Time is flying like crazy, and there's now less than 4 weeks until the departure date. Preparations are on track. The bike is ready, I got my vaccines last week, and another big milestone was reached by officially resigning from work this Monday. My last day in the office will be on October 5th, so that will leave me a few days to wrap things up and see some friends before taking off. I'm also lucky to have a very good tenant at my condo, which agreed to renew his lease for the upcoming year, so that was great news and a potential problem off my mind.
Co-workers have asked me various questions about the trip so far, but all seem to be most interested in the budget aspect. How much money do you need and how did you manage to save up? The saving part was fairly straight forward. I have put my condo on rent for the past two years, and I've been living with a long-time friend of mine who's been renting me a room in his house at a very reasonable rate. I also drive a 12 year old car, my wardrobe is now in close to pathetic condition, and I haven't been going out much at all in the past year and a half or so. So yes, there were some sacrifices to be made, but all in all it wasn't bad at all.
Budget wise, I'm allowing around 17-18K dollars for 6 months on the road. Once I subtract the cost of flying myself and the bike back from Buenos Aires (roughly 2500$) and the cost of transportation by sail boat between Panama and Colombia (900$), I'm left with about 75$ per day for 6 months. In some countries (mainly in Central America), my daily expenses will be way less than that, but then there are countries where gasoline and living expenses will surely bust that 75$/day allowance (Chile, Argentina, USA). At the end of it all, I will be broke, but hopefully not in debt.
