Before departure

 

There is not way around: it was a messy period. In the month prior to the departure we had to find a new place to live back home, as well as move. It was very intense for two reasons: many tenants did not want us to move in with such a short notice (2-3 weeks after), and it was suspicious that we were looking for a place with so little time. Actually, we planned way in advance and we had a place. We were supposed to move in at the beginning of March, have time to settle, carry out all the bureaucracy, prepare the 3-month stay, and leave. The tenant resigned at the last moment for family/personal reasons. Yaay! More stress and rush! 😐

We managed to do everything in the weekend before our flight, which was on Tuesday after Easter.  All the bureaucracy could not be officially carried out, and it will be done upon our return among the mountains. 

As understandable, this did not give us much time to plan our stay in French Guyana. One of the most important things is that I had not time enough to update all my vaccinations: this gave me huge anxiety. Working in healthcare I know how important this is, especially growing older. I have gone through this process several times in my life, most notably for my internships around the world. On the other hand, I have never felt so anxious about a journey. That is true, I have been to Singapore in this situation back in 2019 and did not feel so bad. It was five years ago, and I was younger and reckless. In the meantime, there has been a huge pandemic, that I have lived very close in the ICU at work.

It removed the usual and great “prior-to-departure” joy and excitement. One more thing: unfortunately, I had decided to focus on the hazards of French Guyana (spiders, snakes, mosquitoes, etc.). This was an unconscious process, and it seems to be hitting me now that I am approaching the 35 years of age. I have never been like this before. I suppose I am gently getting mature and seeing all the things that may go wrong. This made me rather nervous and I owe an apology to my partner in crime: my girlfriend. I am so sorry for this.🙇

To sum up: the weekend before the departure we moved all the furniture. It was way more than we thought we had. That meant disassembling them (thank you Ikea for making easy-to-assemble/disassemble furniture), packing them in the van, drive 150km (for many countries it is not a big deal but it takes its time, especially on a full van), remove them and put them in the garage of the new apartment. Oh yes! I forgot to mention: we got the access to the garage in advance but not to the apartment, despite the owner agreed. The real estate agency did not, so we will officially move in the afternoon after landing from our three month stay in French Guyana. Once the apartment was empty we cleaned it and repaired the wholes in the wall. At the end of the day, we did the visit with the real estate agency managing the old apartment to hand the keys over and sped off to our hotel next to the airport, where we spent the night before the departure. Unfortunately, the hotel was unexpectedly far from the airport. Geographically close, but public transport-wise not.

The day of the departure we had a very early start, but it felt like a brand new start. That's when the excitement started to kick in. It must have been the fact that we knew that we would be on the plane for 9 hours, we could catch up with the lost sleep of the previous days, watch TV to get any thought out of our mind and we would be served two meals. 

Have you ever moved? Have you ever been surprised by the amount of belongings you have stored in the meantime? Let me know here below! 😊

Location: Cayenne 97300, Guyana francese

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