A global ramble - RTW 2017

[v1nce007]

Subscribed. Sounds great

 

[VPS]

Chile cruise is on the list - looking forward to it

 

[juddles]

Miss you by that much -
Will be arriving SCL on 22/2 and leaving early 23/2 for the Sacred Valley.

Hey there drron! why don'y you pm me details

 

[juddles]

....Are you likely to be in the area during that time?

PM sent!

BTW, have you fully researched the deal in crossing the border in a rental? It requires a bit of prep and paperwork. I have crossed in private vehicle so don't have experience first-hand, but have heard about this issue.

If they deny you crossing you could always have a plan B and see some parts of Colombia you missed last time! If that plan B happens don't bring rooflyer - he would just gaze at Colombia's rocks and be embarassing

 

[JohnM]

We know the deal about the rental car border crossing. We are using a company that allows border crossings. Fortuntely, RF is in SCL for a few days prior so he'll get the paperwork sorted.

PM sent!

BTW, have you fully researched the deal in crossing the border in a rental? It requires a bit of prep and paperwork. I have crossed in private vehicle so don't have experience first-hand, but have heard about this issue.

If they deny you crossing you could always have a plan B and see some parts of Colombia you missed last time! If that plan B happens don't bring rooflyer - he would just gaze at Colombia's rocks and be embarassing

 

[drron]

Hey there drron! why don'y you pm me details

All will be revealed.Probably will start new TR in ~ 10 days.
Back to normal programing with the young fellows.

 

[Kangol]

Nice one. Did you ticket it with QF? What was the approximate price? I'm looking at D/A ONE 4/5s and wondering how much the regional variation/taxes come into play..

 

[love_the_life]

Sigh....again, JohnM (& Rooflyer)

 

[RooFlyer]

Sigh....again, JohnM (& Rooflyer)

& possibly Juddles, for a bit :shock:

 

[JohnM]

Nice one. Did you ticket it with QF? What was the approximate price? I'm looking at D/A ONE 4/5s and wondering how much the regional variation/taxes come into play..

I planned it using the OW tool and when it's time to pay it's done as a QF sale. Not the cheapest way to do it but probably the easiest. Base price is as given on the QF site and taxes, which obviously vary greatly depending on destinations, were just over $2K.

 

[JohnM]

Nothing really to report yet except a painful experience getting into LOTFAP at DFW yesterday. The last few years I've cleared immigration through the automated kiosks immediately, collected and re-checked my bag and been in the Admiral's Club inside 20 minutes (with the wait for the luggage most of that). This time it looked like about 50% of the pax were having their kiosk slips 'randomly' marked for secondary manual screening. This included quite a few of the crew.

It took an hour to get through a very undermanned (and very grumpy) passport control. I had decided to stay over for two nights to get over jet lag and briefly check out Austin before going to Belize so I was more fortunate than some who may have struggled to make connections.

Getting out of this place tomorrow morning...

 

[Buzzard]

Nothing really to report yet except a painful experience getting into LOTFAP at DFW yesterday. The last few years I've cleared immigration through the automated kiosks immediately, collected and re-checked my bag and been in the Admiral's Club inside 20 minutes (with the wait for the luggage most of that). This time it looked like about 50% of the pax were having their kiosk slips 'randomly' marked for secondary manual screening. This included quite a few of the crew.

It took an hour to get through a very undermanned (and very grumpy) passport control. I had decided to stay over for two nights to get over jet lag and briefly check out Austin before going to Belize so I was more fortunate than some who may have struggled to make connections.

Getting out of this place tomorrow morning...

Trumped???

 

[TomVexille]

Trumped???

It wasn't really any better in December, so maybe not

 

[kermatu]

Nothing really to report...

For most people 16 hours in F would fill an entire once-in-a-lifetime TR... how blase...

Subscribed and looking forward to this one.

 

[JohnM]

For the first time ever I was asked at AA checkin if I had a visa for the US. Replied I had an ESTA - and she wanted to see evidence of it. I had a hard copy.

i am getting the feeling that my return to LOTFAP from Belize next Wednesday for a single night stay before going to Mexico for four nights, then back in to ORD is going to cause me grief...

 

[JohnM]

Great first full day in Belize exploring the Actun Tunichil Muknal (aka ATM) cave near San Ignacio. It's a Maya sacrificial site deep inside a spectacular jungle cave, accessible by a moderate hike through beautiful rainforest then wading/swimming and squeezing through narrow water-filled gaps and clambering over rocks. Fairly strenuous, but well worth it and some real fun to boot.

Unfortunately cameras are no longer allowed since someone dropped theirs on one of the skeletons a few years ago. There are plenty of photos of the interior and getting into it on the web.

I had a couple of pics preparing to get going but for some reason they fail to upload from my iPad accessing AFF through Safari. Usually it's the app that causes such grief.

 

[JohnM]

Trying the pics with the app.

 

[love_the_life]

You seem to like those 'moderate' hikes and squeezing through narrow rock openings, don't you JohnM?. Madagascar TR was full of them too

 

[JohnM]

You seem to like those 'moderate' hikes and squeezing through narrow rock openings, don't you JohnM?. Madagascar TR was full of them too

Have to keep moving, LTL...

 

[JohnM]

Day trip today to Caracol, a Maya site in Belize. Disaster strikes. My new camera turns on, lens fully extends, then - nothing. It has died, stuck like that. Five days into a 10 week trip!


So I'll be relying entirely on my iPhone from now until I get back and return it to Sony for warranty replacement. Fortunately I'm not going to places where I'll be wanting to take a lot of wildlife pics.


Caracol was very interesting, despite steady rain all day (which ended the moment we got into the van to leave). An excellent guide was very informative.


The site, which dates back to about 300-1000CE, was only rediscovered around mid last century and sections have gradually been cleared of the encroached jungle and archeological studies continue.

I just had a 'not logged in message from the app' when trying to load my 4th pic, then couldn't upload the text. Back to the web version and just doing the text at the moment.

if this continues, I'll abandon the TR until I return home.