Starting to sink in

I booked my flights to Ecuador today - wheee! It's finally beginning to sink in that I'm actually going to the Galápagos... but that doesn't mean that my excitement is diminishing! :)

I worked out a clever scheme (at least, I think it's clever) with my flights: rather than flying from Portland to Quito (on however many flights that would take), I bought tickets between San Francisco and Quito, and I'm booking a separate set of flights on Southwest Airlines between Portland and San Jose for a few days before and after. This accomplishes three things: it breaks up my LONG trip to Ecuador at least a little bit, it lets me see at least some of my family before and after my trip, and (and this is the reason this is such a clever scheme) it earns me the last flight credits I need on Southwest in order to get a free trip, which I plan to use to visit Quena this summer. Hooray!

I also did some investigation on immunizations today. It turns out that working until February 1 so I can keep my health insurance for an extra month might not be so smart after all, at least in terms of immunizations, since that insurance plan doesn't cover travel vaccinations (phooey on them). This would mean me having to pay up to $500 out of pocket for them - gack! On the other hand, the insurance I was planning to purchase starting in March covers all immunizations at 100%. So... I'm going to try to swing it so that I start my individual insurance a month early, then tell the clinic that I've changed my insurance so that they bill my individual instead of my employer insurance. I still have a bit more investigation to do on that to make sure I can pull it off, but I hope so! (because I think it's too late to change my quitting date.) I'd much rather be out the additional $85 or so for the extra month of insurance than five times that for all the vaccines!

So, things are moving forward. Now I just have to figure out what I where I want to go in Ecuador after my volunteer work is over. I gave myself 5-6 days to play around - hopefully enough time to get to some fantastic places. Back to the guide books!