Below is a colourful representation of my planned route for the next 9 months. It looks less logical (and less impressive) than it felt in my head so perhaps this was a bad idea. But it’s taking me to some places that I’ve always wanted to visit and back to some places that I loved the first time I went there so, for me, this should work. And if it doesn’t, I’ll find a way to make it work!

Central America (2 months)

• I’ll be starting in Mexico City, giving myself just a few days to work out how/from where/when I can get on a bus south. Once I’ve managed that, I’ll be heading to Oaxaca (which I’ve been pronouncing all wrong for a very long time, it’s been an embarrassing display of my poor grasp of Spanish) and on to Chiapas for a dose of Mayan ruins at Palenque.
• Then I’ll be making my way towards Antigua, Guatemala where I’ve been assured there are language schools that can teach me sufficient Spanish to allow me to communicate other things than how many beers I would like. I think this will benefit me hugely.
• From Antigua, Guatemala to San Jose, Costa Rica, I’ll be joining a tour group which means I’ll have to do no thinking whatsoever for 2 weeks (which will be great!) but also gives me a chance to forget all the Spanish I have just learned (which will be not so great). A birthday I’m in total denial about may be happening on this trip. But only maybe, and probably not.

South America (4 1/2 months)

• This is the part I’m looking forward to the most! Colombia will be the first destination, followed by Ecuador from where the rest of the route will be overland. I expect to become an overland-border-crossing-expert!
• Peru will be a big chunk of the itinerary and I suspect this is where I’ll veer way off plan. But Machu Picchu is booked (and I have bought walking boots for this purpose) so I have no choice but to get to Cusco in time for that.
• Then it’s on to Bolivia before I’m expecting to hit summer weather in November in Argentina and Uruguay. I have been reading about how to get to Iguaçu Falls from Uruguay and it sounds complicated but hopefully I’ll be a hardened traveller at this point and it won’t faze me. Or it will and I’ll end up losing valuable time that will mean I’ll have to re-work the plans in Brazil.
• Whatever happens, I need to get to Rio before December 31st! I googled ‘reveillon Rio’ and the images put Danish New Years fireworks to shame! So, clearly, I can’t miss that.

Australia/New Zealand (1 month)

• It made total sense in my head to go from South America to Australia. Which is proof that my world geography is pretty poor because those two places are not really all that close to each other… So I’ll be doing the most illogical flight ever, with several stops and too many time zones to get myself to Sydney.
• I haven’t planned Australia and New Zealand much, as it’ll be a bit dependent on how quickly my visa application for India goes through. But I imagine myself as a proper backpacker at this stage so I’ll probably be on a bunch of pub-crawls with all the gap-year kids and doing bungee jumps and canyon swings and building on my collection of woven friendship bracelets while telling everyone I meet about the amaaaazing things I’ve done on my gap year but demonstrating little knowledge of any of the places I’ve visited. I love stereotypes (but really I just secretly yearn to fit into one)

Southeast Asia & India (1 1/2 months)

• Once I get my hands on the visa for India, I’ll be booking flights for this last part of my trip. If all goes to plan, I’ll be back in the arms of the organised chaos of Indian public transport, negotiating (aka arguing) with rickshaw drivers and eating street food for 20 rupees and praying I won’t regret that later for the last 4-6 weeks before I head back to normal life in London. And if it doesn’t go to plan? I’ll cross that bridge if/when I get to it…