OUR (ever-changing) ITINERARY

This has been tough, choosing just the few spots we can manage to visit around the world in 9 months. Basically, it becomes a question of quality: is it better to experience as many places as we can, or to go slower and experience deeper? We're opting for the latter approach, which I think will suit us for several reasons. 1) We've got kids in tow. That always slows things down, but in a good way. It forces us adults to look at the world the way a child sees it, and I anticipate
many refreshing insights to come from Grace and Gloria. 2) We've got almost-oldies along. Yep, it's true; Stephen and I are awfully close to being able to get those senior discounts. We're slower, too. So it's easier to think in terms of weeks, rather than days, as we plan our itinerary.

Now you realize this plan changes all the time. Not so much the stuff I've already booked (I'll mark those with an *) but the stuff we dream of, the places we talk about wanting to go. Our Spring/Summer segment started out much more ambitious (and included Israel, Egypt, South Africa and Victoria Falls.) You'll notice that all of those places are missing. There's simply not enough time to do it all. We chose to spend more time in Spain, since we're coming from a month in Guatemala studying Spanish. It seemed silly to waste that, trying to get around in Arabic or Hebrew.

So here is our travel itinerary, in its highly-fluid (except for those *'s) state:

April 3-7 *Chicago: visit Garrett and family, celebrate his #30, hug grandsons, see Chicago

April 7-27 *Antigua, Guatemala: study Spanish at a language school (apartment at school)

April 27-29 Tikal, Guatemala: visit Mayan ruins and cloud forest

April 29- Panajachel, Guatemala: visit our sponsored students and volunteer at
May 4 Mayan Families

May 4-6 Guatemala City

May 6-14 *Atlanta: visit Lisa's family

May 15-22 *Malaga, Spain: on the Costa del Sol, check out Andalucia (timeshare exchange)

May 23-30 *Ibiza, Spain: an island in the Mediterranean (timeshare exchange)

May 30-June 6 Barcelona, Spain

June 6-13 *Denia, Spain: south of Valencia on the Mediterranean coast (timeshare bonus)

June 13-14 Gerona, Spain

June 15 *Marrakech, Morocco (homesit)

June 19-July2 Vienna, Austria (pending home exchange)

July 2-7 *Paris, France (apartment rental)

July 7-23 *Copenhagen, Denmark (home exchange)

July 23-Aug 1 *Antwerp, Belgium (home exchange)

Aug 1-22 *London, UK (home exchange)

Aug 22-Sep 7 *Mongolia: tour with Bayra's family--Garrett & family here (hug grandsons)!

The dates get very fluid from here on:

Sep 7 -14 Beijing

Sep 14-21 Tokyo: visit Gordon and Aya!

Sep 21-Oct 17 Southeast Asia (Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam)

Oct 17-24 Delhi, India

Oct 24-31 *Bangalore, India (hospitality exchange with Indian family)

Nov 1-7 *Bapatla, India: visit sponsored students, volunteer at Open Arms India

Nov 7-23 Australia: southern coast, Melbourne to Adelaide; maybe Uluru, Sydney

Nov 23-Dec 3 New Zealand-south island (caravan camping)

Dec 3-10 *Roturua, New Zealand (timeshare exchange)

Dec 10-26 Chile: Santiago, maybe Easter Island, Christmas with Gabrielle!

Dec 26-Jan 9 Peru: Macchu Pichu, Amazon

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