The Clock Is Ticking!

No, not that clock. Four weeks 'til we leave for Rio! I'm so busy trying to get all of my bags into production that I haven't had any time to think about it. Four weeks from now it will be here and I'll be thrown into it - then the excitement will start. Anyway, I changed my mind about having product up on the website while we're traveling. Just too much stuff going on. So instead I'll be manufacturing the bags while we're gone and launching the website in summer 2006. This actually works out well, because I'll have more time to test things and do trunk shows to see what sells. While we're home for 2.5 weeks in March I'll have another show or two to make some mad cash.

Since Rob and Ilsa are going to meet us in Delhi we have extended our stay there. We'll be there for a week. We picked up an extra day in St. Petersburg too. We probably won't make it to Cambodia because of the schedule change. We'll have to do that next time we take 6 months off and trek the globe. Haha.

I'm still waiting for Corporate America to wake up and sponsor us. I keep getting rejected but I'm going to keep bugging! Geez, all I want is a few Snickers bars and a back-pack!

--Jen

Itinerary

I just realized I never really posted the full itinerary. Here it is (well, most of it...some plans are still in process):

December 29-February 21
Rio-Petropolis-Paraty-Iguazu Falls-Buenos Aires-Lima-Puno-Lake Titicaca-Cusco-Inca Trail-Amazon-Lima-Buenos Aires - Santiago-Pucon-Valpariso-Santiago

March 1-20
Ft. Lauderdale-Bahamas

April 5-July6
Beijing-Kunming-Dali-Lijiang-Tiger Leaping Gorge-Zhongdian-Kunming-Yangshuo-Yangtze River-Dazu-Leshan-Chengdu-Xian-Shanghai-Beijing-Singapore-Kuala Lumpur-Koh Samui-Siem Reap-Singapore-Delhi-St. Petersburg-Istanbul-Budapest-Venice-Barcelona-Atlanta

Delhi Belly

We just spent Thanksgiving with Rob and Ilsa in Houston. Turns out they also want to do some traveling next year so we are going to meet up in Delhi! It will be great to have friends to tool around with. We only have a few days there so we will do the quick version of the golden triangle. 1 day in Delhi, 1 day in Agra (Taj Mahal) and 2 days in Jaipur before Matt and I have to catch our flight to St. Petersburg. Ilsa and Rob will stay on and do some trekking or beachcombing. I can't wait to do some fabric shopping in Jaipur. I think I'll find some truly amazing stuff and get it on the cheap too.

Our friend Max is also considering meeting us on the trip. He's looking at South America so we may meet up with him too. My parents and uncle will be with us for one month in China and we'll be sailing with my family in the Bahamas. We are also meeting up with the extended Zago clan in Italy so we shouldn't be too lonely!

We're still looking for sponsors so if you know anyone who wants to donate airfare, lodging or food let us know!

--Jenny

PS

I know all this planning stuff is boring, but the excitement starts on Dec. 29th when we leave for Brazil! I can practically taste the churrascarias. Oh meat!

Admirals Club Anyone?

We just got back from a great trip to D.C. and Virginia. Since we had a looooong layover in St. Louis we tried to talk our way into the Admirals Club. It didn't work but we did get some info and are thinking about joining so we have a place to hang out in the airport on this round-the-world trip.

Matt has been working on hotel reservations. He found a place for $12 in Beijing. That's what we need! My next task is to send out letters to companies to solicit donations and sponsorship. I tried this once before and got nowhere but I'm going to keep bugging them. Don't these people know what a great marketing opportunity this is??

OK, that's all I've got. I'm looking forward to gorging myself on T-Day on Thursday...mmmmm.

S. America All Set!

All of our problems with the S. America trip have been fixed. I went down to the airport yesterday and changed our Delta flights (and they gave me electronic tickets this time). We are flying into Rio on December 29 and returning from Santiago on February 21. We'll be in Brazil until the 10th or so when we fly to Iguazu Falls. After a few days there we're flying into Buenos Aires. Gecko's is flying us from BA to Lima to join the Peru Adventure tour on January 15. We'll fly back to BA on February 1st and resume our travels in Argentina. We fly to Santiago on the 7th and will spend about two weeks in Chile, mostly at the coast and in the lake district in the mountains.

We are really looking forward to the trip. Hiking the Inca Trail will be amazing. I'm also excited to do some adventure sports, like hang gliding in Rio and white water rafting. It's going to be great!

We're watching you...and Travelocity sucks

I added a hit counter today so I can tell how many people are actually looking at this site. We have only sent the link to a few people but will do a mass broadcast before we leave at the end of December.

Anyway, still trying to get things fixed up on the South America trip. Working with Travelocity has been a nightmare. In order to change our paper tickets they told me to FedEx them to their Office in San Antonio. I dutifully did so and then found out after over 3 hours on hold that I actually needed to take the tickets to Delta to get them changed. So I told them to FedEx them back to me. That was a week ago. I called them again yesterday and they hadn't sent them out!! So they promised to overnight them and told me "not to worry. They will be there in the morning." Guess what? It's 2pm and no tickets? I'm not impressed.

We also had a bad experience with Travelocity on our honeymoon. We booked a hotel through them in Germany and when we checked out the front desk guy told us we payed twice the normal rate. So much for guaranteed lowest rate!! The hotel was nice though and deducted our parking and breakfast from what we had overpaid to Travelocity. Bunch of cheaters.

Ok, enough ranting from the crazy lady.

We've been stocking up on all our gear for the trip. Matt packed his backpack this weekend to make sure it would all fit :-) Do you think he is a little excited?

--Jen

Round-the-world ticket booked!

The round-the-world ticket has been booked! We're also very close to getting things worked out with the South America trip. We're pushing out our visits to Buenos Aires and Santiago and the tour company is going to fly us to and from Lima to join the January Peru tour. We just need to change our Delta tickets and we'll be good to go.

Stress

Well, everything was going along quite well until our tour operator in Peru informed us that the Inca Trail is closed in February! Turns out it is closed EVERY February for cleaning so needless to say, I was livid that they would sell us an Inca Trail tour in February. We are, however, working out a solution. We are going to join the last Peru tour in January and push out our visits to Buenos Aires and Santiago. Assuming we can get all of our flights changed without spending any additional money we should be ok. Buyer beware though...you aren't always getting what you are sold. Bastardos!

Anyway, we are getting close on the round-the-world ticket. We changed a few things last night and will book soon. The itinerary is Beijing-Singapore-Delhi-St. Petersburg-Istanbul-Budapest-Venice-Barcelona-Atlanta-home. We're staying in Singapore for 12 days and will probably go to Cambodia and Phillipines or maybe Thailand instead of Phillipines. It's going to be the trip of a lifetime.

Ok, that's all for now. Mad props to my friends Angie and Ryan who got engaged last night!!

--Jenny