And then we fought about the Amazon...

Ahhh trip-planning. I guess it's comparable to wedding planning in that it turns you into a crazy person. A crazy person that picks fights over enormous geographic wonders...

So we are still truckin' along in our planning and making huge, albeit terrifying strides towards our departure. 

Checked off the to-do list in the past few weeks:

• We have rented our apartment out-- to our good friends Joe and Lisa! Woohoo! I couldn't ask for two better people to take over our life!
• Sold our cars- Vincent's to Joe and Lisa, who seriously are buying our life- it's awesome; and mine to a guy from my work.
• Got our first round of vaccines: yellow fever, booster shots and Hep A & B. We need to go back next month for round two and to pick up our malaria prescriptions.

We are currently in the process of:

• Buying health/ travel insurance for the trip (A lot less straightforward than it should be...)
• Closing/ consolidating bank accounts (My Swiss bank will only let me keep my account open if I have $50,000 in it. Back to the American banking system it is...)
• Finalizing our finances and methods of payment (credit cards, cash cards, etc.)
• Applying for/ researching visas (Just the fact that I'm American will make my visas in South America around $600 more expensive than Vincent's. Thanks US Immigration and reciprocal visa fee policies...)
• Starting to pack up our belongings to move out :(

We only have 6 more weeks in Switzerland! Six! Time is flying and while it's totally cliché, it really is bittersweet. We are so excited for this trip and the next stage of our lives, but we are also really sad to leave. We have loved our time in Switzerland and are saying good bye to some great friends and a lifestyle that we love. Of course, I can't complain (I know, I want to smack myself too), but the excitement of what's next doesn't negate the sadness of leaving.

Oh, did I mention that we are completely changing our route in South America? 

Basically, we had a plan for the first six months of our trip preparation and now, two months before we get there, we are changing everything. I guess that's part of the adventure, right? Once we have an idea of what the hell we are doing, I'll update our itinerary. We are still flying into Santa Cruz on Dec 28th, but now instead of going North through Peru and Brazil, we are considering heading South to Argentina. Who knows what we'll end up doing. Part of the fun is that we are completely open and can change the plan at any second, however we also need to take into consideration that we will need to set dates for volunteering at least a month in advance and that we want to be able to get through our itinerary in South America in four months. 

Which brings us to our fight about the Amazon...

In any other stage of our relationship, we'd be fighting about who has to do the dishes or who left the dirty sponge on the counter (Hint: it was Vincent. It's always Vincent.), but now we find our more heated discussion are about things like whether we will take a boat from Peru to Brazil or whether we will skip Iguazu Falls in order to spend more time in Patagonia. Just like our idea of a romantic evening in is spending hours on our couch extolling the virtues of convertible trekking pants and nylon packing sacs.

I'm telling you, trip-planning turns you into a crazy person...

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