Preparing for USA, Guatemala and Brazil

Travelling is something I wanted to do for quite some time. Because finishing school is important, the travel-thing needed to wait for a while. Now that school is finished, the bachelor degree is on my C.V. (resume), the trip can go wherever I want.

But where to go to? Australia? USA? Maybe a bit more close home and stay in Europe? Last year I had a great holiday in Brazil, but didn't see much of the country itself. So I decided to go back to Brazil. After reading a lot on the internet, I found out Guatemala is a nice (but dangerous) country, and thus planned my trip from Amsterdam to Guatemala to Brazil, back to Amsterdam.

I would like to write some things I found out the last couple of months about travelling the "world". "Travelling the world" a lot of people call it, but it doesn't feel like "travelling the world" at all. I am going to be in USA, Guatemala and Brazil (and presumably Argentina when I cross the border near Fozz the Iguazu). That is only 4 countries, how can you call it "travelling the world"? Anyway, I call it "travelling America" (North, Central and South America).

First of all, if you want to travel you need money :-). No money, no travel. Unless you are a genius called Ramon Stoppelenburg (www.letmestayforaday.com) which had the briljant idea of making you invite him to visit you. You pay, you give him a tour around, you let him sleep in your bed and in return he writes something nice about you on his website. How cool is that huh! But you are not a genius, and neither am I, so we 'normal' people need money. I got this by, after graduating, working for a couple of months, and still living home (cheap!). How much money you need depends on what country you are going to, how long you staying and how luxury you "need" to be.

Secondly you need to have "travel equipment", like the backpack, but also special clothes. You are not going to bring, I am not, 5 of your best jeans. They weight to much, they are not useful. I recommend reading these websites: Packing list on Wikitravel and The backpacking site. But websites helped my a lot of what to bring. Especially wikitravel is a big bag of information for everyone. Read the page of the country you are going to and the travel topics you think apply to you. After reading I made a small packing list.

Also remember to have a valid passport, up-to-date vaccine, travel insurance that is valid all the time you are travelling the country (took my a while to find one), credit card and a book about the country with hostels, etc (rough guide to, lonely planet, etc).

I will be leaving for the USA on Monday 3 December from Amsterdam to Los Angelos, through Chicago. If it worked as planned I'm staying in LA for 4 days/nights, flying to Guatemala on Friday 8 December. Waahooee!

Who granted you a credit-card???

Anwb :-).