Skip to main content

What did we buy for the South America travel trip

It was all new for us

We spent ages trying to find out what equipment we need to buy for the South America travel trip. Since we haven't done any backpacking before, neither proper hiking, we didn't have anything at all. I think I can divide the stuff we got to few sections:

Equipment

Things like backpack (rucksack), sleeping bag, tent, sleeping mat, stove, etc. I think we started with the rucksack. Based on various blogs and reviews, we went to try one of them on. Osprey. Well known brand, apparently excellent quality stuff. I didn't find them comfortable around my neck area, but my wife chose one. I then went to see Deuter and Lowe Alpine and decided for the latter. 

Rucksack size. Some of my friends recommend 80 litres, some of the others 60 litres. Internet and blog posts said less is better. But for how experienced travellers? I have almost none experience to start with. So we both went for 65 litres extensible to 75 litres. Osprey Ariel 65 for her and Lowe Alpine Manaslu 65 for him. 

From that point, I knew the size I have to fit in. And I started focusing on foldable and light items. Did extensible research on sleeping mats (will share later) and sleeping bags and almost everything which will go inside of the rucksack. Very handy website to help me was ultralightoutdoorgear.co.uk, because they display weight of each item they sell. 

The list below contains every small thing we packed. And I'll share a link to Google spreadsheet with weight and price of each item. I did spend a lot of time to weight every item.

Packing:
Rucksack Lowe Alpine Manaslu 65
Rucksack Osprey Ariel 65
Karrimor foldable backpack black
Doldy cargo bag 2x
Dry bag Karrimor XS 5L orange
Dry bag Karrimor XXS 2L red
Dry bag Mountain Warehouse 7L blue
Dry bag Karrimor S 10L yellow
Dry bag Mountain Warehouse 12L blue
Yosh waterproof smartphone transparent case
Doldy cargo bag packing mesh 2x
Mountain warehouse 40L (48x30x27 cm) foldable duffel bag
Transparent small and large ziploc bags

Camping:
Sleeping bag Vango Venom 200
Sleeping bag Ferino Nightec 300
GSI dualist the whole set incl sack and bowls and cutlery
Wash sea to summit leaves pocket soap 50 leaves
Cutlery sea to summit polycarbonate grey with carabiner - the whole set knife spoon fork
Tent Terra Nova Laser Competition 2
Tent pegs spare - Pinguin Jehla (4x)
Cutlery GSI acetate Ring set - knife, spoon, fork - grey
Pocket trowel sea to summit
Silk ultralight liner Quechua Decathlon
Sleeping mat Sea to Summit Ultralight Insulated R
Sleeping mat Klymit Insulated Static V Lite
Liner Sea to Summit Thermolite Reactor Extreme
Vango gas canister holder orange foldable plastic
MSR PocketRocket 2 stove
MSR stove lighter spark igniter
Paracord pink 8.8 m string 425
Paracord yellow 8m string thin

First Aid and Hygiene:
Dry bag 2l first aid Lifesystems
Steripen Aqua
AfterBite insect bite relief pen
Pyramid repellent with 50% deet Trek 100ml spray
Towel Nabaiji Decathlon S light blue
Towel Nabaiji Decathlon M black
Towel Nabaiji Decathlon L blue
Towel mountain warehouse L dark blue
Yate alu foil silver bivak
Small pocket mirror in aluminium case
Trix Tick laso
Mosquito net Lifesystems Micronet with EX8 2x
Mosquito repellent bracelet TheBodySource 10x
Sawyer Mini water filter
Mosquito repellent wristband (pack of 4)
Small wide empty bottle 50ml with red screw cap 4x
Small tall empty bottle 50ml with red screw cap 3x
small tall travel bottle 50ml with white screw cap 3x
Lifesystems red survival bag
Antibacterial hand gel aloe vera 100ml from superdrug store
Antibacterial hand gel passion mango 50ml Cuticura
Sea to Summit Wilderness citronella wash 89ml
Lifesystems Expedition sensitive repellent spray 50ml
Comb
Scissors
makeup (mascara, powder, face stuff, makeup, lipstick, eye shadow)
Contact lenses

Other:
Reflection night yellow band 2x
Small notebook A6 checked layout
Victorinox multifunction knife red
Carabiner small aluminium 6x
Spare strap
Code Padlocks 2x
Transparent small plastic clothed pin 4x
Bicycle lock 1m wire with code, KLS
Multifunction knife no name silver
Paracord reflective 2.4m string 425
Paracord whistle black
Paracord whistle brown
Paracord string break plastic black 4x
Paracord spare buckles black 4 together
sunglasses
duct tape
pen blue ink pilot
spanish conversation book

Food/Drink items:
Hip flask larger 8oz stainless steel 240ml
Hip flask smaller 5oz stainless steel 150ml
Water bottle Aladdin red 600 ml
Small tupperware square red
Water bottle Aladdin grey 600 ml
Nalgene Cantenes 1.5L foldable plastic bottle with wide blue screw cap

Clothes

Things like jackets, trousers, shoes, t-shirts, socks, etc.

Electronics

Things like used android phones, torches, chargers, camera, etc.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

24/1/2018 Chiloe Castro, car hire, Teneun, Dalhacue, Cucao

We woke up around 10am, Denisa went to buy something for breakfast and we ate in the hostel. Then we packed all things and left to the tourist information centre, where young English speaking girl gave us a business card of local car hire place we headed to straight after.   The car hire place we used in Castro Chiloe is called Hostal Cordillera. They asked us what type of car we want (no English speaking) and what the prices are. We chose the smallest car Kia Morning (3 cylinders) and the lady told us we need to wait until 12 as someone will return the car to use for us. So we walked to see the main church (UNESCO) on the main square and we bought some really tasty potato bread, or something, filled with minced meat. And also kuchen with special local berries called makui (they grow only on Chiloe). Each was only 1000 pesos and it was amazingly good (we ate the kuchen later on the road).  At 12, we were back in the car hire place. Jorge spoke very clearly Spanish and slowly

8/1/2018 leaving Torres and back in Puerto Natales

The rain didn’t stop. And the rain didn’t stop until 2pm. We didn’t sleep, as Denisa discovered some sort of claustrophobic issue inside of the tent and woke up freaked out almost immediately after she felt asleep. Getting out and in to the tent while it was raining at night made our tent and thing more wet. Towards the morning, high condensation of humidity in our tent started making our sleeping bags wet too. One the rain slowed down, we got up and tried to cook porridge. The water from the camp was dirty (apparently drinkable), but the boiling didn’t make it less dirty and anyway, it just started raining more heavy again.  Fed up, throwing the cooking gear next to the tent and going to the central building to cover and have breakfast there. Two coffees and two muffins 8000 pesos quite expensive, but doesn’t matter. We waited here until 12:30 and then went back to pack our tent and things. My jacket was dry again and we successfully packed everything during light rain and wait

30/12/2017 Glaciar Martial

30/12/2017 Glaciar Martial Morning we stayed at home and trained Spanish and English with Cristina. We had to wait until 11am to walk to pickup our washed laundry.  Walked 30 minutes, paid 160 pesos, walked 30 minutes back and hanged the clothes to dry in our room.  Then we got out and slowly walked towards the city centre and trying to catch a taxi on the road. After 5 minutes we caught one and he took us up the hill to Glaciar Martial. We paid 230 pesos, taxi meter was on showing tariff 1.  The hike up the hill from the car park was about 1.5 hours and 1.5 hours back down the hill. It was mostly sunny. Time to time rain, snow, cloudy, windy. The views were okay. Nothing special. We took few photos and walked back to get a taxi to terminal omnibus in city centre.  Yesterday we spoke to our neighbours staying in the same flat as we are. Nice Austrian couple, so we are having a dinner with them today. In a restaurant they went to two days ago and recommended. The on