One of my friends, Barry, is going hiking in the Alps and has set up his blog as well. We are both experimenting with blogging for our trips and for use in developing online courses. His information is very well stated and totally matches what I am doing in this blog. I'm including it here for your info so you can see what we are doing. You can check out his blog at http://online2.org/alps

"One week until departure. We've been planning the trip over the past 6 months and we're finally there. In order to keep in contact and share some of our experiences I decided to experiment with Blogging. Seemed like a great tool for the job. It's nothing more than a web page that can be updated with text, pics, etc. from anywhere in the world. As long as one can type text and browse/upload pics then the Blog tools take care of the rest. You can even post Comments if you wish. They are moderated, which means they get sent to me first then I accept/reject the post. Since the web site is open to anyone, this seemed wise. If you wish to be removed from this Gmail Group, let me know. I sure don't want to add unwanted emails to your Inbox. But, by posting the above URL, simply Bookmark/Favorite it if you wish, and the emails should be minimal. I'm still experimenting with the site. I've been working with a team from Yackpack for the past three years and decided to integrate some of their tools into the site. It allows me to record/post audio as well as use a new feature called WalkieTalkie Widget. This cool technology uses what is called VOiP (VOice over IP). Anyone with a microphone can press the Live button and talk. Anyone currently visiting the site can listen. I plan on setting up times where I'll be online and can visit live with anyone in the world (which mainly means my friends back home). Best of all, it's free." So if we want to talk using this system instead of trying to get cell phones to work on some island in the Pacific, the VOiP system will be helpful. You just need to get a cheap mike and make sure it works. Here is what you need to do to test the mic:
HELP for setting up microphone ...
http://www.yackpack.com/showmehow/index.html