To prepare for this trip, we looked at the highlights and the best/smartest routes of every country we pass through. We don’t need visa for any of the countries, because we’re allowed to stay up to 90 days in each country without a visa. We should be able to pass every country within those 90 days. Only for the US we applied for a visa (and got it) because we want to stay longer than those 90 days. We need to spend the wintertime there because we can’t cycle through the north of the country and Canada in those conditions.

To get some basic knowledge of the Spanish language, Linda went to Malaga in Spain to do a 2 week language course. Even though the Spanish in the South and Central American countries is a bit different (also different again in every country), we should be able to communicate with the people and understand the roadsigns and other important things.

We also needed to take care of some things at home like cancelling subscriptions, terminate the phone (landline) and cabel tv. Also insurances and other important things needed to be taken care of. And the most important thing of all; we both quit our jobs.

Our material and clothing needed to be completed or replaced and worn bikeparts had to be replaced. We also had to determine what we were going to take along and try and fit everything in our bags. Linda bought new paniers because these new ones are bigger than the old ones.