¶ packing notes (and gear review) · 14 December 2004
After testing on our Costa Rica trip, I feel fairly confident about this minimal packing list for anything up to two or three weeks in comparable climate:
two pairs of underwear
two short-sleeve shirts
one pair of long pants
one pair of short pants
one swim suit (for hotel hot-tub use only)
two pairs of socks
one pair of proven trail/walk-forever shoes
one pair of sport sandals
one dorky sun hat
one pair of sunglasses
one light rain shell
minimal toiletries/first-aid/meds
sunscreen and bug repellent
small pack-towel or kanga
watch with alarm
money belt
appropriate currency, cards and/or travelers checks as needed
passport
paperwork (reservation numbers, itinerary, etc.)
backpack with space for acquisitions
and then all the weight:
your favorite guide-book to where you're going
language dictionary (if applicable)
one reading book
one small notebook and pen
camera, media, batteries, case
binoculars (shared)
Several caveats inevitably apply. I actually brought a third set of underwear, socks and shirt, but only wore them on the plane home for scent considerations, which slightly better laundry planning could easily have alleviated. I brought a long-sleeve shirt, but only ended up wearing it to and from the airport in Boston. I brought a razor, which is obviously expendable. I brought twice as many camera batteries as I ended up needing, but I'd only just got the camera so I knew I was guessing. And I never wore the sun hat, but should have a couple times.
The only piece of gear that failed me significantly was the sandals, a pair of chunky elastic-strap Nike ACGs that had always worked well as light-duty water shoes and general-purpose summer wear, but turned out to be dreadful for walking distances while wet, and by the end of the trip had torn up my feet pretty badly. Next trip I will probably revert to Tevas, which would also have the virtue of packing flatter. I believe those sandals were my final surviving item of Nike apparel, bring a misguided phase in my shopping life to a welcome close.
I'm not entirely satisfied with my choice of shirts yet. I brought one fancy Ex-Officio nylon one ("17 countries. 6 weeks. One T-shirt.", beckoned the package.) and one slightly thicker polyester one. The nylon one was much more comfortable in humid conditions, and dried much faster after washing, but it also seemed unnecessarily fragile, constantly catching on packs and other clothing and developing dozens of micro-tears that left me looking a little chewed. I suspect it would be an ideal under-shirt, but in single-layer climates I'd rather something more durable. The poly one, though, was both warmer than I needed and slow to dry. I will keep experimenting. Possibly I've been underestimating buttons.
The rest of my gear, however, performed admirably. Ex-Officio's briefs (from the same line as the T-shirt) were unfailingly comfortable and trivial to wash, and next time I'll bring two of those. My shorts were Ex-Officio, too (Amphi), and in a beach setting might happily have been my only pants. Between city conservatism and rain-forest fauna, though, I ended up wearing a pair of Prana Titan long pants most of the time, and on a cooler trip might consider bringing nothing else, as they seem to be inexplicably self-cleaning, and despite repeated application of jungle mud and empanada grease still looked uncannily untouched when we got back home. Dual-entry cargo pockets, incidentally, are not a gimmick, and I quickly developed a shuffling motion that allowed me to expediently get out of the way of beligerent San Jose traffic despite carrying an impressive array of things at knee-level.
The only time I noticed the Coolmax light-hiking socks was when I wasn't wearing them, and even at the end after my sandals had done their damage, as soon as I put socks on again I was fine. My pair of Merrell Chameleon Stretch shoes are now close to retirement, after long service, but were no more fazed by rain-forest trails than they had been by Las Ramblas or the Louvre. My REI Ultra Light rain shell got less use than "rain forest" might imply, but rolls up nicely into its own stuff-sack.
Easily the best piece of gear, though, was the new digital camera, a weather-tight Pentax Optio 43WR that B bought me and us as a wedding present. The weather-resistance is its defining character-trait (it's not intended for underwater shooting, but it can withstand semi-prolonged immersion and any amount of rain, so I had it out when my other cameras would have been in sealed bags), but in pre-trip A/B tests I found that it produced consistently better still images than my aging Nikon Coolpix 990 (even, startlingly, at macro lengths), as well as much better movies, with the considerable additional virtues of weighing a good deal less and consuming exponentially fewer batteries. For a $350 point-and-shoot camera it offers an unexpected amount of control, including a quirky but extremely useful manual-focus mode, and although my attempts at digiscoping on the trip weren't very successful, I'm pretty sure the camera is capable of better results with better binoculars. All the posted trip photos were taken with this, so you can make up your own mind about its performance. B's only complaint was that she missed some shots due to its relatively slow shooting speed, and my only complaint was that I missed some shots due to her borrowing it.
I wish I could report on the efficacy of our bug repellent, but I can't, really. There never seemed to be enough insects to merit DEET usage, and although I wore our usual Repel Lemon Eucalyptus repellent sporadically and still got bit by plenty of things, I have no clear idea whether I'd have been bit less if I'd used more of that or anything else, or vice versa. In areas of higher disease risk this would bear more thought and research.
Guide-wise, we brought a whole Frommer's book because it was the newest of the ones we had, some Xeroxed pages from a friend's Lonely Planet guide, and the San Jose section sliced out of a slightly older Rough Guide. Of these we ended up using the Rough Guide chapter most often. None of the three, however, proved capable of either revealing the elusive Serpentario, or at least identifying its location with sufficient clarity that we could be sure we weren't repeatedly walking past it without noticing.
Currency-wise, we actually brought the bulk of our funds in travelers checks this time, which seems anachronistic but saved us high Costa Rican credit-card surcharges on hotel bills. For daily expenses in San Jose, at least, you can just arrive with US money. You'll get colones as change, but in our experience dollars were accepted for everything down to $1.25-worth (i.e. a huge bag) of weird Hungarian chocolate bars.
Lastly, although it might be tempting to save a few ounces by ditching the alarm-watch if you know that you're going to be awoken at dawn by howler monkeys every day anyway, keep in mind that if the sun sets before six and dinner is not until seven, there will be a daily period during which you, or somebody with whom you are traveling, may experience a frequent recurring need to verify that time is still flowing properly.
two pairs of underwear
two short-sleeve shirts
one pair of long pants
one pair of short pants
one swim suit (for hotel hot-tub use only)
two pairs of socks
one pair of proven trail/walk-forever shoes
one pair of sport sandals
one dorky sun hat
one pair of sunglasses
one light rain shell
minimal toiletries/first-aid/meds
sunscreen and bug repellent
small pack-towel or kanga
watch with alarm
money belt
appropriate currency, cards and/or travelers checks as needed
passport
paperwork (reservation numbers, itinerary, etc.)
backpack with space for acquisitions
and then all the weight:
your favorite guide-book to where you're going
language dictionary (if applicable)
one reading book
one small notebook and pen
camera, media, batteries, case
binoculars (shared)
Several caveats inevitably apply. I actually brought a third set of underwear, socks and shirt, but only wore them on the plane home for scent considerations, which slightly better laundry planning could easily have alleviated. I brought a long-sleeve shirt, but only ended up wearing it to and from the airport in Boston. I brought a razor, which is obviously expendable. I brought twice as many camera batteries as I ended up needing, but I'd only just got the camera so I knew I was guessing. And I never wore the sun hat, but should have a couple times.
The only piece of gear that failed me significantly was the sandals, a pair of chunky elastic-strap Nike ACGs that had always worked well as light-duty water shoes and general-purpose summer wear, but turned out to be dreadful for walking distances while wet, and by the end of the trip had torn up my feet pretty badly. Next trip I will probably revert to Tevas, which would also have the virtue of packing flatter. I believe those sandals were my final surviving item of Nike apparel, bring a misguided phase in my shopping life to a welcome close.
I'm not entirely satisfied with my choice of shirts yet. I brought one fancy Ex-Officio nylon one ("17 countries. 6 weeks. One T-shirt.", beckoned the package.) and one slightly thicker polyester one. The nylon one was much more comfortable in humid conditions, and dried much faster after washing, but it also seemed unnecessarily fragile, constantly catching on packs and other clothing and developing dozens of micro-tears that left me looking a little chewed. I suspect it would be an ideal under-shirt, but in single-layer climates I'd rather something more durable. The poly one, though, was both warmer than I needed and slow to dry. I will keep experimenting. Possibly I've been underestimating buttons.
The rest of my gear, however, performed admirably. Ex-Officio's briefs (from the same line as the T-shirt) were unfailingly comfortable and trivial to wash, and next time I'll bring two of those. My shorts were Ex-Officio, too (Amphi), and in a beach setting might happily have been my only pants. Between city conservatism and rain-forest fauna, though, I ended up wearing a pair of Prana Titan long pants most of the time, and on a cooler trip might consider bringing nothing else, as they seem to be inexplicably self-cleaning, and despite repeated application of jungle mud and empanada grease still looked uncannily untouched when we got back home. Dual-entry cargo pockets, incidentally, are not a gimmick, and I quickly developed a shuffling motion that allowed me to expediently get out of the way of beligerent San Jose traffic despite carrying an impressive array of things at knee-level.
The only time I noticed the Coolmax light-hiking socks was when I wasn't wearing them, and even at the end after my sandals had done their damage, as soon as I put socks on again I was fine. My pair of Merrell Chameleon Stretch shoes are now close to retirement, after long service, but were no more fazed by rain-forest trails than they had been by Las Ramblas or the Louvre. My REI Ultra Light rain shell got less use than "rain forest" might imply, but rolls up nicely into its own stuff-sack.
Easily the best piece of gear, though, was the new digital camera, a weather-tight Pentax Optio 43WR that B bought me and us as a wedding present. The weather-resistance is its defining character-trait (it's not intended for underwater shooting, but it can withstand semi-prolonged immersion and any amount of rain, so I had it out when my other cameras would have been in sealed bags), but in pre-trip A/B tests I found that it produced consistently better still images than my aging Nikon Coolpix 990 (even, startlingly, at macro lengths), as well as much better movies, with the considerable additional virtues of weighing a good deal less and consuming exponentially fewer batteries. For a $350 point-and-shoot camera it offers an unexpected amount of control, including a quirky but extremely useful manual-focus mode, and although my attempts at digiscoping on the trip weren't very successful, I'm pretty sure the camera is capable of better results with better binoculars. All the posted trip photos were taken with this, so you can make up your own mind about its performance. B's only complaint was that she missed some shots due to its relatively slow shooting speed, and my only complaint was that I missed some shots due to her borrowing it.
I wish I could report on the efficacy of our bug repellent, but I can't, really. There never seemed to be enough insects to merit DEET usage, and although I wore our usual Repel Lemon Eucalyptus repellent sporadically and still got bit by plenty of things, I have no clear idea whether I'd have been bit less if I'd used more of that or anything else, or vice versa. In areas of higher disease risk this would bear more thought and research.
Guide-wise, we brought a whole Frommer's book because it was the newest of the ones we had, some Xeroxed pages from a friend's Lonely Planet guide, and the San Jose section sliced out of a slightly older Rough Guide. Of these we ended up using the Rough Guide chapter most often. None of the three, however, proved capable of either revealing the elusive Serpentario, or at least identifying its location with sufficient clarity that we could be sure we weren't repeatedly walking past it without noticing.
Currency-wise, we actually brought the bulk of our funds in travelers checks this time, which seems anachronistic but saved us high Costa Rican credit-card surcharges on hotel bills. For daily expenses in San Jose, at least, you can just arrive with US money. You'll get colones as change, but in our experience dollars were accepted for everything down to $1.25-worth (i.e. a huge bag) of weird Hungarian chocolate bars.
Lastly, although it might be tempting to save a few ounces by ditching the alarm-watch if you know that you're going to be awoken at dawn by howler monkeys every day anyway, keep in mind that if the sun sets before six and dinner is not until seven, there will be a daily period during which you, or somebody with whom you are traveling, may experience a frequent recurring need to verify that time is still flowing properly.