That feeling when plans keep changing

My plans keep changing.

Remember when I was going to go to Israel and Jordan in the fall of 2020?

We all know what happened next.

I rescheduled for the fall of 2021. In late 2020, a vaccine was on the horizon, and once I was vaccinated, I was planning to be on the go again. And I decided to to spend some time in Istanbul prior to the main trip.

We all know what happened next.

I rescheduled again, and if plans didn’t keep changing, I’d be on that trip now. I would have spent a week or so in Turkey, another week in Ethiopia, and two weeks in Israel, with a few days in Jordan at the end.

But plans keep changing. First Delta, then Omicron. Israel closed its borders, opened them, and closed them again. 

And finally I gave up on Israel for now. 

Instead, I booked a tour to South America with Overseas Adventure Travel for April and May of this year. I traveled with OAT on my last South American adventure in 2017, when I went to Chile, Argentina, and Brazil, including Rapa Nui, Buenos Aires, Patagonia, Iguazu Falls, and Rio de Janeiro. This time I joined a tour to Peru and Ecuador, featuring Machu Picchu and the Galapagos Islands. They offered a post-trip extension to Colombia, and I was going to extend the trip with a stopover in Panama.

I still really want to go to Turkey, and started thinking that maybe I’d just do a couple of weeks in Turkey this fall.

Oh, but guess what: plans keep changing…

My Second South American Adventure

I am looking forward to seeing Machu Picchu and the Galápagos Islands. These have long been bucket-list destinations for me. And that much, at least, won’t change.

But a few weeks ago I got an email from OAT; it seems I was the only person who had signed up for the post-trip extension in Colombia, so they were canceling it. They gave me the option of sticking with just the Peru and Ecuador portions of the trip, or switching to another tour in June when the Colombia extension would go ahead. I decided to stay with the scheduled trip. But then I learned that the flights through Panama wouldn’t work with the modified itinerary. So, no Panama and no Colombia. At least for now…

Itinerary

Here’s my itinerary for my second South American adventure (hotels are subject to change):

Day One	Depart GDL 7:16 pm Arrive MEX 8:40 pm Depart MEX 11:55 pm
Day Two	Arrive Lima 5:50 am Free day	Hoteles José Antonio Deluxe
Day Three	Free morning Meet the tour group and have a welcome briefing Miraflores walking tour Free time Group dinner	Hoteles José Antonio Deluxe
Day Four	Chorillo’s Fish Market Museo Larco Historic center Colonial area Free time	Hoteles José Antonio Deluxe
Day Five	Fly to Cuzco Drive to Sacred Valley	San Agustin Urubamba
Day Six	Visit a local school Visit a local market and shop for lunch Prepare and eat lunch together with a local family Pablo Seminario Ceramic Studio	San Agustin Urubamba
Day Seven	Traditional healing ceremony Drive to Ollantaytambo Station Train to Machu Picchu Village Visit Machu Picchu	El MaPi by Inkaterra
Day Eight	Second visit to Machu Picchu Afternoon free	El MaPi by Inkaterra
Day Nine	Depart Machu Picchu Visit Inca Fortress of Ollantaytambo Visit Chinchero	Hoteles San Antonio Cusco
Day Ten	Kenko Qoricancha Sun Temple Afternoon free Peru farewell dinner	Hoteles San Antonio Cusco
Day Eleven	Fly to Quito via Lima Welcome briefing	NH Collection Royal Quito
Day Twelve	Mercado de Iñaquito Downtown Quito walking tour La Ronda Afternoon free	NH Collection Royal Quito
Day Thirteen	Visit to Sinamune School and performance by Children’s Orchestra Museo Inti Ñan Free afternoon	NH Collection Royal Quito
Day Fourteen	Fly to Galápagos via Guayaquil	La Isla Hotel
Day Fifteen	Galápagos Cruise	Carina Galapagos
Day Sixteen	Galápagos Cruise	Carina Galapagos
Day Seventeen	Galápagos Cruise	Carina Galapagos
Day Eighteen	Fly to Quito via Guayaquil Check into Wyndham Quito Airport Free time before flight home
Day Nineteen	Depart UIO 1:01 am Arrive MEX 5:40 am Depart MEX 9:00 am Arrive GDL 10:24 am

Turkey 2022

With things settled for my South America trip, I decided to start planning for Turkey this fall.

And then I started thinking about expanding beyond just Turkey. Still not ready to commit to visiting Israel this year, I started researching other alternatives.

And now I’m settling on a five-week itinerary, my longest trip ever, to Turkey and the Caucasus.

Things are still getting finalized, and I will share the itinerary when it’s locked down, but for now, here’s my basic plan:

• Five days in Istanbul
• Seven day tour to Izmir, Pamukkale, Ephesus, Antalya, and Cappadocia, with side trips
• Twenty-one day tour of the Caucasus, starting in Baku, Azerbaijan and heading east toward Tblisi, Georgia, and the Black Sea resort of Batumi, and then south into Armenia, ending in Yerevan.

This is a very complicated itinerary that involves booking flights with three different airlines and working with two different travel companies. For Turkey, I’m planning to do my own thing in Istanbul and then arrange the tour with Turkey Insiders. Then the tour in the Caucasus is with JayWay Travel. This is the same company I used to plan my 2014 Balkans trip and my 2019 Central Europe trip.

I’d start dealing with booking now, but there’s a war in Europe, and who knows what the upshot of that will be. I think it makes sense to wait a while before committing to a vacation in three former Soviet republics.

Plans keep changing.

Colombia 2023

One of the reasons I decided not to change my dates for my upcoming South America trip is that the weather in Colombia is generally best in December, January, and February. So I am now planning a Colombia trip for next January. I don’t have any definite plans yet, and, yes, plans keep changing, so we’ll see what happens. But I’d like to visit Bogotá, Medellin, and Cartagena, and I want to do that Panama stopover I was planning to do this year.

Keep checking back, because, well, you know…