The travel bug is nibbling again. Plan # 1 has been wanting to hike Machu Piccu and exploring Peru. However I’m kinda sick of traveling alone and in particular would like to do the 4 day hike with at least one friend. Friends that have expressed interest have gradually flaked when it comes time to actually go, “ok, let’s book this thing.” So, that sucks.
ANYONE want to hike Machu Picchu with me???
Plan #2 has been Argentina and maybe more of South America, to among other things, stalk Gaby Kerpel, and continue to work on my spanish.
My favorite show on tv is No Reservations with Anthony Bourdain. Of course watching this show is absolute torture when he’s somewhere cool. They’ve always got locals set up, or friends that he’s met before, to show him all the ‘insider’ and ‘real life’ stuff… which leads me to plan #3.
Plan #3 is throwing out both plan #1 and 2. It involves a slight change in my previous travel philosophy, which was always continuing to see new places. But I realized I made all these contacts through my travels, and actually become better friends with them over flickr, facebook, email, etc.
So… wouldn’t it be interesting to go back and explore a country with an insider, the way I got to see the Lisbon area with Joao and Teresa. So far options include Greece with my friend Maria (i only saw Athens for about 5-6 days), Costa Rica with my new amigas/amigo (went there in 2005), Korea to visit my friend Sarah, or back to Thailand and a neighboring country (Burma is probably on the agenda 
) with my travel expert Sanyawadee.
I’ve racked up some serious vacation days to do any of these, because Honduras I did over the holidays. decisions decisions.