Passport Stuff

In talking to the travel agent today, she told us a story that someone was about to leave on their trip and was denied to board the plane because the passport expiration date was 3 days short.  When you travel to Venezuela (and maybe even other countries), your passport has to have at least six months left on it from the departure date of that country.  Thank goodness we renewed our passports in the fall.  I could not imagine being packed, at the gate raring to go, being denied on the plane and not able to go on your trip.  That would really SUCK!  So the lesson learned here is to check your passport expiration date before you travel and renew earlier if you have to. 

What we are leaving behind

 It's fun to be getting ready for a warm vacation when the weather is cold, snowy, icy, windy, etc.  Scraping the ice off my car today was hard work!  Thank goodness I didn't have to do it!  Hannes hasn't tackled his vehicle yet. 

More details to think about

Well, here it is almost the end of 2010 and almost time to start celebrating the New Year.  Wow, the first ten years of this new millenium has certainly gone by fast! 

Another thing to take care of is to let your credit card company know that you will be travelling out of the country, way out of the country or North America in this case!  If you didn't let them know and they saw activity in your location, you could really find yourself in a jam (or pickle if you prefer) when you find out your credit card has been rejected due to "suspicious activity".  So, make sure you let them know so you have no worries.

Today I received an e-mail from one of our coaches for the swim camp.  He stressed the importance of sports and hydration.  He listed several benefits for using sport drinks for long activities of 1-3 hours.  Water is good, but too much is not good as it can cause a drop of sodium in the blood.  But I digress...so away we went over to Superstore today to pick up a can of Gatorade crystals that I can mix up with water for my workouts.  I also need to pack some granola bars and nuts.  I am still under the 20 kg (44 lb) limit so far...this is good!

More Prep

Now that the clothing issue has been sorted out, my next big thing is shoes!  How many pairs of sandals, runners, pool deck shoes, etc. to pack?  I don't know why but this always drives me nuts.  I think I have it narrowed down to 2 pairs of sandals (black and beige), aqua shoes which will be used as "deck" shoes to and from the pool and as slippers in the room and some decent runners which I will wear while travelling and when I rent a bike at the resort. 

Another item on my "to-do" list has been to go to the sun tanning booth to get my fair skin some colour.  There are lots of options and packages to choose from.  I opted for a one month package, 100 hours.  I thought that there is no way I could use all the hours, but to my surprise, they have been eaten up pretty fast.  I started at 5 minutes and am now holding at 10.  With about 4-5 sessions left, I will have used all my time up.  And now I have some colour on me and of course the freckles have come up big time!  I hope that this will lessen the sun burn once I get to Venezuela.  We will be slathering on the waterproof suntan lotion like crazy...45 SPF for me and 30 SPF for Hannes who never burns.  Lucky guy! 

Getting Ready to Travel

If there's one thing I have learned with travel to a foreign country, it's that you really need to prepare yourself well in advance.  Because we are heading off to a tropical climate, we had to think about various immunization shots.  For example, we had to get Hepatitis A/B aka Twinrix with the first shot in September, followed by a second shot a month later in October.  The third and final shot will be in April.  There were also a few other things you could get shots for such as Typhoid, which I declined but Hannes decided to get.  My thought was that I am not planning on going into the jungle or hiking in the woods somewhere. 

We also had to renew our passports earlier than our expiry dates as there is a requirement for the passport to have at least five months left before it expires when you return from your destination.  They may let you in with three months left but that could be iffy.  I could not imagine getting to my destination only to be denied entry because of the expiration date on my passport.  Anyway, it's another thing to think about well in advance.

Clothing...now there's a fun topic.  You have to think about what you are going to wear and how to make the most of the pieces you travel.  And also to take into consideration is luggage restrictions as to the number of bags (which is one checked and one carry on in our case) and the weight of said bags.  So off we went in search of lightweight quick drying clothing.  Hannes went with a few pieces of Tilley clothing.  I opted for some dresses and shorts/tank tops.  I think that we will likely spend most of the day in our bathing suits so it should just be what to wear in the evening.