In the beginning....

Hello friends, family, and stalkers, and welcome to my blog: Rales Around the World. I had considered other names for this blog such as "While you're Working" or "The vacation you're not having" but some friends said they would boycott me for the year if those names were chosen. So here I am.

As you know by now, I am about to embark on a year-long adventure that will take me to Australia, New Zealand, Peru, Guatemala, and Costa Rica. During that time I will be doing a wide range of activities, from surfing down under and playing rugby with Kiwis to volunteering with young children, hiking Machu Picchu, and taking care of sloths and sea turtles. For a breakdown of when I will be completing each program and the details of my day-to-day activities I've provided the information for you all right here:

Learn to Surf, May 3-7
http://www.realgap.co.uk/Australia-Learn-To-Surf

Oz Experience Buss Pass, May 8 -- June 6
http://www.realgap.co.uk/Oz-Experience-Bruce-Pass

Australia Wildlife Park Volunteer June 7 -- July 5
http://www.realgap.co.uk/Australia-Wildlife-Park

New Zealand Conservation Volunteer (I'm doing the South Island) July 17 -- August 6
http://www.realgap.co.uk/New-Zealand-Conservation

New Zealand Rugby Academy September 6 -- November 1
http://www.realgap.co.uk/New-Zealand-Rugby-Academy

Peru Experience November 7 -- December 5
http://www.realgap.co.uk/Peru-Experience

Guatemala Animal Rescue and Rehabilitation January 2-30
http://www.realgap.co.uk/Guatemala-Wildlife-Rescue-And-Rehabilitation

Costa Rica Sloth Rescue and Rehabilitation January 30 -- February 27
http://www.realgap.co.uk/Costa-Rica-Sloth-Rescue-and-Conservation

Costa Rica Turtle Conservation (the one here is listed as the Pacific, I'm actually doing the Caribbean--based on the time of year) February 27 -- April 10
http://www.realgap.co.uk/Costa-Rica-Sea-Turtle-Conservation-Pacific

Real Gap is the UK-based company I have been working with over the past few months to put together this itinerary. I would suggest to anyone who ever might be interested in doing some volunteering, work abroad, or adventure travel to check them out. They've been great in helping me plan my trip.

Anyway, I leave in less than a week and there is much to do in terms of packing and gathering together all the little personal items and documents to make sure I'm ready to go. I'm off to London on Thursday night, and from there I head to Singapore and finally get to Sydney on Saturday night. (If you're wondering why I'm heading in that direction, Real Gap starts all their itineraries from London, and in exchange they booked all my fights for me for the rest of the year).

As I travel I hope to post as often as possible. Sometime that may be almost daily, and on other programs I may only have the ability to update everyone once a week. I hope to have plenty of pictures for everyone too, and I'm working on setting up a flickr account. I also hope people feel free to leave comments. Even if you're not a member of blogger you can leave anonymous comments; just make sure to sign them so I know who left some witty comment or advice for the road.

Well that all seems like plenty for the first post. I'm just glad this thing is up and running, and I hope to provide y'all with a couple more posts before I take off next week. For comments and questions feel free to speak your mind below, but everyone always has the option of contacting me directly at my email address. Until the next post...

-Rales