Preparation Worldtrip

For us, it was clear, that there is a huge step to take, between the dream of a worldtrip and the termination of the jobs, the apartment and the sale of all possessions. We underestimated the effort until then completely.

What tent do we need? Which sleeping bags do we take? Which motorcycles do we need? Which parts do we need for the motorcyles? What about insurances? Which insurances can we put on hold, which ones do we cancel and which ones we keep running? What camping equipment do we need? Which stove is best? Do we need a tripod? If yes, which one? Questions about questions that had to be researched for hours.

Preparing the trip and setting up a homepage, besides a full-time job, is a huge project. Nici´s Father once said: "What you are planning is almost like an expedition". It felt exactly that way.

Also, the emotional aspect exceeded all our expectations. Saying goodbye to family and friends for such a long time was like a roller coaster of emotions. "What are we actually doing here? Is it really worth it?" We didn´t ask ourselves these questions just once.

After a short research, we decided to ship the bikes over with In Time Ham (https://www.intime-ham.com). The contact with Olaf was great and our questions were answered immediately. So we fixed our shipment to Valparaiso / Chile in a collective container. The plan was to go from Patagonia to Alaska, but the shipping turned out to be very complicated, complex and expensive. That´s the reason why we shipped over to Valparaiso. Olaf, thank you very much that we were allowed to ship our surfboard in the container, too!

For the Darian Gap, we will probably prefer the air freight. The sailing boat "Stahlratte" is not sailing at that time and all other possibilities seems to be suspicious (unfortunately you can read in many blogs).
(Update 25.04.2019: We finally decided to ship with a collective container from Cartagena to Colón with Seaboard. We sailed with blue sailing. How it was, you can read in our travel blog.)

If we can afford it financially, we will ship from Vancouver/Canada, to Australia. Otherwise, we send the bikes back to Hamburg and move on with the backpack to Down Under.
(Update July 2020: Due to the pandemic we had to ship the motorcycles earlier than expected from Los Angeles to Bremerhaven. We decided to ship with CFR Rinkens).

After a long research and comparison we have decided to take the long-term foreign health insurance of the "ADAC". Hanse Merkur, WorldNomads and Pro Trip were also in consideration.

For South America (Chile, Peru, Argentina, Bolivia) we took an insurance policy with "Abgefahren" (info@abgefahren.info). You have to pay a fee per insurance contract and per extension. The service was quite fast and also in german. Four months were 80 € per motorcycle.

For the remaining countries in Central and South America, we took a motorcycle insurance upon entry and if required.

I don't know how many hours we've been researching the internet on this subject. In the end we decided against it, because nobody ever needed the carnet on this route (Panamericana). If we will drive through Australia with the motorcycles (there the Carnet is mandatory), we will apply for it on the way.
(Update 23.09.2020: We are already in the USA and since our beginning in Chile no one wanted to see a Carnet de Passage.)

We continue to run the following insurance policies:

• disability insurance
• accident insurance
• motorcycle insurance in Germany, Tipp: reduce the policy to a minimum
• privat pension insurance
• liability insurance
• legal costs insurance

Everything else we put on hold or terminated.

For all countries in South and Central America you get a visa for 90 days on entry. For Mexico you get 180 days (but you have to ask for it).

The same applies for USA and Canada. If you want to stay longer, you have to apply online.
We will apply for the visa for Australia and New Zealand on the road. Unfortunately we are too old for the Work and
Travel Visa. We will share more of our experiences from time to time.