I stopped working 6 months before leaving (although with three months being paid, hehe) and the first thing I did was sitting together with Adrian, a friend from university and the owner of a cutting edge web-agency (www.zimtkorn.ch). We discussed how the Panmundo.com homepage should look like and what features it should include. Once I knew which route I would follow, I contacted the Swiss office of SOS Children’s Village. I told them about the nature of the trip and asked what I could do to support their good cause. We found many common points and agreed to work together. Then I set of for  Munich and the October Festival and did party there for ten consecutive days (after two years of long working hours this was needed ;-) With the new insights gained in Munich, was ready to address potential sponsors. My hope was to get support from either Land-Rover or Toyota (Toyota would be better - their cars are more reliable :-)… Maybe they would be just too happy to give me a wicked off-road car for the two years trip? Well, not exactly. However, at Toyota’s Swiss subsidiary I met a public relation manager who had the right (adventurous) mind-set. We agreed that Toyota would support panmundo.com and that Toyota would get presence on the panmundo.com homepage. After 8 weeks of phone calls and after printing a colourful brochure describing the whole trip, I finally got a couple of sponsors willing to support the project with their products or services. The homepage was helping a lot – it showed that the whole thing was serious and not just an “one day fly”.

Well, while things got serious, I realized how many things there would be on my to-do-list. Which grew longer every day. I travelled a lot to find the right car (in Switzerland there was not even one LandCruiser of the series I wanted for sale)…After I had bought a wicked LandCruiser HDJ80 i started to plan what it should be equipped with for a trip such as Panmunod.com. Hey - one hell of things. I searched all the well frequented internet blogs about off-road cars, Toyotas, travelling, etc. Many things I happily could buy as second hand items in good shape, others I managed to find sponsors for. Many things were bought at Ebay. It was not only about equiping the car: documents had to be copied, a carnet de passage was needed. After some busy weeks in 2006 I could bring the Toyota to Safenwil where the import company for Switzerland is located. There I watched closely for 3 consequitive days and now I more or less know how to change breakes and oil-filters. Meantime, I had to drink many good-bye beers and say "adios" to my friends. But the time was running by faster than I could notice....