Itinerary

Here's a quick peek at our itinerary, just the countries we are going to visit and a few highlights, listed in chronological order. I will follow up with more detailed information soon:

• Mexico (April 24 - May 5) - Cancun, Merida, tacos, tequila, Mayan ruins
• Belize (May 5 - May 14) - Diving, Mayan ruins
• Guatemala (May 14 - May 21) - Tikal and other Mayan ruins (OK, enough of those pyramids already) and seeing various small towns
• Honduras (May 21 - May 29) - Lots of diving (more Mayan ruins?)
• Ecuador (May 29 - June 20) - Quito, Spanish lessons, and the Galapagos Islands. I assume my wife will want to dive with the great whites, so the trip may end here ;-)
• Peru (June 20 - July 13) - Lima, trekking up the Inca trail, Machu Picchu
• Bolivia (July 13 - July 31) - Lake Titicaca, La Paz, the Uyuni salt flats
• Argentina (July 31 - August 12) - Overland from Bolivia, horseback riding, Buenos Aires, trip to Montevideo (Uruguay)
• South Africa (August 13 - Sept 8) - Johannesburg, Cape Town, Kruger National park, the Garden Route, we start our overland tour September 5 in Cape Town.
• Namibia (Sept 8 - Sept 17) - The Namib Desert, wind, Estosha N.P. and maybe I'll get a chance to practice my German...
• Botswana (Sept 17 - Sept 23) - Safari, the Okavango delta
• Zambia - Safari, Victoria Falls
• Malawi - Safari, trekking around lake Malawi
• Tanzania - Safari, Zanzibar, perhaps climbing Mount Kilimanjaro
• Kenya - Ngorongoro crater to see pitiful inbred lions ...and tigers, Serengeti, Nairobi
• Egypt - Pyramids and diving, need I say more?
• Greece - Cheap flight out of Egypt. See the Acropolis and head on to a couple of islands
• Italy - Rome in the fall, Naples, costa Amalfitana, lots of Pizza
• Spain - Visiting museums in Madrid and all the bars in Barcelona
• Romania - Visiting my mother, getting a new passport and going to the mountains in the dead of winter. Brrrr!
• Turkey - Istanbul, and that's about it
• India - Delhi, Goa, Tandoori chicken, all over the place
• Thailand - Bangkok and many sandy beaches bustling with drunk westerners
• Cambodia - Pnomh Penh, Angkor Wat - will I meet Angelina Jolie?
• Laos - My wife only knows what we're doing in this country...
• Vietnam - Saigon to Hanoi
• Hong Kong - Fun! majestic!... and expensive!
• China - Beijing, conquering the Great Wall, Shanghai maybe, seeing the places where our TVs and clothes are made

Still on the candidate list are Morocco (side trip from Spain) and Russia - we wanted to take the trans-siberian train from Beijing to Moscow but the Russian government would do everything they can to not let you into their country - keeping a tight control on who goes in and comes out of their precious steppes has always been a dear prerogative of any Russian - or Soviet - rulers. It's quite tough to get a visa for Russia, especially in a situation like ours, when we can't apply before leaving. That's it, no more Russia!