How to Pack for 3 Months

Our sweet send-off note from our friends

How do you pack a backpack for three months, you might ask? A few people have asked us this question recently, so I searched my computer and found this packing list I made the week before we left for South America. (And although this post feels long overdue, I decided to put it up anyway since it was all typed up and ready to go!)

Now, I am not in any way saying that we are experts in the area of packing. 

We probably could have gotten away with far less than what we brought. But we also could have packed much more… Roller suitcase, anyone? 

We can say, though, that we felt prepared for just about every situation we encountered. Plus, we were both pretty proud that we were able to carry everything on our backs, with room to spare – thanks in part to our amazing, magical packing cubes.

These pictures say it all:

Katie's clothes before...

...and all squashed down in the packing cubes! Yes, this is ALL OF MY CLOTHES! 

Ben's Clothes...

... and all squished down!

Oh, and don't forget food! We brought some dried fruit, trail mix, beef jerky and Cliff bars... which lasted all of four days... 

So that's everything! It all fit in two big backpacks and two day packs!

Our Packing List

The Gear:

Our tried and true packs (70 L Osprey backpack - Ben; 65 L Deuter backpack - Katie)

2 small day packs

8 Eagle Creek Packing Cubes. Best. Invention. Ever. (Just check out those pictures!)

Katie

Tops:

7 basic tanks (This was too many! They packed up super small, so it wasn't too big of a deal but next time I would bring less.)

1 dressy tank top

2 athletic tank tops

3 t-shirts

1 long sleeve “nice-ish” shirt

1 long sleeve athletic shirt

1 zip-up hoodie

1 cardigan

1 lightweight dress

Bottoms:

1 pair yoga pants

1 pair leggings

1 pair lightweight trekking pants

1 pair Nike leggings

1 pair jean shorts

2 pairs athletic shorts

1 pair jeans

1 short skirt

1 long skirt

Undergarments:

12 pairs of underwear

3 lightweight socks

2 wool socks

3 sports bras

2 regular bras

2 swim suits 

Shoes:

Hiking Boots

Lightweight sneakers

Dressy sandals

Comfy flats

Shower sandals

Outerwear:

Raincoat

Columbia Omniheat Shell Jacket

Accessories:

3 pairs of earrings

2 necklaces

2 headbands

Watch

Toiletries:

Shampoo & conditioner

Bar of soap

Face wash

Facial wipes

Vaseline 

Deodorant

Collapsible toothbrush

Toothpaste

Dental floss

Razor and extra blade

Hand sanitizer

Tweezers

Nail clippers

Nail file

Lotion

Small mirror

Hair elastics

Bobby pins

Collapsible travel hair brush

Small solid perfume

A couple makeup items: waterproof mascara, chapstick, etc.

Miscellaneous items

Ben

Shirts:

7 t-shirts 

3 tank tops

1 long sleeve shirt

1 quarter zip long sleeve

Pants/Shorts:

1 athletic shorts 

1 pair of dress shorts

1 pair of jeans

1 pair of hiking pants

Undergarments:

10 boxer/briefs

4 light socks

2 wool socks

1 swim suit

Shoes:

Hiking boots

Lightweight sneakers

Pair of Vans

Sandals

Outerwear:

Raincoat - Later stolen :(

Columbia Shell Jacket

Toiletries:

Shampoo

Bar of soap

Deodorant

Chapstick

Face wipes

Collapsible toothbrush

Toothpaste

Dental floss

Electric trimmer

Electronics:

Asus Q200E Laptop (11”)

GoPro Hero 3 and accessories

Nikon D90

Canon Powershot Point and Shoot

2 Kindle Paperlight

iPhone 5

iPod (Ben’s ancient one, so old it has a wheel… Remember those?!)

2 pair of headphones each

Chargers for all

Medicine:

Diamox (for altitude sickness) - never used this 

Dramamine (for motion sickness) - never used this

PSI bands (these plastic bands are worn on pressure points on your wrist to alleviate motion sickness)

Ibuprophuen

Stoppers and Goers (if you don’t know what that is, look it up) - never used this

Tums

Antibiotics

Neosporin

First Aid Kit (Super compact kit from REI that has EVERYTHING we could possibly need. And more.)

Important Documents:

Passports

Extra passport photos

Vaccination documentation (we got the vaccination for Yellow Fever and Typhoid)

Credit cards

Copies of all documents saved in "the cloud"

Don't forget vaccinations!

“Luxury” Items:

Collapsible cups

Bottle opener

Harmonica

ENO Hammock (this was one of our favorite wedding presents! Although we only used it a couple times, it was amazing!)

  

Other:

SteriPen (Sterilizes 1 liter of water in 90 seconds using UV light. This was one of the best purchases we made before our trip. We saved tons of money because we rarely had to buy bottled water!)

2 Headlamps

2 REI super absorbent travel towels

Mini lantern

Leatherman

Rope

2 large combination locks

2 small combination locks

4 carabineers

Deck of playing card

Spanish Phrase Book

2 Notebooks and pens

Non-Packable Items:

Amazon Cloud account - This is where we backed up all our pictures and important documents

Traveler’s Insurance (for roughly $70, we were both covered for three months with traveler's insurance. Although we would really only be able to use it during emergency situations, it made us feel better knowing we would be covered if something went terribly wrong. Plus, when we had a few things stolen, our insurance reimbursed us for some of the cost.)

Our Trip in Numbers

Being married to a nerdy engineer has its perks. One of them is that he kept track of each mode of transportation and each type of lodging we stayed in while in South America.

This information isn’t useful for much other than freaking out our less adventurous friends and family with the number of beds we stayed in.

So without further adieu, here are the stats from our South American Adventure:

General Numbers

Days traveled: 91

Countries visited: 4
Cities explored: 33

Distance Traveled: 13,260 miles (21,340 km)

Times we got sick: Katie – 2, Ben – 0

Spanish words learned: muchos

Vaccines Needed: 2 (yellow fever and typhoid)

Borders Crossed: 3

Items Stolen: 4

Most empanadas consumed in one sitting: 6

Longest bus ride: 18 hours
Number of times we got lost: Ummm...

Pictures taken: 1,335,654,422,981

Lodging

Hostels/hotels/bungalows/bunkhouses slept in: 34              

Nights spent in Tents: 4

Transportation:

Airplanes: 11

Buses: 44

Taxis: too many to count!

Night Buses: 7

Boats: 23

Cable Cars: 4

Times we Hitchhiked: once

Back to “Normal” Life… For Now

We have truly fallen in love with South America.

Returning home to the United States after three months of traveling was not nearly as much of a culture shock as we had expected. In fact, we seemed to return to life as normal without missing a beat.

Well, maybe we missed a few beats… I guess we did have a short “transition period”.

Our biggest adjustments have been remembering not to throw toilet paper in the garbage, getting used to not spending every waking minute together, and to say “thank you” instead of “gracias”.

Our journey home began with an hour-long cab ride to the airport outside of La Paz. Halfway through the ride, our car got pulled over by the police.

For speeding.

In three months, we hadn’t seen any cops paying any attention to how fast people were driving, much less pulling them over.

With just a quick warning, our driver returned to the car laughing and we continued to the airport.

In the past, the La Paz airport was known as being frequented by drug traffickers. Many a kilo of cocaine has made it through those doors.

They have cracked down quite a bit in recent years, but as we found out, the security is not quite as thorough as in the United States (though I can’t think of many countries that are).

As soon as my backpack went through the x-ray machine, the woman working

security grabbed it and explained she would have to look through it. She opened the zippers and used her hand to feel in each compartment, but didn’t seem to be finding what she was looking for. She pointed to the computer screen and whispered something to the other agents. After a couple for failed attempts to find whatever she was looking at on the screen, she let us go.

I brushed it off, and we boarded our plane. Hours later, as we were about to touch down in Lima, Peru, I opened the front compartment on my backpack looking to find a snack. Instead, my fingers made contact with a large knife we thought we had lost just days before.

“Crap,” I whispered to Ben, “What are we going to do?!”

After disembarking the plane, we were immediately herded into the customs line where we had to send our belongings through the x-ray machines again.

We decided we had only one option. Ben snuck over to a garbage can, leaned over, and discretely threw the knife inside.

Our reasoning was that a lost knife is better than being detained.

After more than 26 hours of flying on four different planes, we finally touched down in Minneapolis.

Home, sweet home.

Our breakfast in the Chicago airport. Welcome to America!

We were greeted at the airport by my parents who told us they had an endless amount of craft beer and artisan cheese – the items we missed most during our travels – waiting for us at their house.

Thank God for parents!

Now that we are finally back to having a routine, and I can tell you we both desperately miss the utter chaos of traveling.

We were blessed to meet incredible people from all over the world who we now call our friends. And we saw some of the most amazing places. From the sandy Caribbean beaches in Colombia, to the Amazon Jungle in Bolivia, we were constantly stunned by how beautiful our world is. We were able to spend three months exploring, learning and growing together, and we know that this experience is one we will be telling our grandchildren about. We fell madly in love with South America, and can’t wait to return.

There are so many things we miss, but we are constantly being reminded how amazing home is, too. We are surrounded by the most supportive friends and family, and are enjoying being in one place for the moment.

Side note: We do have another adventure planned that will come to fruition very soon, so stay posted!

Things we miss about traveling:

-party hostels

-immersing ourselves in another culture

-fresh juices

-meeting people from all over the world each day

-waking up and seeing where the day will take us

-colorful markets

-street food

-exploring remote corners of our beautiful world

Things we don’t miss:

-party hostels (we love ‘em and hate ‘em)

-noisy dorm rooms

-not being able to sleep in our own bed

-hostel bathrooms (‘nuff said)

-night buses

-ordering something at a restaurant and having something totally different come out

-crappy beer