A Shot in the Arm: Preparations Continue Apace.

I took receipt of my Eagle Creek Endless Journey a week ago (Friday). It is truly a stunning species of luggage: zip off day pack, zip off belt pack; 6500 cubic inches; padding, back support, and weight management to beat the band; and more zippers, loops, straps, and metal rings than I've ever seen in one place before. This bag just sits on the floor of my apartment and keens at me: "If you can't get around the world with my help, you are a total wuss."

Bought my airline tickets yesterday, just under the 14-day advance deadline. (It was another one of those situations where every minute I wait is a minute later I'm leaving on my departure day....) Priceline (reverse bidding for airline tickets) didn't come through for me this time, so I had to rely on old standby Travelocity. I ended up paying 30% more for roundtrip tickets to Austin than I did on my most recent trip all the way to Atlanta, but what the heck.

The visa/car permit issues, which for a while seemed troubling, are getting resolved nicely. We don't need diddly but our U.S. passports to get in and out of Belize. Guatemala requires a multiple entry visa since we're driving in–but it turns out we can pick these up at any border crossing. (My Fodor's Guide had seemed to indicate if we didn't happen to be in an airport, we'd have to do it in advance, at a consultate–which there ain't one either in S.F. or Atlanta. However, the Embassy in D.C. set me straight.) As for Mexico, we can grab our tourist cards and auto insurance at almost any AAA in Texas. (Sara has taken the wise step of joining that august organization.)

Health stuff is reasonably looked after. My nice doctor diligently researched the disease situation for me–by going to www.cdc.gov, which of course I could have done myself. I felt like a bozo, as I'm forever railing at my bozo users who are forever asking me and my group to do stuff for them that they could easily do for themselves (if they merely pulled up their collective diapers and invested in a small array of modest clues). At any rate, I got a Hepatitis A vaccination; and Doc NetSurfer also reccomended typhoid pills. However, these beasties are unchewable (they have to make it through your stomach intact), which means they are basically useless to me: I've never been able to swallow pills. ("No, doc, taking it with pudding won't help. I went over all this with my mom when I was 9. Thanks, though.") Another reccomended shot was an "advance rabies shot." Apparently, however, all this does is make the "post-bite" shots and treatment slightly less arduous. Since I'm never one to plan for disaster, I opted to put my energy into keeping an eagle eye on the monkeys. Finally, Hepatitis B is a low risk–and there ain't nothing they can give you for Dengue Fever (or HIV, for that matter). In the final analysis, staying healthy is mostly going to be a matter of keeping the mosquitos off, and watching what we eat and drink. (Bottled beer for me, straight through. (It's said that on the set of The African Queen, Humphrey Bogart was the only member of the cast or crew to avoid dysentery–he even brushed his teeth with scotch.))

My high school Spanish is coming back with reasonable alacrity. I'm not putting enough time into it, but if I really hit the tapes for the next two weeks, I might not be completely useless in the communications department.

The itinerary is still very sketchy. Sara is heading up all the Mexico stuff, while I'm pretty much in charge of Belize and Guatemala. I think I've got Guatemala nailed, actually, I just need to write it all down in the itinerary–and work the dates in. But, we don't have to have this stuff finalized until the departure date (and not even really then).

Well, I must put some time into making sure my actual job, job-type job is in order prior to blowing this taco stand. (A lot of time has been going, recently, into the essential bits of travel planning (the kind you don't want to leave until the last minute: visas, gear, tickets, shots)–and building this silly web site.) I'll surely post again before I leave for Texas. Until then, valla con dios!