With the major part of the trip planning done, we were now faced with working out the “details”. The first step was getting out personal information to Lindsay at Esplanade Travel. She was kind enough to send us a “travel booking form” that Esplanade had made up, and all we had to do was fill in the blanks. The form its self was straightforward. There were blanks for our addresses / contact information, passport information, credit card number, and a few other items. When she had everyone’s information, she e-mailed us an updated flight itinerary and booked our travel. It was simple and straightforward, and it went off without a hitch.
After the flights were booked, I sent an e-mail to South American Adventure Safaris (SAAS) to advise them of our travel plans. A very nice lady by the name of Patricia sent us what she called an “application form”. Once again, we needed to provide contact, address, passport, and emergency contact information. There was also space for firearm information (if you were going to use your own guns), taxidermist, and customs broker information. I was not planning on having any birds mounted so I left that blank as well. After returning the completed application, I started having second thoughts. There are absolutely gorgeous ducks in South America and, if I was lucky enough to take one, I may want to preserve it. Simple enough – I just edited the form, printed it out and stuck it in with the rest of my paperwork to take along when I left for Argentina. That way, if I changed my mind, I could easily swap the old application for the updated one.
