Detour in South America: What's in my bag?

I leave France tomorrow, so I think it's time for a song for my bag

When I deciced to go in South America for two months, the first things to do was to book a plane. I looked for a route to go there in kayak, but Maps didn’t find anything. Thanks to the wonderful website SkyScanner, I found a plane, but something surprised me in the booking… No checked baggage? I thought it was by default… Yeees, ok, it was the first time I booked a plane by myself.

Whaaaaaat? 150€ for a checked baggage???

Well, no checked baggage! So, I can bring… 10 kg.

10 kg… 2 months… Easy!

I asked my question directly on the best place I knew:

“Tell me, Internet, how could I leave for two months with a maximum of 10kg on my bag?”

It was that moment, I knew, I… was saved! An onslaught of website fell on me. I have been quickly reassured: it’s not that hard. It’s even pretty easy, I just had to make some concessions. The golden rule when you prepare that kind of luggage is to banish all “just in case” stuff. The second important rule is to be conscient that you don’t go in the middle of nowhere: if you forgot something, you can buy locally.

After the reading of some articles (A lot of article, actually), I began my shopping. Through these articles, I read a lot of good things about Merinos wool, a so-called miracle material: thermoregulating, odorless, which do the ironing and even the coffee in his good days. I have some doubts, but, having a safety economic base, I decide to test it. Three T-shirts in Merinos wool for small sum of… well, a lot of money. Almost 200€… But what is 200€ for a miracle?

I also took a cap.

I love caps.

I love pompom.

The choice of the bag was important too! What size match with my need? I fixed the maximum on 35L because I had to be able to take it with me in cabin. I read a lot of things about oversized bagpack: the common issue is that you always want to totally fill a bag. So if you choose a big one, it will be too heavy. I wondered if 30L, or even 25 would be enough… Finally, I took my decision without directly thinking about the size: my sister just bought a new bag, cabin conform, convenient, with good backing. Perfect. 35L, let’s go.

In most of the articles I read, the travelers bring their laptop, the camera with two or three big lens and of course, the cable and chargers. The big advantage I have, in therms of weight, is that I don’t need all that stuff. The only numeric equipment I bring are:

• My phone,
• My kindle.
  I thank in passing our holy time that allow me to bring the entire Asimov’s bibliography in my pocket…

After some intense thinking, introspecting and projection time, here is the list of my luggage:

• 1 bag pack, 35L + waterproof house,
• 1 sleeping bag, XL, because I’m tall (or fat, you can choose),
• 1 necklace that use to be useful in Alaska,
• 1 sky underwear (I’m scared to be cold in the high mountains),
• 3 pair of hiking socks,
• 5 underpants,
• 1 pants, convertible into short,
• 2 shorts,
• 1 pair of flip-flop,
• 1 swimsuit,
• 1 microfiber towel (not very comfortable, but useful),
• 3 gold Tshirts (it’s at least the minimum I could expect considering the price),
• 1 kindle + charger,
• 1 phone + charger,
• 1 super stylish hat which I wear when I write this article,
• 1 gourd, 1L,
• 1 20L bag, highly compressible,
• 1 20L bag, less compressible, but very comfortable,
• 1 deodorant, 1 toothbrush, 1 toothpaste,
• 1 Marseille’s soap (that allow me to wash my body, my hairs and my clothes, and it’s biodegradable)

Here is a little explanation about the double 20L bag: when I prepared my bag, I wanted a little bag to avoid bringing my big bag in every little expedition. On Internet, I found this super idea: a 20L bag that can be tidy in a little and lightweight bag. So, I bought the model of Gonex, that seemed perfect for my need. I tried it in Berlin: it’s very useful, but not very comfortable.
I decided to take my Eastpack bag, that I used when I ride or in my caving expeditions: it’s very comfortable, it has a good support on my bag, and I had still some space in Éli.

Oh yes, Éli is my big bag. At the beginning, I wanted to call him Henry, but I discovered the Youtube channel of Gregsway, that I love. He called his camping car Henri. And he is awesome. But I’ll talk about him in another article…
Why Éli? Two reasons:

• I am a big fan of the movie “The Book of Eli”: it’s about a guy -Denzel Washington- who walk through a post-apocalyptic version of the USA. It’s super cool. I’ll try to help Éli to travel as much as possible, whether it’s in Mexico, in South America or in Europe.
• It’s a wink to my nephew. I passed all September to promise him that I’ll bring him in my bag. He weighs less than 8kg, so I could!

With all this mess, Éli weighs 7.2kg. My ticket actually doesn’t allow me to have one 10 kg bag, but 1 of 7kg and another one of 3kg. I’ll try to make my big baby pass with his overweight, but if they annoy me, I’ll just put some things in my Eastpack bag, and it will be ok 👍.

I don’t really know how to conclude this article, so I let you with my last questioning: should I bring a jumper? I’m really scared to be cold in the mountains…

But if it’s really cold, I could still buy it locally, right?