Ola de Bolivia!

After a very long trip (36 hours) we finally arrived in La Paz. The first thing which Marco needed was an oxygen- shot at the airport medical post

Trying to get rid of the headache and shortness of breath by drinking lots and lots of cups Coca tea, we decided to explore the city. La Paz is a very laidback and easygoing city filled with extremely friendly people. It´s a city full of contrasts: mostly ugly buildings (excepts a few true beauties), the colourful Indian people who keep the traditions alive, the beautiful and playful children who are very happy with feeding pigeons, the businessmen in the student and business district... conclusion: an impressive city and a good start of our trip in Bolivia!

One day we went to Tiwanaku, an old Inca site. We left La Paz with a local minibus before dawn and arrived with sunrise in Tiwanaku. We felt like we were the only people in the world, so quiet, so pure! After good walk we arrived at the site which turned out to open just at 9.00h. We had some time to explore the village which had a true Wild West feel. The trip top Tiwanaku was even more impressive then the ruines itself...

After La Paz we moved our asses (and the rest of our stuff) to Uyuni, a little town in the middle of nowhere. It was the starting point of a 3-day trekking with a 4WD to the Salt Flats and national parks. Together with 4 Brazilians we survived sand storms, extreme cold (-25 degrees!) and salt peeling! On the other hand we also saw extremely beautiful nature from Salt Flats to coloured lagunas, wild flamingos and Alpacas (just look at the photo- link on our site).

Back in Uyuni we were covered with sand, dust and salt.... So we desperately needed a HOT shower... which we didn´t have yet in Bolivia... (smelly cats...). And.... We found one! The next day we moved our stuff to the civilized world, a city called Potosi.

Potosi is a colonial town with a rich past and future (because of the silver mines). The only thing we did here was wandering around the romantic smal cobblestone streets, drink good Bolivian wine (tip for our red wine fans: Aranjuez Terruno and Kohlberg are our favourites) and beer (Potosina), hang around in the parks and squares. Today it´s Sunday and the city is dead... we guess people here also don´t like Sundays.... There is nothing to do....

Tomorrow we will continue our trip in Bolivia and head for Sucre, the real capital of the country. Curious what we will find there...

Ciao Ciao for now

Ready for take- off!

Sveiki! Hi!

Finally.... we will stop harassing you withour boringstories from us being still at home....

Tonight at 03.00h we will take a taxi to Schiphol Amsterdam Airport. Our first stop after taking off will be London. After that we have some time to kill in Miami before heading for La Paz (Bolivia). Hopefully, we will not have any problemsrelated to altitude sickness....(La Paz is situated about 4000m high!)... Thursday morning 07.00h o'clock (local time) we will land in La Paz.... trying to find our way to the hostel...

We had 2 very relaxing weeks. We said goodbye to some good friends and relatives (grazie Chef Marcel for the wonderful BBQ! Your apron suits you....

We are ready!

Till next time, folks! Somewhere from South America!

Greetz

Marco & Lina

Pleasure after business...

Hi everyone,

The job is done.... Lina and I both just finished with our jobs! Now our sabbatical really started!

It's a strange feeling that from now on we will not share one of the major values/ expectations in our society: working! We need to get used to the idea that (temporarily) not participating in working life or focusing on our careers is not a bad thing... on the other hand we are convinced that this trip will enrich our lives and personalities anyway... The other thing is that we probably will suffer from some withdrawal-effects. We all are so focused on always being busy, always doing something... the coming year we will do nothing... or only when we want to....

... I'm sure that these feelings of reflection will be gone immediately when we will land in La Paz (Bolivia) ...

Last friday we started with our anti- malarial drugs (Lariam). Despite all the possible negative side-effects and the most horrifying stories about Lariam, both Lina and I feel OK. No hallucinations, depressions, nightmares, insomnia and all other mushroom-related effects.

I only suffered from the ‘sausage- effect'.... friday night I was turning, turning and turning.... the next morning I was ‘well-done'.... But as long as this is it we're happy... (thanks, doc!)

The next 2 weeks we will dot the i's. We need to find out what clothes (and other stuff) we want to take, or better what we can take. We found out there is not so much space in our backpacks as we had in our minds...

Now we both feel that we are ready to go. We have been preparing for one and a half year already. Honestly, we are both fed up with preparing. We just want to go! Sometimes time's ticking so fast that you can't keep track, but now it feels that time's ticking away so slowly that we both get fucked up... that's what I mean with withdrawal-effects....

Ok, folks, that's it for now.

Take care

Lina & Marco

Photo, photo...

Hi everyone,

Thanks for all the additional photo-space you gave us!

Now we definitely have enough space to shareour pictures with you

So, please, don't waste your money anymore...

Iki! Doei!

Marco & Lina

Vestuves

After a good Easterweekend in Panevezys (drinking, hanging, eating), we moved all our stuff (man, so much stuff...) to our new ' base camp' in Vilnius.

Yes, this weekend will be partytime in Aukstadvaris! We will celebrate our wedding there. At the moment we are in our apartment in the old town of Vilnius, drinking coffee and playing ' accountant' ....

Today we were in Aukstadvaris, the village where the party will be, to arrange the last things.... and... again we learned that you cannot plan everything and believe people on their words... not even priests..

On the phone he told us that everything is possible, but now it turned out that it is a huge problem that I'm not baptised.... even a blessing of the marriage was not allowed... the rules changed last March.... this was the outcome of a phonecall between the priest andthe higher ' church manager' (vyskupas/ bisschop). But... we didn't give up and went to meet this ' higher church manager' about 80 km away and finally he give permission because we went so far to meet him andask for permission!

So let the party begin!

Time's ticking...

Hi everyone,

As you also probably noticed spring is already knocking on the door. That implies that time is ticking away... and it's ticking f&*king fast! It's just 4 months encounting and then it's time to take-off!

As we already mentioned in our last update our plans changed slightly compared to the first plans. Mainly because of financial reasons we dropped Panama and found a very good alternative: El Salvador. All flights are now booked and confirmed with the possibility to change dates during the trip for free... you never know if you want to stay somewhere a little longer...

The ‘planning' is:

Preparations are progressing beyond expectations. Lina graduated for her studies as a Social Educationalist! Of course as expected... and with 2 fingers in her nose ... (I realize that probably this is not a correct English saying, but who cares.... you probably know what I mean...

The company I work for has offered me the possibility to take a sabbatical, which means I will stop working on July the 1^st and will continue after the Big Trip. The pleasant advantage of this sabbatical is that contributions with respect to pensions and social security will be paid for by the company. That makes quite a difference financially in contrast to what we expected!

Last week we had an appointment with a guy who is interested in living in our apartment during our trip. He is a collegue of our neighbour who is working with the police. Our guy nicknamed ‘Grissom' is working as a crime scene investigator

Travel insurances are arranged, backpacks & sleeping bags are ‘in da house', an appointment for all the necessary/ desired vaccinations is planned, a parking place for our is secured... It seems just a matter of waiting till July...

But.... before we leave we will first celebrate our wedding in Aukstadvaris (Lithuania) in April! That's the first big thing what is on the agenda!

For some of you:See youthere! For others:See you 16^th of May in Tilburg!

Linkejimai

Lina & Marco

Update

Happy New Year!!!

Here we are with an update...

In the first place thanks for all your reactions on our blog!

For those of you who sent a reaction by mail, we recommend to put your reaction on our blog. That's easier.

For our less trained Internet- users some tips:

1. You can leave your reaction by clicking on the button ‘reageer' (react) on the bottom of the page.
2. In the box on the right ‘BLIJF OP DE HOOGTE' (stay up-to-date) you can sign up with your e-mail address. Everytime we put a new message on our blog you will automatically get an e-mail (no sweat, man!).
3. The photos of our previous trips are easily approached by clicking on the link ‘ OUR PHOTOS'' (in the box on the right side).

And ... you are free to react in a language YOU like... hmmm, except Polish and Portuguese (sorry people..)

As we are progressing with our preparations, our plans changed slightly. Instead of visiting Panama we are planning to visit the pure and undiscovered El Salvador. Panama was a stopover which would cut so much off our budget that we decided that this country will we move to our ‘wish list' (there need to be something left to wish for, right?)

Lina found a job till July. She can work as much as she wants in her current workplace. Good news! I also had a chat with my ‘chief'. He is prepared to work out a solution that benefits both parties. Thanks a million!!

The only worries that we need to deal with now is to rent our appartment for some months when we are on the move (we need to think about the costs...).

The problem is that we are very picky.... But, if you know someone decent who is in need of temporary lodging (10 months), please, let us know!

Ok folks, that's it for now.

Groetjes, Linkejimai,

Marco & Lina

Tickets!!

Hoi! Sveiki!

After a long period of considering the pros and cons (it's so f*%cking expensive!) wecut the knotand booked ourtickets. The people at Skybreakers.nl helped us out with the best available options and in the end the price was not too bad

So....15 July2009 it's time to take off!!For the following10 months we will be travelling around the globe to see, smell, feel, touch everything this Earth has tooffer. We will live like modern nomads and experience how it feels to have no 'home' and not be in the'system' of everyday life. Somethingwe always wanted todo!

Our route will take us first to Bolivia. Over land we will travel to Peru and Ecuador and then take a plane to Panama. From there another local flight will take us to Guatemala andchicken buses will bring us to Belize (relaxed!) and Mexico (hasta la vista, baby!). From Mexico City we will fly, via Miami, to Thailand (Bangkok) with a stopover for a couple of days in Hongkong. From Thailand we will go south to Cambodia, and thenthrough Vietnam, to Laos and back to Bangkok. From there we will take the plane (again) to India where we willhang outfor about 6 weeks in Radhjastan and Goa. Then it's about May 2010 and we think it's about time to go home then...

After very very relaxing week in El Quseir (Egypt) , weshould have enough energy to continue daily life till July. Lina will graduate in February, so she is focused on finding a temporary job. I just started a new interim job. Something I really look forward to. Moreover, we will also be occupied with making further preparations for our trip (social security, pension, insurances, vaccinations, house, etc....). So we will be quite busy for the next months. Time flies...

We will try to writefrequently about our experiences and preparations (at least if there's something to write aboutand if we have theopportunity to do so... ). And as you probably noticed already we will be writing in English. This because of the fact that we have Dutch, Lithuanian (sveiki!), Polish(cześć!) and Portugese(oi!) readers. Don't blame us for this ...

Ifyou want to receive an e-mail whenever we put a new message on the blog, then register on the mailinglist by leaving your e-mail address in the box on the right side of the blog.

PS. For those who are interested, the following link gives you access to some photos of ourprevious trips (http://picasaweb.google.nl/marcoenlina/Trips#)

See you later!

Groetjes, linkejimai

Marco & Lina