-workers and friends that you are going and instead of the 'oh, your THINKING of going away' look, now you get the 'oh, you ARE going away for a year, well fair f***s to you' look complete with smiles and lots of back slapping. So you buy the tickets and really that is the hardest bit. With this hurdle cleared the trip takes on a life of its own. Books and websites are searched for nuggets of information. You think of all the travel shows you have ever watched and scan your brain for references of places to visit. You talk to everybody who will listen about where are the best places to go and in the end you decide that you will make it up as you go along. But before you leave your family and friends there are a few precautions to take. I refer of course to the injections. Thankfully with our cold climate we do not get many infectious diseases and the ones we do get we have become immune to. Not so in the tropics. For example to travel accross the border from Brazil to Bolivia you need a World Health Organisation stamp certifying that you have been innoculated with Yellow Fever. Rabies is prevalent in many of the areas we are visiting. If I was to get bitten by an animal carrying the disease it can cause serious problems very quickly, or I could recover but I will still have the virus in my system until it flares up again. This can happen after many years and if it does things get hairy. That means you need to undergo a course of innoculations over the period of one month. Three jabs in four weeks. You also need to get 3 jabs of Hepatits B. You only need one injection to get Hep A, Tetanus, Diptheria and polio is an orally administered vaccine. I have never been as riddled with diseases as I am now. Nor can I shake this cold. I suppose my white blood cells are working overtime trying to build up innoculations to all the diseases I have been administered. Thinking about what to pack comes next. The rule of thumb seems to be 'Lay out everything you will need on your bed and throw away half of it, decide the amount of money you are going to bring and double it'. So with that in mind I will pack as economically as I can. I purposely bought a 60L bag so that should be enough space. The good folks in the bank have furnished me with twice as much cash as I think I will need. The last thing you have to think about are the going away parties. Photos from the Baggot metric mile and Gussies will be posted here in due time. So in just under 5 weeks we will fly to Buenos Aires to begin our 363 day trip around the world. See you when we get back.