Travel Tips (Part 10-Tips from Stacey Part C)
(Cont’d from Part 9)
Part 10: Stacey recently updated her comments from above with the following:
“I still love my list, though here are some technological updates:”
1) I’ve moved from film cameras to digital with an underwater bag to a new waterproof digital camera – sweet!
2) I also pack a photo memory card reader so I can blog photos on a trip and leave the memory card instead of the camera when I have a CD made of my photos for backup.
3) I carry a small UV water purifier Steripen instead of a water purification pump system.
4) Instead of a clothesline with pins I braid small-gauge surgical tubing which makes a stretchy, easy to tie up clothesline that doesn’t require pins since you can just poke the corners of your clothes into the braid.
5) Instead of packing around guide books I razor out the pages and chapters I need and just pack those. I also make copies of guidebook maps and laminate them so they’re handy and hardy.
6) For travel to really hot areas I’ve grown fond of the neck coolers that have crystals in them that swell when soaked and stay really cool for hours; they’re reusable, but may be confiscated as “gel” if you try to take them in a carry-on or wear them on the way home (but they’re cheap, so no big deal).
Ok, that does it for travel tips. Thanks to Stacey for her contribution.
Next stop is Taipei, Taiwan, across the Pacifc and back in 61 hours! Can you do it? It’s a fun blog to read. Don’t miss it!!
Steve Barrymore ssb11@prodigy.net
Fly around the U.S. for the day:
http://blog.newsok.com/thewanderer/category/day-trip/
Travel Tips (Part 9-tips from Stacey Part B)
(Continued)
Here are some more of Stacey’s Travel Tips, all written by her:
“Email to yourself anything you might need including airline and hotel reservation numbers and contact information, emergency numbers, email and snail mail addresses, travel websites, and scans of your passports and traveler’s checque numbers in case you somehow lose everything you were carrying.
I’ve traveled “heavy” and now that I’ve experienced travel with only a carry-on, I can’t imagine what anyone would want to take that would be worth lugging around more. Here are 2 helpful websites about packing light, not specific to Latin America:
http://www.ricksteves.com/plan/tips/packlight.htm
My own(Stacey’s) Central Am. packing list is #14 here:
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/thread.jspa?threadID=828622&tstart=0
Also, here is the preamble to the 2003 travelogue of our family’s trip to Belize, more philosophical.
~As Mason Williams would say, “Don’t go down to the ocean with a notion of what you will find”. In other words, expect your adventures to be wonderful but don’t expect them to be predictable;
~grab every opportunity to get to know the people as opposed to just seeing places and scenery. Hanging out in small villages and seeking out locals gave us many of our most special memories;
~take advantage of things that are every day experiences for locals, like beans and rice, bus rides and bike rides, and shopping for produce;
~remember the Peace Corp adage: “It’s not right or wrong, it’s just different”;
~stay as long as you can and adventure out from bases; we typically had 3-7 days in each location, and were glad for it;
~when traveling as a family, listen to the kids, plan to enjoy your together times and to spend times exploring on your own, as safety allows; our individual strengths and interests were woven together to make the trip more memorable for all of us;
~see a lot, but allow time to lay around in hammocks or sit and drink a coke with locals;
~read before and during your trip: guide books, identification books, the Belize Forum, and books set in Belize and written by Belizean authors, both fiction and non-fiction;
~pack a comprehensive medical kit that includes an antibiotic like cipro and a good quality water filter;
~take school supplies or books to donate along the way and gifts for kids and hosts (we took little rubber frog finger puppets and photo magnets showing a view of the wildflowers, mountains and Columbia River Gorge from our house);
~for bugs we preferred Sawyer’s Time Release Deet bug repellent, which worked wonderfully and allows less deet to be absorbed into your skin than most formulas. We took hefty doses of B vitamins and garlic pills starting weeks before we left in an effort to smell repugnant to those smallest of pests, and found that it worked perfectly in areas where there really weren’t any mosquitoes, but failed miserably where there were (hence, the Sawyer’s).
~other things we were glad we had: headlamps, plant and animal identification cards, copies of our lodging reservation and payment emails, sun hats, sunblock and aloe, sarongs (for the females) and bandanas, blank journals, a variety of cameras (including underwater ones) and lots of film, good quality waterproof binoculars, clothes line and pins, cable ties, our own fishing equipment, including a great collection of hand-tied flies, open minds, a desire for adventure, and our senses of humor.
Thanks to Stacey for those.
Stay tuned for “Part C” of Stacey’s travel tips–
post your comments here or e-mail me at ssb11@prodigy.net
Travel Tips(Part 8-Tips from Stacey Part A)
Stacey is an ardent traveler and has many tips to share. She is a frequent traveler to Central America and was my source of information when I decided to make my first trip to Honduras a couple of years ago. I asked Stacey about posting some of her advice:
Here is what she has to say when she travels to Central America:
“Sometimes I travel alone, sometimes with one or more of my kids and/or my husband, sometimes with a group in tow. I don’t feel overly paranoid but have never had a problem and would like to keep it that way. Here are my concessions to safety when I travel in Central America:”
:: I avoid the big cities as much as possible
:: I don’t “party”
:: Where recommended I take specific transportation (Hedman Alas in Honduras, for example, or avoiding chicken buses on the mountain runs in Guatemala, taxis after dark)
:: I know where I am and where I’m headed
:: I don’t wear jewelry (not even my wedding band) and try not to flash camera equipment or money around
:: Some trips I carry a “throw down wallet” with an expired card or 2 and the day’s cash in it
:: I keep important documents and cash under my clothes (except what I need for shopping, buses, etc. for that time period)
:: I ask locals about safety in an area – evenings, hiking, etc.
:: I travel really light so I don’t feel vulnerable getting my bag off and on buses, shuttles, etc.
:: I continue to build skills in Spanish
Here is her trip report when she went to Honduras: http://sidewalkmystic.com/CopanRuinas.htm#Stacey
And some links to some of her other blogs:
MY PHOTOS ON FLICKR: http://flickr.com/photos/staceyholeman/collections
LIVE AND LEARN IN HONDURAS: http://liveandlearninca.blogspot.com/
LIVE AND LEARN IN GUATEMALA: http://liveandlearninguatemala.blogspot.com/
BLOG FROM 3 WEEKS ON THE BAY ISLANDS LAST SUMMER: http://holemansinhonduras.blogspot.com/
Next week-I will post some more of Stacey’s travel tips and philosophies–
If you have an travel tips, post a comment here or e-mail me at ssb11@prodigy.net.
–Steve Barrymore
