Miss Maps Goes Solo

March 2000: Maps goes to Central America and has a holiday of ‘firsts’.

So, in 2000 I slightly lost the plot and decided to go to Honduras to spend three weeks with a guy I’d met a couple of times in my local bar…. hmmm. Cut a long story short, it was my first time in an airport, my first time on a plane and my first time outside Europe, terrifying but wonderful. Unfortunately for the poor boy I was visiting, I wasn’t so wonderful, I certainly didn’t make the most of it and quite honestly had no idea what I was doing. So I want to do it again but properly this time, as a grown up (well a 26 year old rather than a 21 year old) and entirely on my own.

Planning and saving to go travelling ain’t easy. The planning bit means that you bore your friends stupid with daily itinerary changes and dilemmas over which pen knife to buy. In the space of 2 years I’ve gone from deciding to be a chamber maid on the island of Antigua to doing a 12 month RTW to a 6 month trip around Central and South America. But the daydreaming is wonderful, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading through forums, looking at maps (funnily enough) and making endless lists.

What? I have to wear sandals?

Those of you who know me will agree that backpacking is going to be quite a change for me. Hanging up the stilettos and donning the teva sandals will be interesting. Somehow though the idea of packing as little as possible and heading off into the unknown is the most exciting prospect ever. The only confirmed part of this journey is the return flight into Mexico on 7 October and back from Buenos Aires 6 months later. I plan to see parts of Mexico, Belize, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Ecuador (including the Galapagos), Peru, Bolivia, Brazil and Argentina. Apart from hitting Rio in time for Carnival I have no real schedule, so we’ll just have to see how it pans out.

Oh, and I’m big into Latin American dance: salsa, merengue, Argentine tango etc so I shall be dancing way around the continent as much as possible.

If anyone out there is doing a similar trip I’d love to hear from you!

Hi everyone, thank you for checking out my blog.

Unless you got here by some miracle of google, you probably already know by now that I’m travelling around Central and South America for 6 months from October 2005 and I hope to keep you all updated on my progress as I go so keep checking back for regular updates.

The formal bit over, I should probably explain the Miss Maps thing, for those of you who only know me as Sharleen. The name was given to me by my wonderful best mate J9…

…after I turned into the organisational FREAK that I am when we went on a gig tour around the UK. I arrived at Euston station clutching a book of streetmap print outs all carefully annotated with our hotels, gig venues etc.

With this trip I’m going totally the opposite way and making it up as I go along.

When I’m not dreaming up South American adventures I ‘m an Office Manager for a talent agency in London. This isn’t one of those ‘I need to go and find myself trips’. I love what I do and my life in London which consists of hanging out with mates and my boyfriend, going to loads of gigs, dancing salsa and generally making the most of London life.