Bags are packed...

We flew to Sanfrancisco on November 2nd after not getting everything ready for the trip. Hmmm, how do I pack for a couple of days in a beautiful city, a few weeks on a fancy cruise ship, a few weeks of backpacking through South America, a couple of months of being a school teacher, and a couple of weeks of South American tourist travel. Not only this, but I will be passing through every climate from temperatures below zero to well over 40 degrees, from rainforests where daily downfalls are the norm, to deserts where it hasn’t rained for over 100 years! I will be taking part in many activities like scuba diving and zip-lining. I will have limited expensive access to laundry facilities for three weeks and then no access for another week or so and then, when I get to Arequipa, I will have a couple of weeks of trying to figure it all out - how? where? who? And finally I may be able to wash my clothes again - albeit it may be with a scrub board at my apartment - if I even have one of those waiting... The school is kind of sketchy about getting back to me - but this is normal in South America I tell myself. Manyana, Manyana. no worries, be happy. I am quite sure after all the extensive conversations I have had with the school, and explicit promises that they are going to have an apartment waiting for me, I will get a greeting of “Hi We’re so glad you’re here - we should find you a place to stay...