A Big Thank You

On 21 October, we launched a fund-raising campaign to raise additional funds for our trip. Using some of the loveliest pictures we have taken so far, we put together a calendar that should brighten the spirits of any poor, overworked soul looking at it.

A sample of our calendar pages. The layout took more thought than I expected!

And we were super-astonished by the support we received.

We would like to thank all those who supported us, with special shoutouts to the following people:

1) Zen, for giving us the idea way back in July. Thanks to you, we got a poll going early and found that this was a workable idea!
2) Ivan, for being the first person to order. You really got the ball rolling!
3) Those who shared the link with their friends on Facebook: Dad, Debra, Gerald, Evonne, Sue Anne, Tracy, Ada, Eeping, Nellie, I hope I didn't miss anybody... if I did, let me know and I'll add your name here too!
4) Those who blogged about it: Tracy (again), Ada (again)
5) Those who broadcast the calendar sales on other forums: Willie
6) Both sets of parents, for the large order quantities - special, special mention to my mum, who generously paid a premium for her order
7) Daynia, who will be helping ensure a large chunk of the orders will be properly distributed

In total, we had orders from 49 people for about 100 calendars!

Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!

To be honest, we had set ourselves a very modest target of 30 calendars, and were all prepared to think of other ways to raise more funds after this first campaign. But now, we can set that aside and concentrate on exploring more of what the Americas have to offer, and bringing you more stories of our escapades!



We will be taking a few more tours that we otherwise would not be able to. For blog posts where we mention these tours, we will be also putting a special logo on the entry, so look out for these special entries!

The Extended Downtime

So we found ourselves stranded in Calama, a town we never planned to visit. All because of the female-dogginess of two people.

But what to do? We are Singaporeans. We persevere and press on, and make the best out of our current situation while planning for the future. PM Lee should be proud of us.

Calama turned out to be a pretty nice town, way more pleasant than we expected, and leaps and bounds better than what Lonely Planet (pfft!) makes it out to be.

Or maybe because we were just so glad to be out of dusty San Pedro, and back in some semblance of civilisation.

That being said, we were on *extreme budget mode* while we were here, because we had budgeted only enough cash to get us to Salta, where we will make our next withdrawals at Citibank. With something like 3 layers of bank fees, we were very, very reluctant to draw money from any other ATM. Money was tight even with our emergency hoard of US Dollars which is stuffed daily down my underwear (no, it's not always a llama down there), because the money changers in Calama will not accept any US Dollars that is not in pristine condition!

So, we managed to get by with smaller, cheaper meals, until we boarded the bus to Salta on Friday.

Are you sure that's guacamole and not some random green mouldy stuff?

Surprise, surprise. The bus from Calama to Salta goes via San Pedro de Atacama. Not only that, it goes through the same Chilean customs checkpoint as the one we went through to get to Bolivia in our 4-Day Salar de Uyuni tour! One tiny detail mentioned in the first of the wife's Salar de Uyuni post was that the checkpoint was a mere 3 minutes away. We could have hurried there if the Mad Monkey Bitch de Gemini de San Pedro de Atacama was in her office at 10.30am when we arrived, instead of traipsing around town and coming into the office only at 11.30am!

Grrr....

Ah well. No point crying over spilt milk.

We would have caught up with our bus at the border too! After all, the big vehicles all spend some time mating here

We arrived into Salta, and treated ourselves to a nice thick slab of Argentinean steak for dinner instead. One serving, at approximately USD 10, was sufficient for both of us. And it was the juiciest, tastiest, steak I have ever, ever had in my life. Beats what we had at Lawry's a couple of years back (Lawry's is just too pretentious, really). Beats Astons. Beats the wagyu beef I had at some Jap restaurant in Chijmes. It was that mind-boggingly good!

Check out this delicious-looking steak! Order the Bife de Chorizo if you are ever in Argentina!

It's apparently pretty common to see people sharing one serving, like we did

At our friend Elaine's urging through Facebook, we decided to check out the paradilla too. But it's basically full of innards. Not our favorite. Colombia's ants were more enjoyable!

Outward smile, inward cringe

After all, we were going to Citibank to top up our cash reserves, right?

Wrong!

Turns out we had forgotten to arrange for a cash transfer from our other bank account to Citibank (we don't put too much cash into Citibank in case we get forced by muggers at knifepoint to withdraw all our money). So, it was back to *extreme budget mode* again.

*Extreme budget mode* and money changers, because internet transfers take 3 days. By then, we would be leaving Salta! Ouch. No excursions for us here, then.

But arranging for the internet transfer had raised our awareness on the miserable state our bank balance was in. We decided to use the time to figure out what are the major costs ahead of us in our travels, and one item just jumped out at us. It costs USD 700+ per person to fly from Rio de Janerio to Guatemala!

Cute doodle we saw on the way to a travel agency. Chotron... transform and transfer money to us!

Okay... that is way expensive. And taking the bus all the way back north didn't sound too enticing or cheap either. Painful decisions were made to cut out several destinations in our itinerary, because with the Christmas season coming up, things are only apt to get even more expensive!

Oh, s**t! :(

So we hauled our broke asses over to our next destination in Argentina, a rather spiffy city called Cordoba, where we were supposed to go horse-riding. But horse-riding here was just too expensive at USD 50+ per person for just a half day thing. Our time was better spent designing and promoting our 2010 Limited Edition GO calendars. Have you placed your order yet??? :)

Fund-raising is so important I learnt how to GIMP an animated gif as a banner ad. Cool, eh?

And so ends our extended downtime, lasting all the way from Calama in Chile, through Salta and ending with Cordoba in Argentina. We resolved that we are here to experience things, and not just to survive. It just would not make sense to hunker down and do nothing else and just starve till our one year if up. We will try out whatever new experiences are meant to be had, but be really a lot more selective in our spending, and try not to duplicate anything.

If, after all that, we still have to go home early, then so be it. It has already been an adventure of a lifetime.

2010 Limited Edition GO Calendars - Preview Them HERE!

Back in July, when we were touring the expensive islands of the Bahamas, we posted a sad picture of me eating cocktail sausages straight out of a can for lunch.

Thankfully, a more affordable lifestyle was available in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. However, since setting foot into Chile and Argentina, we have been nervously watching our bank reserves depleting rapidly - much too rapidly. We are back to arming ourselves with the cheapest brand of white bread available and a handful of canned/salted/preserved meat for our meals.

Yes, that means no more of Argentina's famous thick, juicy grilled steaks for us (but we've only had two so far... which we shared between us!)

Other than scaling back on our daily living expenses (meaning crappier hostels and cheaper overnight bus rides) and travel costs (by prioritising our tours and drastically cutting down our list of destinations), we are looking at the possibility of raising enough funds to see us through till it's time to go home.

A few months back, we ran a poll on our blog asking our readers whether they would consider purchasing 2010 calendars featuring photographs taken on our trip. We received a fairly encouraging response to the online poll, with many readers agreeing to purchase a copy for themselves to support us, and a few generous folks who said that they would get a few copies as gifts for their friends as well. Yaaaaaayyy!

Well all that polling has not come to naught, for we are going to start running the printing press very soon! Choosing (reluctantly) to forgo a rather pricey horseback-riding excursion left us with a free day in Cordoba today, so we sat ourselves down and designed a calendar for sale.

We are now taking orders for our Limited Edition 2010 GO Calendars featuring a collection of prized photographs taken in the USA, Caribbean, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Chile. We have carefully selected pictures that we hope convey the beauty and uniqueness of these destinations. (Trust me, the selection process was a very painstaking experience.)

Here's a preview of what we're setting out to print:

Item: Wall calendar (includes dates of Public Holidays in Singapore)
Size: 13 x 10.4 inches
Price: SGD40.00*
Order by: Tue 10 Nov

* Includes free delivery in Singapore. However, we hope that you can help lighten the load on our family members by collecting your orders from our house in person. Payment to be made in cash upon delivery/collection.

Update 4 Nov 2009: Delivery WILL be included for Singapore residents, provided by the printer. Payment will be via internet bank transfers. Do drop us a message for our bank account details.

(Note: the giant url planted across the photos is for copyright purposes only. It won't appear on the actual calendar.)

Front Cover

January

General layout for pages showing dates of the month following each photo montage

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Please email your orders to degoatman@hotmail.com, stating your name and contact details (mobile number and address)

We hope that you will be able to support us in our journey by purchasing copies of our calendar. Please also help spread the word by clicking on the 'SHARE' widget at the bottom of this entry. You can post the link to this blog entry on Facebook and other online platforms, as well as email it to your friends.

We'll be looking out for your calendar orders! In the meantime, we'll be moving on with our travels and hoping to cover as much ground as we can. Catch us again in our next blog entry!