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Alex in Motion

A journal of curiousity & travel
November 16, 2015

What I packed

What does one bring when traveling for year?

Leveraging my own travel experience, and after reading multiple travel blogs (especially those who visited Southeast Asia), I established the following guidelines:

  1. The less the better
  2. You can always buy or drop crap along the way
  3. Plan for a week’s worth of clothes, and wash
  4. Plan in pairs of two

I mostly ignored the first guideline when it came time to actually packing, but that’s because there’s so much technology to bring!

Keep in mind I’m dodging temperatures less than 10C. No winter for me, thanks!

Clothes

  • 7 cotton underwear, including 2 Icebreaker Merino wool underwear
  • 7 cotton socks, including 1 Smartwool socks (great for hiking)
  • 7 cotton t-shirts
  • 2 pairs of pants (jeans and a lighter pair)
  • Northface pants, with zippers that transform into shorts
  • Casual shorts
  • Golf shirt
  • 2 long sleeved shirts (one casual, one dressy)
  • Light sweater with a zipper
  • Light waterproof jacket
  • Reversible black/brown belt
  • Bathing suit
  • Sunglasses
  • Baseball cap
  • Columbia hiking shoes
  • John Varvatos walking shoes
  • Teva sandals (yes, I know they are f-ugly, but they are versatile)
  • Quicksilver flip-flops

Technology

General

  • Arcteryx Altra 65 backpack – red (65L)
  • Spare Arcteryx belt buckle (in case the original breaks)
  • Osprey Flare daypack – black (22L)
  • 2 Ultra-Sil pack covers (since the packs are not waterproof)
  • Rab silk sleeping bag liner (keeps bed bugs away)
  • Cirrus dry sack (10L)
  • 2 Eagle Creek pack-it system (for socks and underwear)
  • Swiss army knife – 14 tools
  • Adventure Medical Kit.5
  • Insect repellent
  • 2 pocket laundry soap (to do laundry in sinks)
  • Bungee clothesline
  • Laundry bag
  • MSR ultralight pack towel
  • Lock & cable
  • Water bottle (1L)
  • Water purification tabs (50 tablets)
  • Purell (60mL)
  • Spare Ziplock bags
  • Plane accessories (inflatable pillow, eye cover, ear plugs)
  • Notepad and pens
  • Playing cards
  • Head light
  • Toiletries

Result:

Just under 45 pounds.

November 14, 2015

Argentinian pesos

There are two currency conversations in Argentina; the official rate and the blue dollar rate. As of today, the official rate is 1 USD to just under 10 ARS, while the blue dollar rate is 1 USD to about 15 ARS. The reason for the double standard is foreign money is very difficult to obtain and inflation has been 30% for the last several years. Individuals are simply willing to offer more than banks.

You can get pesos at the bank, or you can use a number of exchange services. Additionally, walking along some of the main city centre streets, you’ll hear people yelling out, “cambio”, which means they are looking to exchange money. They take you to a back alley to perform the transaction. In many of these cases, the pesos are counterfeit, so I’m thankful I was able to exchange money at a favorable rate with the husband of a niece of a friend of a friend.

It’s not possible to exchange pesos into another currency, so you need to spend all your cash before leaving Argentina.  Balancing this with the fact that nearly everything is paid in cash can be tricky.  My recommendation to anyone visiting Argentina is to exchange about 100 USD into ARS before arriving, and then use a transfer service to exchange the rest of your USD using the blue rate.

Rather than track the double exchange rate to determine the actual cost of things, I’ve decided to use the cost of a pizza to gauge value. After beef, pizza is the second most popular dish, and I love pizza, so why not?!

On my first day, I chewed down a delicious individual-sized pizza with ham and cheese.

  • How much does a cappuccino cost? 1/2 a pizza
  • Groceries for the next few days? 2 pizzas
  • A good steak dinner and bottle of wine? 3 1/2 pizzas

This makes math so much easier 🙂

I’ve also decided to separate my credit card and bank card from cash. This way, if I ever get mugged, I’ll toss over the cash and (hopefully) won’t lose the cards. Since my current wallet was designed for carrying both, I purchased a lightweight card holder, and a sophisticated and stylish money clip.

November 12, 2015

Thank you

The following post was started before my departure, but I wasn’t able to finish it while staying the last few days at my brother’s house. The main reason: when a six year old runs up to you and excitingly asks, “Alex, will you play with me?” it’s really hard to say “no”.

Nevertheless, I would like to take a moment to thank my family and friends for many reasons:

  • For supporting me every step of the way with this big decision
  • For offering all kinds of helpful assistance, including
    • taking care of my furniture
    • storing my personal items
    • managing my mail
    • allowing me to sleep over
  • For hosting awesome goodbye dinners and parties
  • For letting me know they are just a phone call or message away
  • For simply taking the time to wish me well

Several friends also wrote letters and two gave personalized gifts. The first is a compass with the engraving, “To find your way down the unwalked path and back home again”, which cleverly refers to one of my posts.

The second is a ring with the engraving, “I am home wherever I am”. It was slightly too large for my finger, so I added a leather strap and turned it into a necklace.

Admittedly, it would have be great to have slightly more time, as there were a few people I didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to, and a precious few that I would have loved to spend more time with. But most major and wonderful decisions are usually accompanied with minor and undesired shortcomings.

My life has been exhilarating these past few months, filled with a new awareness of the passing of time, and I cherished the moments leading up to Monday. My incredibly large credit card statements in the last two months prove just how much celebrating this translates into, but the time is also filled with memories to last a lifetime.

So, once again, thank you.

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