Away

We've reached Heathrow early; Clare likes to be early. I like to be "on time" (ho hum) but I've never yet missed a flight, as I've told Clare once or twice, and now gets repeated back to me unprompted, with "there's always a first time." Suppose I'd better try to keep my record or I'll never live it down.

I've travelled a lot in the past, but this feels different - departing for over two months in a single block. We're naturally nervous about what we may have forgotten, so we have cause to be glad about Clare's wish to break the trip into 3 legs, and the fact we're starting in Miami, where we can pick up extra things.

That didn't stop me fiddling with my packing and other final list items until 2am. Clare says she wanted to strangle me. The alarm went off at 5am, when I told Clare that midnight was still 24 hours away. Hope we get some sleep on the plane (although "smart advice" would be to stay awake, supposedly based on the idea that people, removed from having the light of dawn every 24 hours, naturally revert to a Circadian rhythm slightly longer than that.)

There have been so many "lasts" over the past few days. Something that was surprisingly prominent was handing in my security token for work. The laptop and mobile went with little thought, but handing in the token (representing ability to access stuff) really brought home that I'm leaving; full stop. I do hope I get to go back.

Anyway, here's the itinerary for "leg 1", as it is intended:

18 Jan - Miami
21 Jan - Belize
28 Jan - Lima, Peru
2 Feb - Amazon (Puerto Maldonado)
5 Feb - Cuzco
9 Feb - Machu Picchu
13 Feb - Lake Titicaca
15 Feb - La Paz, Bolivia
17 Feb - Buenos Aires, Argentina
21 Feb-21 Mar driving through Argentina & Chile
23 Mar - Home