So the decision has been made I’m leaving Montreal and going on a Latin American backpacking adventure. But what has to be done before I can bring this dream to reality?

What do I need to do to get from right now to standing at the airport with nothing but my backpack ready for adventure. When I first started thinking about it the list of things to organize seemed pretty overwhelming, However once broken down into smaller pieces it doesnt seem so bad.  In this post I hope to outline all the things I think I need to do before leaving on my trip in the hopes that It will help other’s planning similar adventures  and also allow others to give me advice on anything i’ve overlooked.

Where Am I Flying To And When?

This will probably depend largely on how quickly I sell all of my stuff, I’m free of work commitments as of 14th September 2012 and I return to Montreal at start of October giving me one full motnh to sell everything before my lease expires. If things sell fast I could leave as early as mid October however I’d say it will be most likely be later October.

In terms of where I am  going my current Idea is that I’m better off going to Central America first as the flights are the cheapest, that way I can work my way down Central America most likely starting in Cancun (Because its super cheap to fly their) or maybe starting in Belize City or San Jose in Costa Rica. Out of all the things I have to plan this is the least of my worries and I will probably just worry about this sometime in October.

The Selling of Stuff

Lucky for me this isn’t the first time I’ve had to sell most of my possessions and move overseas, Two years ago after the video game industry collapsed in Australia and I was made redundant I moved from my home country which I had never left in my entire life  in the pursuit of continuing my career in video games.  I am grateful for this experience as It really taught me to not be attached to my material things. Also makes doing it a second time around a whole lot easier.

Now If I could just get over my hatred of going through the whole process of actually selling things with people constantly trying to barter me down, It would be great. Out of everything I have to do before leaving this is what I’m not looking forward to the most.  Sometimes I sit here day dreaming that someone will knock on my door and be like “OMG I  love  EVERYTHING  in this apartment!!!!!” and buy everything. Haha unlikely

• Sell all my possessions
• Selling my Nerdy things including my board games, my super awesome Asus gaming laptop and my mandolin I never got a chance to learn to play 🙁

The Buying of More Stuff

What buying more stuff? isn’t that counter productive? I thought you were trying to sell all your stuff? that is true however there are a bunch of things I will need for my Latin American backpack trip that I do not have.

First and foremost I need a backpack. It wouldnt be much of a backpacking trip without that, Luckilly guided my friend Damien (Who has himself backpacked South America for 6 months)  we adventured to Mountain Equipment Co-op last weekend and we were victorious in finding an awesome master worked backpack. WIN!!!!

There are also a bunch of other things I will need but I’m not going to go into details in this post as I will be writing a dedicated post on this subject in the coming weeks. So lets just leave it nice and broad and say:

• Ensure that all items I need have been purchased/acquired and packed into backpack.

After over an hour of deliberation me with my new
Deuter Futura Vario 50+10 Backpack

Loose Ends

All those little annoying things that need be be sorted before I can leave, this includes:

• Cancelling my Internet
• Cleaning out my apartment once everything is sold and handing in the keys.
• Informing my banks that I will be overseas so I dont have all my cards blocked the moment I try to make a purchase.

Visa’s

I was lucky enough to stumble upon Visalink.com which is an awesome site if you are Australian, It lets you check every country and see whether a visa is required or not. After checking all of the countries in Central and South America it seems I only need to organize a visa before hand for Brazil and Venezuela (Only if entering by land border for Venezuela) . I would really like to go to Brazil but seeing as I dont know when I’d be entering Brazil or be leaving it could be problematic to organize, especially since Ill be in Montreal when I’m organizing it. Will worry about this in early October.

Vaccinations

Shots Shots Shots,! I’m gunna need a lot of vaccinations. especially yellow fever I’ll have to head to a vaccination clinic and get that sorted out sometime soon. dont know what i’m going to do about vaccinations that you need a series of over a number of months though seeing as I wont be sticking around for long.

Travel Insurance

I’ve been doing some research on this and think I’m going to go with World Nomads. I’ve been with them before and the ability to lodge claims online sounds like a big plus. So this is who I’m probably going to go with unless I get and other better suggestions.

And Finally

Plan a kickass going away party that involves lots of poutine.

Do you think there is anything else big that i’m overlooking? If you have any suggestions or advice id love to hear it,  let me know in comments beloooow.