Packing for the next 8 months (I think)
Trip Start
Mar 09, 2007
1
169
Trip End
??? ??, 2008
San Jose,
Costa Rica
Friday, March 9, 2007
Costa Rica has very much turned into a home for me over the past three months. I was living with Silvia, a Tica, who has been a friend of my family since longer than I have been alive. Silvia was awesome and extremely helpful and I left feeling that I had no real way of showing her how thankful I was for all of her help. She is the one that made it feel like a home and I thank her very much for that.
The time has come though to leave home and to start my travels into South America. From here I fly into Colombia to meet two really good friends of mine from Austin, Darin and Claudia. Darin and Claudia have been two really good friends of mine for some time now, but they didnīt really know each other. It was during one of my going away shenanigans that I introduced the two again and they have now been dating as long as I have been gone (10 months, damn time flies). The short of it is that Claudia is from Bogota, Colombia and all of her family is still there. We had talked about meeting up when I get close and the time has come. So I will be hanging out with Darin and Claudia for two weeks or so (Darin leaves a bit earlier).
I have spent the last few days in Costa Rica cleaning up, running errands and packing my bag. I have been kind of spoiled in the past because I have always had a bit of a home base in all the spots that I have been and this allowed me to travel extremely light. In Europe, I returned to my momīs place in Switzerland every 4 to 6 weeks, so I could pack different things depending on where I would be going. And in Costa Rica, I lived with Silvia and I was never gone for more than 2 weeks.
Its a bit more tricky this time around since I donīt really know how long I will be gone for (it is currently set at about 8-10 months, but I have a feeling this is gonna get extended further out or until money runs out). I will have to be prepared for warm weather (beaches and warm climates) as well as cold weather (mountains and snow).
I have sadly decided to leave my surf board in Costa Rica for two reasons: 1) to bring it on the plane from Costa Rica to Colombia will cost me 50bucks which is half the price of the board and 2) I won't get to use it the first two months and I didnīt feel like lugging it around. I will see that when I get into surfing countries, that I can pick one up, until then it will make traveling and moving around much easier.
So what am I bringing? Here is the list:
1 pair of hiking boots
1 pair of sneakers
1 pair of Chacos
1 set of hair clippers (I might get rid of these pretty fast)
1 windbreaker/not-really-waterproof-anymore jacket
1 fleece sweater (almost didnīt bring this)
1 long sleeve fleece shirt (thanks Oli and Erin!)
2 quick dry t-shirts
1 normal t-shirt (this is the nicest shirt that I have to wear)
2 pairs of quick-dry underwear (yup, only two)
4 pairs of quick-dry socks
1 pair of shorts
1 pair of pants
1 pair of quick-dry hiking pants
1 small summer sleeping bag (smaller than a football)
1 bag of toiletries
1 bag of electronics (battery chargers, headlamp, etc)
some books (two books, a guide book, and a Spanish reference)
1 towel
1 hat
1 bottle of Blue GoldBond (donīt ever leave home without it)
And of course my Nikon D50 DSLR, my iPod and my journal are coming along as well. There was a big debate in my head whether to bring the fleece sweater or not, I opted for a bit more of warmth and comfort. I was also debating whether to bring one pair or two pairs of pants, I opted for two since they are for two totally different purposes. I will probably ditch the hiking boots somewhere along the way since they have some good weight to them and they are probably almost 10 years old.
Overall the pack is pretty small and actually not heavy, its pretty light. There is tons of room still left in the actual pack, so I can afford to pack a few souvenirs from time to time and send a package home, so its good to have the extra space for that or anything else that I might need. Ideally I wanted it a bit smaller, but Chelsea said that it was a pretty damn small pack for where I was going and for how long, so I guess thats good to know.
