One more sleep.....

It's been a while since we've done this. The last two trips south we drove. Easy Peasy. Load as much as you want into the car, hop in and take off. No muss, no fuss and definitely no packing anxiety.

The two trips prior to that were on the bike. WAY more restrictive from a packing standpoint but in some ways even easier. Simply put; there's just no room for anything but the basics so the packing is easy. If it fits in the pannier it goes, if not, it stays.

This time we're right in the middle. We're each taking one mid-size rolling duffel with back pack straps and one small carry on knapsack. So for the past couple of days we've been using the Lonely Planet approach to packing; put everything out on the bed you think you'll need and/or want to take - then throw half of it on the floor and start again. Seriously though, it's a lot of fun. We're trying to keep things as simple and as light as possible - and all the travellers out there will agree, your standards definitely go down once you start on an overland trip. At home we only wear a shirt one day and then it's in the laundry for a fresh one in the morning. On the road - not so much. What the hell, I'll never see these people again :-) So, with the multi-day approach to wearing cloths and never forgetting that laundry is available at every hotel or around most corners, it doesn't take long too realize that you don't need as much as you think.

And for those guys out there with wives that struggle with this concept, there's an easy solution. Tell her she can bring as much as she wants - but she has to carry it. All of it. Rosi is a real trooper and the best travel partner around. And yes, she carries her own back pack. OK, I help out more and more these days, but in the past she's slogged her own bag up the stairs of  Central American budget hotels with the best of them - and nothing cures over packing like carrying your bags up two flights of stairs in 30 degree heat and 90% humidity.

The packing is almost done, the arrangements are made and we leave in the morning.
Woo Hoo!