It’s time already? (From Bournemouth Echo)

It’s time already?

3:26pm Monday 8th February 2010 in

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When you make the decision to go travelling, it seems that the departure date is far away. For us it was the next calendar year.

Next thing you know it is December and Christmas parties are hitting the restaurant where I work. It is a busy period and in the blink of an eye it is New Years eve – there are people to see and fun to be had.

After a day of recovery the realisation sets in that you will soon be leaving. There are some big things to do: Quitting our jobs at Coriander, selling a car, moving out of our flat, relocating our possessions and finalising our travel arrangements.

Leaving our jobs was harder for Tori (my travel companion/partner/best friend) than it was for me.

After working at the restaurant for six years it is a tough decision for her to leave, especially as the manager.

I had also been working there for over two years so we felt part of the furniture. However, our bosses were great and fully supported our reasons for leaving.

How do cars know that they are about to be sold? The day I printed off some adverts to tape to the windows I inadvertently pulled off the inside door panel.

Having slammed the door shut I was sat there with handle in my fist, but no longer friends with the door.

It has messed up the central locking and the electric windows. Only I could have done this I thought as I looked around for the hidden camera. A website seems to be offering a reasonable price… we’ll see.

The positive thing about moving out of a flat is the opportunity it gives you to chuck stuff out. It is amazing what accumulates.

We are moving our belongings into a spare bedroom where my brother is living in Southbourne so space is limited.

Drawers full of forgotten memories, shoeboxes full of past gig tickets and cupboards full of junk will either end up at the tip or in a box waiting for our return.

All this would be irrelevant if it wasn’t for the fact we are soon heading out on a flight to Rio De Janeiro.

We saw sights and experienced situations whilst travelling through Mexico last year that will stay with us for the rest of our lives.

We want to repeat that on a greater scale on a trip through South America, up through Central America and into the United States.

It seems so many people travel the Thailand/Australia route – we try to be a little different. Obviously there will many experiences offered to us.

One of our qualms about the back-packer route is trying not to fall for clichés and avoid areas struck by poverty.

We decided the best way to experience this would be to volunteer. We looked into dozens of volunteer programmes and it is a big business. We found Project Peru.

A small UK based charity that is responsible for a children’s refuge in a shanty town outside of Lima.

We were asked to raise money for the charity and it turned out to be our first new travel experience - of which more next time.