Packing for a 27-Month Trip Packing is usually quite easy for me. I get alot of practice at it and I have learned a couple tricks to streamline the process (like packing everything, taking half of it out, and doubling the number of socks). Unfortunately those tricks don't work when you're not really packing, but moving.

The last time I had to pack for a long-term thing was for my semester in Hong Kong. I remember standing with my best friend over my pile of luggage trying to figure out if I had forgotten anything. I hadn't. I cursed the amount of crap I brought and learned a valuable lesson about possessions; they are totally replaceable and available wherever you're going. Also I learned that any sort of "sentimental" stuff which is packed will inevitably be regretted. The tendency you have is to think "I can't go for long without my massive wool sweater" and you end up packing it. If you were to simply throw the sweater into the closet, you would forget about it until you return from the trip and rediscover it and love it again. If you bring it, you realize its inefficiencies and flaws and desire it out of your life. Thus the approach must be focused on limits; pack half what you're allowed, give yourself some draft, and bring extra socks.

I got everything for Africa to fit into one large bag, my trekking backpack, and my Marine bag. Clothing went in the big bag, necessities like books, duct tape, flashlights, etc went in the trekking bag, and electronics went in my carry-on. Easy. I plan on buying a few things in Morocco, including just about everything having to do with home life.

This last week has been uneventful, mostly just a long stretch of strange feelings about leaving, none of which were sheer excitement, nor fear, nor apprehension. I don't know how to quantify it, but it seems to fit somewhere between a sense of foreboding and general peace with the understanding that much of the next few months is going to be packed with patently fascinating difficulty.

Next?

I am completing my Costa Rica-Nicaragua-Costa Rica loop, finishing it off with a visit to Puerto Viejo de Talamanca, CR. I have an unsure feeling about the end of this trip, I have had unforgettable experiences one after the other, mostly set in Nicaragua. My trip started off crappy, with a disillusioning set of experiences with Ticos in northern CR, and continued with the robbery on my birthday in San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua. Now I´m back in touristed-out Costa Rica and can´t help but feel that the best is definitely over. Costa Rica is full of lame spring-break like travelers looking to book tours and overpay for mediocre experiences like canopy tours, sub-par beaches, and tame volcanoes.
So I am begining to realize that Costa Rica was certainly the wrong place to start and end this trip, but it was so much cheaper to fly in here compared to any other Central American city. One thing CR does remedy is that feeling that you don´t want your trip to be over, since I am somewhat looking forward to leaving the 51st State of behind.
Another good thing about Costa Rica being lame is that now I´m looking to the future as I hadn´t during the rest of my trip. I haven´t thought too much about Morocco, or the next two years. Now, looking forward, I am STOKED about all of the change and adventure I have ahead. The action-packed nature of the next few weeks really excites me.
I am working on getting my photos online, it seems like the only option is to wait for the States to get them on, bandwidth here is proving to be a problem.

Change of Pace

The last few months of my life have been relatively fast-moving. Alot of things have changed and changed quickly, from graduating to moving away from Washington, to starting a new chapter in life, it has all been very sudden. This all changed when I got to Nicaragua.
Many times I find myself rushing through countries, trying to see as much of it as I can and stretching myself thin. On this trip I planned on going to El Salvador and maybe Honduras for awhile, but instead I have just been slowly drifting around Nicaragua. It has been quite pleasant.
I find that this trip has been different than my two previous visits to Latin America, chiefly because of two things:
One, I speak alot more Spanish than I did the first two times I came, and
two, I have been staying for a long time in every place I go. Language and time has opened up so many doors.
I thought I had essentially done it all in Latin America, I felt like a veteran. Now I am realizing how much I missed out on the first two times. Everyday I am getting invited into houses and for meals, getting a tour from a local guy who is eager to show me his country, or finding little barrios and pueblos around the city which I would previously avoid.
I spent 6 days in Esteli, Nicaragua and the day that I left, on my way to the bus station I was waved to, smiled at, invited for coffee, food, etc, countless times. Time and language has let me begin to know Nicaragua and Nica people, rather than just visit. I cannot believe how much I learn everyday about life, history, culture, food, attitude, politics, and all the rest with the help of just a few friendly local people.
I have always believed that travel is the best way to spend your time and money, and everyday I spend in Nicaragua gives me more reasons to think that way.
It is simply wonderful.