while i'm gone

We're leaving for Peru a week from Monday. I'm thinking I'll use wmtc as a travel journal while I'm gone. Anyone who's interested can follow along with our adventures.

It will be an old-fashioned travel journal, I'm afraid: text only. We'll be taking tons of photos, but I'd rather not deal with sorting them out and posting them in internet cafes. Think of it as an exercise in imagination.

I have a travel journal from every trip I've taken since I first traveled on my own in 1982. (NN, if you're reading, that's us! Circles Over Europe.) About ten years' worth are in notebooks, actual pen and paper, until I started traveling with a laptop.

For this trip, moving around a lot by plane, train and bus, we want to pack as lightly as possible, plus we don't want the added concern of keeping the laptop free from harm. So it's back to pen and paper for me, which would all be sweet and quaint if it weren't for my dodgy hands (arthritis, carpal tunnel, what have you). I really can't write with a pen for any length of time.

What I'll probably do is make notes in a notebook, then flesh things out in more detail online. I understand that in Peru, like a lot of countries where few people have internet access at home, there are internet cafes in every town, and connections are fast and cheap. So this should work out very nicely.

I briefly considered picking up a little folding keyboard for my iPAQ, as Alan With One L has always suggested, and as my brother recently mentioned. But then I still have to think about charging the iPAQ battery, and keeping it safe, both from getting smashed in our suitcase and from theft. So I'll leave my trusty handheld at home and be an anachronism.

Comments

  1. Nicole15 April 2006 at 06:51

    Have a wonderful time. Peru has been on my wish list for a long time.

    ReplyDelete
  2. laura k15 April 2006 at 06:52

    Thank you! Mine as well. I've wanted to see Machu Picchu nearly all my life - since 8th grade Spanish class.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Miche15 April 2006 at 07:25

    Bon voyage and safe travels! Can't wait to hear all about it!

    ReplyDelete
  4. mkk15 April 2006 at 07:56

    Connections are cheap, but don't expect them to be fast. Accustomed as you are to cable connections occurring in nanoseconds, I think you'll be drumming your arthritic fingers, repetitively stressing your carpal tunnels, waiting for computers to respond.

    Still, I am sure you will have a wonderful trip, with or without rapid computer access!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Granny15 April 2006 at 08:17

    Have a safe journey and a great time. Wish I could stowaway.

    ReplyDelete
  6. laura k15 April 2006 at 08:21

    Connections are cheap, but don't expect them to be fast.

    Oh, interesting. Lonely Planet said they are - perhaps that's in other areas, I didn't look that closely. Or perhaps Lonely Planet thinks we all have dial-up?

    In any case, all the more reason not to post pics.

    Thanks for your good wishes, all. I'm here for another 10 days. (I knew I posted this too early.)

    ReplyDelete
  7. teflonjedi15 April 2006 at 10:02

    My better half always take along a small notebook to keep a travel journal too. I keep the running list of photographs...old fashioned film. No digital for us!

    Have a safe trip, and have fun!

    ReplyDelete
  8. laura k15 April 2006 at 10:05

    I keep the running list of photographs...old fashioned film. No digital for us!

    We also use film. :) I love our camera, especially since we got the wide angle / telephoto lens. This year we'll have both conventional camera and digital, but I think we'll lean more heavily to the film.

    I never thought of keeping a list of photos, though. What a great idea.

    ReplyDelete
  9. teflonjedi15 April 2006 at 16:09

    Yeah, well, we ended up shooting about 5 rolls of film on our last European vacation together...without the list, we would have had a devil of a time trying to remember for certain what we'd photographed...

    ReplyDelete
  10. laura k15 April 2006 at 16:19

    With all due respect, five rolls doesn't sound like a lot to me. (But then, it would depend on how long a trip.)

    We typically come home with around 10 rolls. And no list! A list definitely sounds like a good idea, I just don't know if I could see it through.

    ReplyDelete
  11. James Redekop15 April 2006 at 19:23

    When you write, post good details of where you are each post, and I'll do up a Google Earth file that'll outline your route. :)

    ReplyDelete
  12. laura k15 April 2006 at 20:00

    Great idea - I will!

    ReplyDelete

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