The big kahuna

You might have noticed my recent preoccupation with all things travel? There's a very good reason for that.

I've lived abroad. I've been on some pretty amazing holidays. I've been all over the place with my job. But I've never actually been travelling for longer than a few weeks at a time.* I went straight from school to university, spent a year doing work experience and saving money for my post-grad course, and since graduating from that I've been working solidly.

Ha Long Bay, Vietnam

Ljubljiana, Slovenia

Monkey, Bali

Now I've been at my job long enough to take a little sabbatical, which coincides very nicely with the dates I'd already planned to go on a mega-holiday with my friend A, and with the round-the-world trip my married friends B and T are going on in 2013.

The list of places I've never visited, but really want to, is long. Like looooooooong. Tanzania? Rwanda and Uganda? I'm kind of obsessed with travelling in Africa. Croatia and Montenegro, New Zealand, China, Nepal and Laos are also high on the list.

But my current location makes one continent an obvious winner for this trip - South America here I come! The only country I've previously been to in Latin America is Costa Rica, way back in 2007, so it's a whole new continent for me. And for as long as I can remember I've been strangely fixated on seeing Bolivia.

So. The (for me) big trip is being planned for next summer. Six weeks, five countries.

Two weeks travelling around and chilling out in Colombia with A, my oldest friend (this trip will mark 20 years of her putting up with my general absurdity).

Then ten days solo travel in Bolivia...

... Before meeting up with B and T in Argentina and travelling back northwards, through Argentina, Chile and Peru, finishing up in Machu Picchu and flying back to Los Angeles, leaving them to make their way across to Brazil, which is where they'll wrap up their eight-month adventure.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. That, in case you were wondering, is the irritating, high-pitched sound of me being insanely over-the-top excited about this whole shebang!

* I read this back and realised that statement is not 100% true. I spent six weeks in Australia when I was 16, but much of that time was spent sitting at my friend's house watching The Craft, Dirty Dancing and a six-hour Shirley MacLaine biopic (it outlines her belief in aliens. I highly recommend it). So I don't feel like that counts...