Spring has arrived and the time has come for me to hit the road. The year is quickly passing and I have countries to visit!

I’m celebrating the warm weather with a trip to the Caribbean and South America to visit 8 new countries, bringing the country count to 134!

After countless hours of research for flights, overland travel, itineraries, and sights, I’ve come up with this finalized itinerary broken up in two parts. The trip title is inspired by the Caribbean island hopping and the hours of road travel up ahead in South America.

Part I: Grenada, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Dominica

Caribbean islands are not too difficult to get to if you are booking a roundtrip from a major city, but they are surprisingly challenging to navigate if hopping from island to island due to costs and routes often with several layovers.

Eventually I booked a multi-destination roundtrip from New York to Grenada, then Antigua back to New York with American Airlines.

To connect those flights, I booked two more itineraries with Liat, a one-way, Grenada to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and a multi-destination, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines to Dominica then to Antigua.

Part II: Ecuador, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago

After a few days back in New York, I set off to complete the countries of South America, starting in Ecuador. As I was flying directly to Venezuela from Ecuador, I purchased two mileage tickets with American Airlines and United.

In Ecuador, I hope to squeeze in a potential last minute Galapagos tour and a climb of Cotopaxi.

Then I headed to Caracas and will look into a tour of Angel Falls. If everything goes as planned, I’ll be able to take the land border into Guyana, passing through Brazil.

From Guyana, I would travel by land to Suriname and then to French Guiana. As the name suggests, French Guiana is a French territory and not a country. But I might as well check it out while in the area.

From Cayenne, I’d fly to Trinidad and Tobago with Suriname Airlines and spend a day before flying back to New York with American Airlines.

The complete flight itinerary looks like this:
Part I
EWR – MIA – GND
GND – SVD
SVD – BGI – ANU – DOM
DOM – ANU
ANU – JFK

Part II
EWR – UIO
UIO – GYE – GPS
GPS – GYE – UIO
UIO – CCS
CCS – PZO
CAY – PBM – POS
POS – MIA – JFK

Preparation

Besides research, booking flights, and getting in touch with some great sponsors, I haven’t made too many other preparations.

Suriname Tourist Card
The one country where I need a visa is Suriname. I found they also have a fairly new program that issues a $25 Tourist Card for tourists of certain nationalities. This can be obtained at embassies and Paramaribo airport like a visa on arrival, but not at land borders. As I planned to traverse Suriname by land, I needed to apply ahead of time which involved sending a copy of my passport, an itinerary, a money order for $25 and a prepaid envelope to their Miami consulate.

Surprisingly the consulate was very efficient. I sent out the package by USPS priority on Friday afternoon and received it on Wednesday.

There’s still much to do for this trip and I imagine a large portion of the trip will be spontaneous. I’m looking forward to some incredible sights and new experiences.

Follow along at #CaribIslesLatinMiles!