Dusty roads and questionable transportation in Nicaragua
A little over a year ago, I left on my first extensive trip to Hawaii and Central America - Mexico, Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Even though I had traveled quite a bit before, I've never had to plan and pack for a trip like this one. On previous trips, I had the luxury of a car and the ability to do day trips with less gear in between. I had an idea about how to start packing due to my experience backpacking and camping in the mountains, but I was still left with the question what do I pack for this trip?
I knew that I really wanted to limit my gear to only carry on items on the plane (one over head and one under the seat). I didn't want to pay for a check on bag, and I wanted to carry only what I thought was necessary. After all I wasn't lugging gear just through an airport to a destination. I walked with my backpack through cities, from bus to taxi, from taxi to boat, boat to hostel and everywhere in between. It was much easier to have less stuff.
To give an example, I remember standing at the border between Costa Rica and Panama in the pouring rain and had to help these two girls out of a shuttle. Being tall, the driver could hand me luggage off the roof rack to hand out belongings. The driver hands me two huge backpacks full of gear and then two really heavy roller bags with gear. The two girls come and grab their stuff and proceed to drag their roller bags through muddy puddles for a couple hours as we made the border crossing. With that being said, I carried a 36 liter backpack (it fits in the overhead compartment if not overstuffed) and a smaller backpack.
Precarious packing in Panama
Everything I carried on my trip through Central America
When packing for a trip, I found that it was incredibly important to pack things that are multi use. For example I like to carry a sarong because it works as a towel, a shirt, shade cover, and many more things. Plus it's incredibly light and takes up hardly any space. This also means that you need to pack efficiently. How much clothes do you really need to bring for the tropics? Do you need several pairs of pants? Does it get cold? Yes, the mountains in Costa Rica and Panama get cold.
Place things in a way that don't take up much space. This also means thinking ahead in terms of what gear goes where in your pack. For example in Panama you might not want your rain jacket at the bottom of your bag for when a rain squall comes through.
Some important items that are incredibly valuable when traveling are a first aid kit that has neosporin, ibuprofen, bandaids, and even a round of antibiotics. As for the antibiotics, I don't recommend taking them unless absolutely necessary. However, I ended up having to take them in Mexico when I got salmonella due to an outbreak in the town. With that being said I'm glad I had them because many people had to go to the hospital.
Some other things that are I found to be important is tuna cord or some other heavy duty cord for when someone needs extra luggage tie downs. It also comes in handy for a clothesline, fixing broken backpack straps (zip ties work too), and countless other things (remember multi use). A couple trash bags are key as well. Trash bags work as a rainfly for your backpacks, cutting some holes in one turns it into a rain jacket, and once in a blue moon it's nice to have the ability to carry more stuff.
With that being said, I hope this helps to answer some important questions about what to pack when traveling for an extensive amount of time. Of course, every destination is going to be different. I wouldn't pack the same for Nepal or New Zealand as I did for Central America. But packing is part of the fun of traveling and I look forward to getting better at it in the years to come. As always feel free to ask any questions.
Suddenly my bags in the back don't seem very big...
