Reflections on Packing

Life has resumed as normal back at home.  Tanya and Karis are both back at work, although school doesn’t start for the kids until mid August.  But being a teacher means more than just standing in front of 25 middle schoolers.  Fortunately, there is some extra pay that goes with the extra curriculum writing.  Tanya has started up her new hobby right away – wood working.  She was inspired by some of the amazing work we found while abroad.  Karis already has her new running shoes and is back to her horses, as well.  And the dogs are just happy to have their moms home.  We are all trying to hang on to the last bits of Alaska summer.

 

But we haven’t forgotten about our trip.  In fact, we think about it almost every day.  The pile of souvenirs on the kitchen table helps.  It’s been said that you should hang pictures and display items from your vacation because when you look at them, you get the same feeling you had when you were on that trip.  But that’s not the only thing we’re thinking about.  With upcoming travels already in the works, we need to consider some things.  In particular, we need to reflect on what we packed.  What did we need or really want that we didn’t have?  And what did we take that we didn’t need at all?  What are we glad we took?  What are we glad we didn’t bother packing?  Those are the questions we will address in this blog.

We wish we had packed…

Although we anticipated it being cooler than the typical South America sunshine, we did not think that big jackets would be a necessity.  For the most part, we were right.  Ecuador was hot, Galapagos was hot, much of Peru was hot.  But nights were almost always cool, and the majority of our time was spent in places where we needed at minimum a long sleeve shirt.  For a good portion of the trip, Karis wished and wished she had taken her light puffy jacket (the cool yellow one) instead of her blue rain jacket, which got almost no use because it was too big and not that warm.  This may have prompted the purchase of several Peruvian sweaters.

While Karis had five pair of underwear, which was perfect, Tanya only took three Exofficio briefs.  And while they served their purpose very well, laundry day became a problem.  When traveling for more than a week, at least five pair of underwear are necessary, or at least more than three, even of Exofficio.  It makes laundry day much easier and not as often.

We did not need to pack…

Because Tanya is awesome, we stayed in pretty decent hostels and hotels, which meant that there was no need for our silk sleeping liner.  They’re expensive, so we didn’t want to leave them, but they took up a fair amount of space.  We’ll hang on to them for cold camping, but they weren’t necessary for our travels.

We’re always prepared for the worst, I guess.  But we didn’t need so much of a first aid kit.  A few bandaids, maybe a couple travel packs of antibiotic ointment to be safe, but we weren’t camping.  We were going to places with medical care.  And most hostels will give you bandaid if you need it.  Ours just ended up being space takers.  As far as the medicine, we didn’t even use half of what we took.  Karis used up all the Dramamine, and Tanya used some of the Cipro and Diomox.  The Diomox (altitude sickness pills) didn’t help her, though.  The rest was just, again, space takers.  We didn’t need a whole bottle of Ibuprofen, for example.  And although we did use PeptoBismol on occasion, we didn’t need as much as we took.  Sometimes being over-prepared is just being over-prepared.

Within a week of being in South America, we had purchased new shampoo (the liquid kind) and new lotion.  How silly of us to have even packed the bar shampoo and the tiny bottles of lotion.  We weren’t going to the back woods of Mongolia.  Those are things you can buy in a store.  And we were glad we did.  Plus, South America is not nearly as strict about liquids as the U.S.A. is.

While the daypacks we took were nice (this will be in the section of things we are glad we took), Karis did not need to take an extra satchel.  It was a last minute decision, but it served very little purpose, and it didn’t do anything that the daypack couldn’t do, except be a little smaller.  Plus, it’s not like there weren’t cooler ones at the markets anyway (maybe she bought a couple).

Although it sometimes rains most places, it hardly rained at all where we were.  It rained on Easter Island, but only at night, and it rained once in Buenos Aires, but we just stayed in and drank wine that day.  We did not need to take our rain jackets.  They took up a lot of space and they didn’t do us any good.  A better option would have been a water resistant jacket that actually provided warmth (such as the light puffy jacket mentioned earlier).

We are really glad we had…

There were a few things we used every single day, or most days.  One was our bladders and daypacks (which of course had a bladder pocket).  Even though we had to buy all of our drinking water, we poured it into our bladder to make the carrying easier.  This meant not having to reach into our bags every time we needed a sip of water.  We used it whether hiking, biking, or strolling the city streets.

But what else do most Americans use every day?  Computers.  Taking our laptops was not an option.  They’re heavy, and they’re expensive, and we can’t afford to lose them or break them.  So we took tablets.  Karis had a Google Nexus 7, which has a lot of space and connects directly to her Google account.  It was also nice because her camera has wifi, so she was able to send all of her pictures to her tablet, which can easily hold all of her pictures and more.  She also stored several books on the book reader app.  Tanya's is a Samsung Tab 7.0, and the best feature was the SD card slot.  She was able to store all of her photos externally, as well as two SD cards of movies.  And of course this made communication with all of you possible.

You are probably aware by now that we took waterproof cameras.  Planning a trip that included snorkeling in the Galapagos meant that this was an absolute necessity.  Tanya got the Olympus Tough, and Karis had the Panasonic Lumix.  They both had excellent features both in and out of the water.

Along with the cameras, Tanya went ahead and spent the $12 for what has been dubbed the "selfie stick" by other envious travelers.  On one end, we screw on the camera (like a tripod), and then we can stretch out the stick and take pictures of ourselves with the whole background instead of just faces.  And in the good ones, you can't even tell we're taking it ourselves.

Of course, traveling to other countries means that you need a travel adapter.  Karis had one from REI - the different types of plug ins would just pop out of this little box, and there was both a place for the USA plug and a USB.  Tanya's was similar, but a little better.  Not only did it have two USB slots, but there was a light that went off once whatever was charging was finished charging.  It was also firm in every socket.

Although they took up a lot of space, we are really glad we had our own snorkel set.  We ended up leaving them in the Galapagos (it would have cost more to ship them back than they were worth, and we want the dry snorkels so we don't suck in water anymore).  But because we had our own, of course, we didn't have to rent any, and that also meant that we snorkeled for free almost every day we were there.  The cost of getting to various beaches was a taxi ride (averaging at $2) or a simple walk.  We were also really thankful for our rash guards, as the water was cool and the sun was harsh.

We'll probably think of more as time goes on.  In the meantime, stay tuned.  We'll be working on getting videos uploaded and posted.  Also, one last shout out.  An old friend from Indy came to house sit for us for the whole two months.  This was pretty much the best thing, and we are forever grateful.  Anyway, she is now on her own adventure around the world.  You can read about her adventures at willteachfortravel.com.