While I am on Camp Shall-Wing-It on most of my trips, but the fact that I am going to a huge spot of land 2 oceans away, for 5 weeks, spending an inordinate amount of money, to a culture I am not sensitized to at all has made me plan my steps and leave a little less wriggle room than I normally do but gain on not missing out on something absolutely unmissable because I ‘just wasn’t aware’.
I start with a few ground rules, principles and call them commandments and hope that I stick to them as much as I can.
Thou shalt not overspend. Chile's not cheap, flights are expensive and I am on a career break. Add that up.
Thou shalt not regret missing out. The country’s way too big. Alexander von Humboldt traveled the Americas for 5 years. You are going to be there for 5 weeks. Set your expectations right, son.
Thou shalt not compromise on sleep. The onslaught of experiences and sights every day, being in a completely different culture and geography, is enough to make anyone’s head go into overdrive with visual and experiential gluttony. Sleep well and let ‘em memories percolate.
Thou shalt not laze out documenting thine travels. Photographs and journaling would be a great way to etch memories a bit stronger, relive the experience at the end of the day and maybe later, on a sunday morning brunch.
Thou shalt not hurry. The opening lines of the Lonely Planet for Chile go like this, “Chile is nature on a colossal scale, but travel here is surprisingly easy if you don’t rush it”
Thou shalt not be bogged down by setbacks. Maybe I am going to face setbacks. Wait. Let me rephrase that. I AM going to face setbacks. I've gotta take it in my stride and soldier on. Only a handful of us are privileged to be able to plan and undertake something like this.
Now that I have my preamble ready, I move on to the next step. the actual planning.
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