http://www.fodors.com/world/mexico-and-central-america/belize/feature_30003.html
I told him that sounds pretty crazy and fun, and then he asks me if I'd be up for doing the trip in September. To make the deal even sweeter, he's already been looking into air fair, and had found round trip flights for only $363 (the same for both Indy and Los Angeles) through Continental. I said that I'd need to think about it, and would get back to him in a day or so.
While the trip sounded awesome, I was a bit hesitant. I haven't exactly done a lot of traveling in my life, and I've never been out of the country before (unless you count Canada). This seemed like a huge first step into the world of traveling, especially with barely a month's notice. While a month is a long time, to someone clueless like me, it didn't seem like much to prepare. I asked my boss if I'd be able to get the time off, especially because the week of the trip is our company's large user group meeting, which is a pretty big deal for us. She told me she really would like me there, but if this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, then she would definitely give me the time off. Later that evening I was talking to my parents about the potential trip, and my mother pointed out to me that I hadn't taken a real vacation in about 6 years, and I would be an idiot to pass up something like this, which pretty much just fell into my lap, and I didn't have to plan at all.
Come Wednesday morning, after mulling things over, I decide that there will likely never be another time in my life where I have the funds as well as the vacation time available to do something like this, and I'm in for sure. I let Adam know I'm in, and we pull up Continental's website to book our flights. Overnight, the price of those $363 round trip ticket had jumped to $798!!! This was a real shock to us, and when we called Continental to question such a hike in price, we both got the same garbage answer (from different people) about a new fuel-tax being implemented. Since air fair is known for going up and down for no reason at all, I suggested waiting another night to see if it possibly goes down again. Thursday morning, it had not gone down again, but hadn't gone up either. Once again, going back to the thought that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, we decided to to take the hit on the ridiculous air fair, and not let it ruin our good time.
Plane tickets booked, I realized I had no passport, and would likely need to get a number of vaccinations as well to go on the trip. During my lunch hour, I went to the post office and applied for an expedited passport. A week later, my passport has arrived (and is electronic somehow, though I'm not sure why), and I have been vaccinated for Hepatitis A & B, Typhoid, Polio, and have a prescription for malaria pills I will start taking two days before the trip.
As a final note in this entry, I want to point out that the fodor's itinerary linked in the first paragraph is a very rough guide of what we're basing this trip off of. The only things we are 100% doing are the Actun Tunichil Muknal caving expedition, and a guided tour of Tikal. I'm looking into some sort of jungle biking tour, but not finding anything close to where we're staying at this point.
The next time I have something of interest to say pertaining to the trip, you'll find it here.
Ryan
Adam and I: Circa 1989 or 1990
Still homies after all these years: Chillin at the
after-party at Brad and Lauren's wedding 4-13-08
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