AND WE’RE OFF!

Sorry ya’ll haven’t heard from me in a few days… just trying to ween you off a little, since I don’t know how often that I will be able to blog, internet depending… we leave in about 10 minutes for the airport to start out Latin American travel and volunteer adventure!  I will do my best to update you on all the international goodness from the road, but please also check out our new travel blog: www.RandomActsOfTravel.com where we will be updating insights and inspirations on our journey!

We are leaving the country in less than 4 hours.  The last 24 hours have been chaotic, crazy and ridiculously stressful.  We have spent the last few months preparing, planning and purchasing.  We’ve put more attention on what to bring and how best to prepare for our travels than we have on our itinerary.  And yet, as we packed throughout the day, we realized that our preparation and many purchases have put us in a very tough place– we have too much stuff! No matter how tight we rolled our clothes or how much air we pounded out of the compression bags, we just couldn’t fit everything in.  I’m sure this journey will teach us about “stuff”–all that we need and don’t need in our everyday lives, but we haven’t taken the journey yet!

We didn’t get to bed until 2 in the morning (although we started packing at 9AM yesterday) and we were up at 7 AM this morning.  We packed and re-packed the entire contents of our bags (each time removing items) over five times.  We switched luggage pieces out twice.   We’ve read all the travel blogs, we’ve been to Adventure 16 and REI countless times and we’ve been sold on everything we “need.”  The problem is that after they sell you on everything you need, they repeat the quintessential line “Pack light.”  WTF?!

Needless to say, we’ve cut out everything we think we can cut out, and we’re not packed “light” at all.  The long and the short of it… we had to take an extra bag.  Matt’s bringing a large Northface backpack a friend loaned him, while I was loaned both a large rolling duffle and a large backpack–the thought was I would try both and decide which one I wanted to bring. After choosing the rolling duffle a few weeks ago… at 1:30AM this morning we realized we didn’t want to cut anything else out and decided we had to take the rolling duffle and the large backpack that I was loaned.  We just decided there were some things we didn’t want to travel without  (you can take us out of suburbia but you can’t take the suburbia out of us).  Things like our own pillows, sleeping bags (not for camping, but in case we stay in places that we’d rather not sleep directly on the sheets), tons of insect repellent, mosquito net, vitamins, supplements, cold/flu meds, needed to remain in toe.

Two backpacks, a large duffel, a computer bag filled to the brim and an over-the-shoulder satchel and… we’re set to go.   We have no idea how we’re going to be able to move everything from place to place.    We’re a little overwhelmed, but we journey on.  As we wait to get picked up to be taken to the airport, we savor the advice we’ve been given from all our dear family and friends the last few weeks– “No matter how stressful and crazy things may get, enjoy every moment of it.  This may be a once-in-a-lifetime journey, just relish it (even the bumps and bruises).” And right now… we’re doing just that.

Thanks for all your love and support.  Stay tuned.  We’ll keep you updated throughout the journey!