Packing

Months of saving and planning are coming to an end. We're packing the van. It's all coming down to the 2 piles on the left. We have clothes enough for 2 people, for 5 months, we hope. It was hard to decide what to bring, to account for just about every possible climate, from Central American muggy jungle to Patagonian bone-chilling mountaintops. O well, they have clothes in South America. If we don't have it, we can always get it there.

We also have camping gear, kitchen stuff, books, chairs, pillows, sleeping bags, etc. - all we think we'll need for life on the road. The van is a lot bigger than the backpacks we've taken on previous long trips, and the amount of stuff we can pack seems really luxurious. I mean, we're bringing olive oil, and cocoa, and 3 pairs of shoes each! We're trying to keep the load light, because we'll no doubt find new and cool things on the road and we want to have room for them. But it's always tempting to throw in that one small extra thing that will make life easier...
The paperwork is lagging behind the packing, of course. We have most of what we need, but are waiting on car insurance. And we still have to close the deal on the house. Oh, and get traveller's cheques. And health insurance. And visas for 3 countries...
We'll post a final packing list, as well as a final paperwork/to-do list before we take off. This trip took a lot of planning, and we learned a lot from other blogs we read, and we'd like to return the favor. We learned a lot about what not to leave to the last minute (what, procrastinate? us? never!!).

Keep your fingers crossed for us that we packed enough pairs of wooly socks (says the Canadian). Likely when we write next, we will be living in the van...