I wrote most of this fairly soon after coming back from the trip but am only just getting round to posting it now. It's a bit raw and also pretty tedious even by my usual standards - this is meant for me to look back on to help deciding what (not) to buy/take with me on future trips. I've tried to avoid tidying it up too much now in order to avoid losing whatever trustworthiness/authenticity it has from having been written shortly after getting home.
Trouser pockets and zips:
- Having zips on the main trouser pockets is essential, but the ones I added myself worked surprisingly well (even if I could have put a bit more effort into sewing them in securely if I'd been less rushed) so this doesn't need to stop me buying an otherwise decent pair which doesn't have zips fitted by the manufacturer.
- Having at least one "knee" pocket is desirable, given the system I evolved of keeping small bills in one. Having two is probably helpful (and likely anyway), but since I am no longer carrying a separate camera it's not such a big deal.
- Although I don't keep anything incredibly valuable in the back pockets, having at least one zip on the back pockets is desirable given my new system of keeping loose change in there.
- The addition of a second zip towards the bottom of the right hand main pocket to create a sort of semi-hidden pouch didn't prove very useful in practice. With the system I eventually adopted of keeping loose change in a back pocket instead of in the right hand main pocket it might have been less inconvenient and more useful, but it's still a faff to get stuff into and out of. If the zip was (unlikely) just present at manufacture it would be a small net positive (I didn't find it causing me *problems* to have it), but if (likely) I have to sew it in myself, it is a massive faff to add (much more so than sewing top of pocket zips when the manufacturer didn't put any on), is almost inevitably going to be a bit crappy to use because it's an amateur addition (e.g. it won't slide nicely because it isn't "straight") and probably not worth the effort.
- There might be some value in adding an internal zip to a knee pocket to split it into two parts, but I don't know. It might also be easy to hand sew a second zip in there given they're perhaps squarer than the main hip pockets. I could imagine keeping my room key zipped up in there to help protect it against casually falling out, especially in the knee pocket I don't keep my loose change in [this is what I originally wrote, but I think I wrote this forgetting I had started to keep change in back pocket anyway] - if I have a knee pocket which mainly just holds a hanky, it isn't likely to be too fiddly to get at an internal zipped pocket on the relatively rare occasions I need to access my key.
- Even if I'm not worried about pickpockets, I need to make it a habit to zip up at least the right hand main hip pocket to stop things (like my Vaseline tin) getting lost. Zipping up the left pocket with the phone in is mainly for pickpocket protection only, but I suppose under some circumstances it might be a concern that the phone will get lost. Keeping small bills in a knee pocket and loose change in a back pocket significantly reduces the inconvenience of keeping the right hand main pocket zipped up.
Clothes condition (after a 30C wash in machine at home):
- the red short-sleeved T-shirt isn't too bad but has a kind of dark stain towards the bottom on the front
- ignoring the logos coming off, both blue Raging Sport tops seem to be in decent condition - as does the black
- the blue Craft top has really bad dark stains on in multiple places, including back of neck
- both pairs of trousers have some rips/tears, they are not on the verge of collapsing but I definitely wasn't looking at my best wearing them
- the black pair has some mud stains on the lower legs which didn't come out in the wash, this may just require more washing to come out
- the blue pair has really faded or persistently dirty-dusty knees, I had noticed this while I was away and I suspect it is fading
- without actually trying it on again to check (and I have spares and body size changes mean it's prudent to be checking this and buying new as necessary nearer the date of a future trip anyway, so there's no rush to buy replacements if necessary now) this [underwear?] all seems in fair condition, one pair of the bamboo socks has gone a bit "fuzzy" near the top (but this happened very early in the trip)
- My travel baseball cap is a bit old and slightly faded and (given it can't be machine washed) perhaps a tiny bit "greasy", but I've given it a hand wash and it isn't terrible. It might not be a bad idea to look into getting another one, ideally in a slightly lighter (but not dirt-showing) colour if possible.
- The fleece seems in pretty good condition, I'm a bit surprised given how long I've had it but then again it spends most of the time in my bag rather than being worn. I don't really think it needs replacing, although a slightly lighter colour might be nice and if I could find something equally warm which is lighter that would be nice. I don't know if lightweight-but-warm is a reasonable demand of a fleece type garment.
- rain jacket and waterproof trousers appear to be fine, not too surprising given how little use they've had
- the bandanna looks OK and given I carry it mainly for swimming or for use as extra sun protection when out walking etc it isn't all that critical either
I really don't know what these dark stains are, I have to assume they are sweat or dirt rather than food or coffee stains (some of them are in places food stains don't make sense). I suppose they could be sunblock, but some of the stains aren't in places where that's logical either. The red T-shirt says wash at 30C so I haven't rewashed that, it isn't that bad and I will just relegate it to everyday round the house type wear. I washed the blue Craft top at 40C (and in biological detergent, FWIW) and it hasn't helped, so I may do the same with that.
There is definitely no way I'm wearing either pair of trousers on a subsequent trip, the rips/tears are just bad enough that even if I didn't care at all about how they looked I'd be setting myself up for catastrophic failure mid-trip. I suspect the RS tops will be fine for another trip (though I may want to mix in some of my newer RS tops to hedge my bets).
I will probably keep the underwear set aside for travel and try it all on nearer the next trip (I may have gained/lost weight, though not such an issue for the socks). I may prefer to buy or use existing unworn items for another trip just to be safe, especially for the socks where I could easily put them into my daily wear rotation, but for now I'll probably just set them aside and see how things look when the next trip comes round. I do also want to be vaguely ready for the unlikely but possible case of a sudden unexpected trip where I don't have time to buy lots of new stuff.
Clothes selection:
- I wish the Raging Sport tops came in a lighter colour, but looking back I don't think even the "black" (dark grey-ish) one was a big deal in terms of being too hot.
- I definitely preferred the RS tops over the Craft one, feeling (perhaps fairly, but not sure) they were a bit lighter. When I wasn't tight on clean clothes, I'm fairly sure I tended to wear the RS tops more frequently than the Craft one as a result.
- The red short-sleeved top was comfortable and did see use in the evenings and for swimming.
- The trousers were comfortable and while I might like something even lighter weight, in practice I'm unlikely to be able to get it. They seemed adequate for the relatively cold conditions on the three day trek as well. They were cheap and I think on the whole they did last well enough, I would prefer something a little more durable (and wouldn't mind paying a bit more for it, if I could be confident I was paying for quality and not for nothing or a fancy brand), but I would at least consider buying more of the same model (if that's even possible) for a future trip.
- I think the balance of clothes was about right. Having the short-sleeved top definitely helped both with stretching out laundry by being a "worn in not-so-sweaty evening conditions" top and was a comfortable option in the evenings too, not to mention its use for swimming. I could vague see going to three long-sleeved and two short-sleeved tops, but given I do like long sleeves during the day for sun and (maybe) insect resistance, I suspect I'd end up doing laundry more often or it being more inconvenient when there are no decent laundry facilities.
- The slightly thicker Craft top might have been something of a benefit in colder conditions like the three day trek, but I didn't IIRC wear it every single day so it's not as if the RS tops weren't adequate once layered with fleece and rain jacket as required. Ignoring this possible benefit in cold conditions and - perhaps a bigger concern - the lack of variety in style and especially colour, I would probably have been even better served by having four RS long-sleeved tops.
- Both the four pairs of "bamboo" socks and the single thicker Quechua probably-mostly-synthetic socks were fine. I am not sure it was necessary to have the thicker pair, I did wear them sometimes for hiking but I am fairly sure even on the three day trek I didn't wear the thicker socks every day. It probably wouldn't have helped if I had, but it's hard to be sure about this. I did prefer wearing the thinner socks in hot places when I wasn't hiking (most of the time) and probably avoided the Quecha ones when I had plenty of clean socks in hand, but I don't recall feeling significantly annoyed when I ended up wearing the Quecha socks under "normal" conditions. So this balance was probably OK, even if it isn't necessarily optimal or that critical.
- While I ended up carrying the fleece in my bag most of the time and something lighter or (perhaps actually more important) less bulky, if it exists, would be nice, as a layering solution it works well.
- I did wear the rain jacket a little bit and I at least kind of needed the waterproof overtrousers. As I've said before, even this new rain jacket is decidedly not lightweight and getting a much lighter one would definitely help for next time, both in terms of lowering overall pack weight and making it more palatable to carry the rain jacket around in my day pack on casual day hikes and similar.
Unless there's something hiding somewhere I've overlooked, I seem to have come back with COP266000. That's the kind of amount I feel fairly comfortable keeping on hand, it doesn't leave me with that much inflation exposure and it's enough to comfortably pay for emergency taxis or food or accommodation the first night of a subsequent trip if I can't withdraw cash at the airport. I also have USD469 (only counted once, could have made a slip) so I did (as I planned/hoped) bring back more than I took out by quite a wide margin - yes cash is exposed to inflation, but holding USD isn't a bad thing and it's disproportionately useful to take on future trips even to non-USD countries.
The flip belt pouch thing seems to be in good condition. While it isn't perfect (it's annoying it won't fit banknotes lengthwise without being folded) it worked well on the whole and was undoubtedly way more comfortable than the inside waist belt I used to use. I did keep a 32GB SD card in it with the intention of keeping a copy of my photos on there, but (although it didn't) this always felt a little precarious as once the pouch was unzipped it would have been easy for it to fall out, and more to the point I was too lazy to go to the extra faff of copying stuff onto that SD card after already copying it from the O6 to the 128GB USB thumb drive and the K1.
Stuff I took with me and didn't use if memory serves:
- masks
- cable ties
- elastic cord (I *did* IIRC use the non-elastic string to make a makeshift glasses holder when abseiling, even if the instructor made me a better one)
- sewing stuff (I *should* have used this to repair the pocket zip, but I didn't)
- safety pins
- elastic bands
- spare headphone earbuds
- Howsarlock
- bandages/plasters
- whistle
- most of my SD cards (I did use a single 32GB card in the flip belt but gave up on it early on)
- water purifying tablets
- diarrhea (and hangover) rehydration salts (unless I used these when I was ill before the boat trip and forgot?)
- tenacious tape (though I did give some to Liam)
- double sided sticky foam tape strips
- bubble wrap
- spare glasses
- waterproof overtrousers (but I did take them and came close to using them on the three day hike, which I think justifies having them)
- fridge magnets to use as gifts
[November 2024: This is based mainly on the stuff I keep in the tube cube, which is the bulk of the miscellaneous small items. I didn't get round to going over the rest of the stuff I took and reviewing that to see what was used, although since it is generally fewer and larger items it's more obvious whether I used them or not anyway.]
Obviously some (if not all) of this is still worth taking, particularly for spares or things which are there if I need them in an "emergency" but don't expect to use them routinely. But I want to write this out honestly for future reference when considering packing list tweaks.
The "Bag Bag" daypack with drawstring top worked really well once I tied knots in the straps to shorten them. Sometimes a zip would have been nice for more secure closure but I did like the reliability and "auto closing when worn" aspect of not having a zip. It seems to be in reasonable condition and would probably be fine for another trip.
My short USB A-USB C cable, intended for charging phones from powerbank in bag or in pocket, didn't really work. I may have used it once or twice and it may have come in handy as a spare if (I'm not sure) my main long A-C cable was becoming unreliable towards the end of the trip, but in general it was too stiff and thus too prone to coming out (the USB C port on the O6 is just possibly going iffy or this particular plug was quite fat and didn't interact well with the case or both or something similar) to be really useful. Since I on the whole got by fine without it, this suggests I don't really need it, and thus I could drop it and not take a second full length cable as a replacement. Outside of a few rare situations (like being in the middle of a hike or something), you can buy a USB A-C cable anywhere (even if you might not like the price for the not-guaranteed quality) and even in those rare situations you can probably (but no guarantee, because iPhones) borrow one off someone at a push. To be fair, my over-stiff one weighed 9g. Paja pesa and all that, but this is pretty negligible, and if I could get a truly flexible one of half-decent quality, 9g-ish isn't necessarily a bad deal in order to have a spare. I also need to remember that I did take this with me on (IIRC) the Volcan Baru hike, where the reduction in bulk and weight over a full length cable made carrying it much more palatable. (I had taken my powerbank with its torch head adapter as a backup torch, so adding the nice but not essential ability to recharge my phone from it only cost me this extra 9g and not much space. On a hike like that weight is more significant, but even ignoring that, the reduced bulk compared to a full length cable is valuable.)
[November 2024 - I can't remember the timeline, but I did continue to have trouble with the USB C port on the O6 once I got home. One or two cables worked fine, but others didn't. In the end it turned out to be nothing more serious than an accumulation of dust/lint in the port, and cleaning it out with IPA and a stiff-bristled brush seems to have fixed it. I haven't retested my travel cables, but it's possible they are fine. That said, I suspect the short one *is* still too stiff to stay reliably in the port, or might strain the port, if used to charge in a bag or pocket.]
As far as I can tell - I did give it a look over - the Deuter backpack is still in good shape and would be fine for another trip. It was a tiny bit dirty in places, I gave it a wipe down with a damp cloth but haven't gone out of my way to really try to clean it. It doesn't look conspicuously dirty at a quick glance.
On a random note, when I was sitting with my iced coffee in that coffee place I liked in Salento there was a religious leaflet with a painting of Jesus on the front. When I got back to London, there was a leaflet (presumably the same but translated) with the same painting on the front waiting in my mailbox. The London one says jw.org on the back, so I assume it's Jehovah's Witnesses and the Salento one was too, although I suppose it is just possible this is a stock image which multiple organisations chose to use - although the pamphlet is a similar shape and design which makes me think it is the same thing in both places. I just snapped a photo of the London one for reference, not that it matters.
Skimming by chance the post-mortem notes for my 2020 Colombia trip on the blog, it seems all the language exchanges I went to in Medellin were apparently on Couchsurfing not Meetup. I don't *think* this is why I couldn't find any this time, because I was only looking on Meetup, but I can't really rule it out.
Looking back at some of my photos and videos from the Costa Rica trip last year, I am reminded that I did miss having the optical zoom on my digital compact camera. But this mostly can't be helped, since as I think I've said various times, digital compact cameras of the actually compact consumer grade type don't seem to be a thing any more - it's smartphones or pricy "prosumer"-ish digital cameras which are big and in particular far more expensive than I want to be carrying around routinely (risk of loss/theft/damage).
[December 2024: I have actually bought a Pixel 7 Pro now, and part of the justification for splurging on the Pro was the fact it does have an optical zoom. So fingers crossed that will improve photos on a subsequent trip, although even second hand it is an expensive enough phone that I'm a bit edgy about carrying it round and exposing it to muggers or simple damage. It's also possible that the digital zoom on more modern smartphones like say a Pixel 6/6a/7/7a with a 50MP sensor would provide some genuinely useful digital zoom, compared to the O6's ~12MP sensor, but I thought the optical zoom was worth getting, at least as an experiment. The increased physical screen size of the Pro is a mixed blessing, but when my phones are my only "computers" on a trip, having that slightly larger screen may make viewing videos on quiet-ish evenings in a bit more pleasant. It was the optical zoom that really sold me on the Pro though.]
On another random note, the postcards I sent from Panama City have still not arrived [as of December 2024] and presumably never will, although I guess there's always a microscopic chance they magically turn up.
As I write this in late November 2024, I have still barely started to sort out the photos for the 2024 trip, because I got massively blocked on the 2023 photos. The big problem is that because I "had" to backup to Google Photos (because my homebrew solution IIRC broke in different ways during both 2023 and 2024 trips), I ended up with thousands of duplicate photos which are *not* binary identical - my own full quality copies and the Google Photos copies. Because of things like HDR photos and just repeated clicking of the shutter sometimes, I can't use "visual duplicate" detection software to absolutely reliably identify duplicates and this has mired me in a situation where checking for actual duplicates I can safely delete rather than keep (because they're lower quality Google Photos copies of photos I still have the full quality original for) has been a massive chore. I haven't even started on the GPS tagging yet, and it may be that I'll decide to let that go. [Despite using phone cameras, a lot of photos don't seem to have been GPS tagged - probably because my O6 doesn't have wifi triangulation, although it may just be some other random glitchiness. I am taking a GPS track log and that works on the whole, so it's not as if the phone can't get GPS locks in general.] Every now and then I make a bit of an effort to push through with the de-duplication and final cleaning up but it never seems to quite get done.
I'm not blaming Google Photos for this, it did get me out of a hole (of not being able to back up my images and being vulnerable to physical theft or loss or data corruption while abroad and losing all my photos), but it's still a fact that having all these visual but not binary duplicates has been a huge drag.
I did sort the 2023 photos into folders based on location (albeit imperfectly) ages ago and I think I even made a start on this for the 2024 photos. This is mildly tedious but not a huge job (especially since I have the blog to refer back to for dates/times). It's the cleaning up of duplicates and wondering if I remembered to locate random photo set X (e.g. the ziplining stuff) that turns it into a bit of a nightmare.
Videos are a little bit more unpleasant to sort as they never seem to have any metadata, notably "the actual date and time of recording" (there's just the timestamp on the file, which often as not gets turned into the time it was copied around a few days later to put on an SD card or phone, not the time of recording), but luckily I don't have *that* many.
I hope to avoid Google Photos on a future trip, but if my homebrew backup solution breaks again (touch wood) I may have no choice, of course.
Another irritation is that because I have all these various multiple copies and downloads but I can't do a nice "formal" backup (e.g. on to optical media) until the work of tidying the photos is finished, I end up with pretty bulky copies of e.g. Google takeout and my own copies of the files occupying valuable space (including on miscellaneous USB sticks, stopping me reusuing them for anything else). Which also reminds me that I *hope* I "moved" rather than copied (but that feels risky) the files off the phones and USB stick I took with me, otherwise wiping that off to make space for a future trip is going to be its own "argh, can I safely delete these?" nightmare. I suppose if I do this before I do any GPS tagging (or at least, if I keep checksums of the files before GPS tagging) this is at least a binary duplicate issue, but it's still something which is a regularly occurring source of faff and stress when I'm trying to get things ready pre-trip. I hope I already learned this lesson, but I can't be sure I did.
1st December: Just been doing a bit of basic sorting into folders of 2024 photos and this is feeling incredibly easy. Slightly tedious but really not that big a deal at all, especially with the blog to refer back to for dates. I suspect it was actually similar back when I was initially sorting the 2023 photos into folders. This isn't hard. It's dealing with the duplicates and trying to collate assorted random photographs, sound recordings, GPS tracks, etc that end up in miscellaneous places plus the GPS tagging which takes the time.
Trouser pockets and zips:
- Having zips on the main trouser pockets is essential, but the ones I added myself worked surprisingly well (even if I could have put a bit more effort into sewing them in securely if I'd been less rushed) so this doesn't need to stop me buying an otherwise decent pair which doesn't have zips fitted by the manufacturer.
- Having at least one "knee" pocket is desirable, given the system I evolved of keeping small bills in one. Having two is probably helpful (and likely anyway), but since I am no longer carrying a separate camera it's not such a big deal.
- Although I don't keep anything incredibly valuable in the back pockets, having at least one zip on the back pockets is desirable given my new system of keeping loose change in there.
- The addition of a second zip towards the bottom of the right hand main pocket to create a sort of semi-hidden pouch didn't prove very useful in practice. With the system I eventually adopted of keeping loose change in a back pocket instead of in the right hand main pocket it might have been less inconvenient and more useful, but it's still a faff to get stuff into and out of. If the zip was (unlikely) just present at manufacture it would be a small net positive (I didn't find it causing me *problems* to have it), but if (likely) I have to sew it in myself, it is a massive faff to add (much more so than sewing top of pocket zips when the manufacturer didn't put any on), is almost inevitably going to be a bit crappy to use because it's an amateur addition (e.g. it won't slide nicely because it isn't "straight") and probably not worth the effort.
- There might be some value in adding an internal zip to a knee pocket to split it into two parts, but I don't know. It might also be easy to hand sew a second zip in there given they're perhaps squarer than the main hip pockets. I could imagine keeping my room key zipped up in there to help protect it against casually falling out, especially in the knee pocket I don't keep my loose change in [this is what I originally wrote, but I think I wrote this forgetting I had started to keep change in back pocket anyway] - if I have a knee pocket which mainly just holds a hanky, it isn't likely to be too fiddly to get at an internal zipped pocket on the relatively rare occasions I need to access my key.
- Even if I'm not worried about pickpockets, I need to make it a habit to zip up at least the right hand main hip pocket to stop things (like my Vaseline tin) getting lost. Zipping up the left pocket with the phone in is mainly for pickpocket protection only, but I suppose under some circumstances it might be a concern that the phone will get lost. Keeping small bills in a knee pocket and loose change in a back pocket significantly reduces the inconvenience of keeping the right hand main pocket zipped up.
Clothes condition (after a 30C wash in machine at home):
- the red short-sleeved T-shirt isn't too bad but has a kind of dark stain towards the bottom on the front
- ignoring the logos coming off, both blue Raging Sport tops seem to be in decent condition - as does the black
- the blue Craft top has really bad dark stains on in multiple places, including back of neck
- both pairs of trousers have some rips/tears, they are not on the verge of collapsing but I definitely wasn't looking at my best wearing them
- the black pair has some mud stains on the lower legs which didn't come out in the wash, this may just require more washing to come out
- the blue pair has really faded or persistently dirty-dusty knees, I had noticed this while I was away and I suspect it is fading
- without actually trying it on again to check (and I have spares and body size changes mean it's prudent to be checking this and buying new as necessary nearer the date of a future trip anyway, so there's no rush to buy replacements if necessary now) this [underwear?] all seems in fair condition, one pair of the bamboo socks has gone a bit "fuzzy" near the top (but this happened very early in the trip)
- My travel baseball cap is a bit old and slightly faded and (given it can't be machine washed) perhaps a tiny bit "greasy", but I've given it a hand wash and it isn't terrible. It might not be a bad idea to look into getting another one, ideally in a slightly lighter (but not dirt-showing) colour if possible.
- The fleece seems in pretty good condition, I'm a bit surprised given how long I've had it but then again it spends most of the time in my bag rather than being worn. I don't really think it needs replacing, although a slightly lighter colour might be nice and if I could find something equally warm which is lighter that would be nice. I don't know if lightweight-but-warm is a reasonable demand of a fleece type garment.
- rain jacket and waterproof trousers appear to be fine, not too surprising given how little use they've had
- the bandanna looks OK and given I carry it mainly for swimming or for use as extra sun protection when out walking etc it isn't all that critical either
I really don't know what these dark stains are, I have to assume they are sweat or dirt rather than food or coffee stains (some of them are in places food stains don't make sense). I suppose they could be sunblock, but some of the stains aren't in places where that's logical either. The red T-shirt says wash at 30C so I haven't rewashed that, it isn't that bad and I will just relegate it to everyday round the house type wear. I washed the blue Craft top at 40C (and in biological detergent, FWIW) and it hasn't helped, so I may do the same with that.
There is definitely no way I'm wearing either pair of trousers on a subsequent trip, the rips/tears are just bad enough that even if I didn't care at all about how they looked I'd be setting myself up for catastrophic failure mid-trip. I suspect the RS tops will be fine for another trip (though I may want to mix in some of my newer RS tops to hedge my bets).
I will probably keep the underwear set aside for travel and try it all on nearer the next trip (I may have gained/lost weight, though not such an issue for the socks). I may prefer to buy or use existing unworn items for another trip just to be safe, especially for the socks where I could easily put them into my daily wear rotation, but for now I'll probably just set them aside and see how things look when the next trip comes round. I do also want to be vaguely ready for the unlikely but possible case of a sudden unexpected trip where I don't have time to buy lots of new stuff.
Clothes selection:
- I wish the Raging Sport tops came in a lighter colour, but looking back I don't think even the "black" (dark grey-ish) one was a big deal in terms of being too hot.
- I definitely preferred the RS tops over the Craft one, feeling (perhaps fairly, but not sure) they were a bit lighter. When I wasn't tight on clean clothes, I'm fairly sure I tended to wear the RS tops more frequently than the Craft one as a result.
- The red short-sleeved top was comfortable and did see use in the evenings and for swimming.
- The trousers were comfortable and while I might like something even lighter weight, in practice I'm unlikely to be able to get it. They seemed adequate for the relatively cold conditions on the three day trek as well. They were cheap and I think on the whole they did last well enough, I would prefer something a little more durable (and wouldn't mind paying a bit more for it, if I could be confident I was paying for quality and not for nothing or a fancy brand), but I would at least consider buying more of the same model (if that's even possible) for a future trip.
- I think the balance of clothes was about right. Having the short-sleeved top definitely helped both with stretching out laundry by being a "worn in not-so-sweaty evening conditions" top and was a comfortable option in the evenings too, not to mention its use for swimming. I could vague see going to three long-sleeved and two short-sleeved tops, but given I do like long sleeves during the day for sun and (maybe) insect resistance, I suspect I'd end up doing laundry more often or it being more inconvenient when there are no decent laundry facilities.
- The slightly thicker Craft top might have been something of a benefit in colder conditions like the three day trek, but I didn't IIRC wear it every single day so it's not as if the RS tops weren't adequate once layered with fleece and rain jacket as required. Ignoring this possible benefit in cold conditions and - perhaps a bigger concern - the lack of variety in style and especially colour, I would probably have been even better served by having four RS long-sleeved tops.
- Both the four pairs of "bamboo" socks and the single thicker Quechua probably-mostly-synthetic socks were fine. I am not sure it was necessary to have the thicker pair, I did wear them sometimes for hiking but I am fairly sure even on the three day trek I didn't wear the thicker socks every day. It probably wouldn't have helped if I had, but it's hard to be sure about this. I did prefer wearing the thinner socks in hot places when I wasn't hiking (most of the time) and probably avoided the Quecha ones when I had plenty of clean socks in hand, but I don't recall feeling significantly annoyed when I ended up wearing the Quecha socks under "normal" conditions. So this balance was probably OK, even if it isn't necessarily optimal or that critical.
- While I ended up carrying the fleece in my bag most of the time and something lighter or (perhaps actually more important) less bulky, if it exists, would be nice, as a layering solution it works well.
- I did wear the rain jacket a little bit and I at least kind of needed the waterproof overtrousers. As I've said before, even this new rain jacket is decidedly not lightweight and getting a much lighter one would definitely help for next time, both in terms of lowering overall pack weight and making it more palatable to carry the rain jacket around in my day pack on casual day hikes and similar.
Unless there's something hiding somewhere I've overlooked, I seem to have come back with COP266000. That's the kind of amount I feel fairly comfortable keeping on hand, it doesn't leave me with that much inflation exposure and it's enough to comfortably pay for emergency taxis or food or accommodation the first night of a subsequent trip if I can't withdraw cash at the airport. I also have USD469 (only counted once, could have made a slip) so I did (as I planned/hoped) bring back more than I took out by quite a wide margin - yes cash is exposed to inflation, but holding USD isn't a bad thing and it's disproportionately useful to take on future trips even to non-USD countries.
The flip belt pouch thing seems to be in good condition. While it isn't perfect (it's annoying it won't fit banknotes lengthwise without being folded) it worked well on the whole and was undoubtedly way more comfortable than the inside waist belt I used to use. I did keep a 32GB SD card in it with the intention of keeping a copy of my photos on there, but (although it didn't) this always felt a little precarious as once the pouch was unzipped it would have been easy for it to fall out, and more to the point I was too lazy to go to the extra faff of copying stuff onto that SD card after already copying it from the O6 to the 128GB USB thumb drive and the K1.
Stuff I took with me and didn't use if memory serves:
- masks
- cable ties
- elastic cord (I *did* IIRC use the non-elastic string to make a makeshift glasses holder when abseiling, even if the instructor made me a better one)
- sewing stuff (I *should* have used this to repair the pocket zip, but I didn't)
- safety pins
- elastic bands
- spare headphone earbuds
- Howsarlock
- bandages/plasters
- whistle
- most of my SD cards (I did use a single 32GB card in the flip belt but gave up on it early on)
- water purifying tablets
- diarrhea (and hangover) rehydration salts (unless I used these when I was ill before the boat trip and forgot?)
- tenacious tape (though I did give some to Liam)
- double sided sticky foam tape strips
- bubble wrap
- spare glasses
- waterproof overtrousers (but I did take them and came close to using them on the three day hike, which I think justifies having them)
- fridge magnets to use as gifts
[November 2024: This is based mainly on the stuff I keep in the tube cube, which is the bulk of the miscellaneous small items. I didn't get round to going over the rest of the stuff I took and reviewing that to see what was used, although since it is generally fewer and larger items it's more obvious whether I used them or not anyway.]
Obviously some (if not all) of this is still worth taking, particularly for spares or things which are there if I need them in an "emergency" but don't expect to use them routinely. But I want to write this out honestly for future reference when considering packing list tweaks.
The "Bag Bag" daypack with drawstring top worked really well once I tied knots in the straps to shorten them. Sometimes a zip would have been nice for more secure closure but I did like the reliability and "auto closing when worn" aspect of not having a zip. It seems to be in reasonable condition and would probably be fine for another trip.
My short USB A-USB C cable, intended for charging phones from powerbank in bag or in pocket, didn't really work. I may have used it once or twice and it may have come in handy as a spare if (I'm not sure) my main long A-C cable was becoming unreliable towards the end of the trip, but in general it was too stiff and thus too prone to coming out (the USB C port on the O6 is just possibly going iffy or this particular plug was quite fat and didn't interact well with the case or both or something similar) to be really useful. Since I on the whole got by fine without it, this suggests I don't really need it, and thus I could drop it and not take a second full length cable as a replacement. Outside of a few rare situations (like being in the middle of a hike or something), you can buy a USB A-C cable anywhere (even if you might not like the price for the not-guaranteed quality) and even in those rare situations you can probably (but no guarantee, because iPhones) borrow one off someone at a push. To be fair, my over-stiff one weighed 9g. Paja pesa and all that, but this is pretty negligible, and if I could get a truly flexible one of half-decent quality, 9g-ish isn't necessarily a bad deal in order to have a spare. I also need to remember that I did take this with me on (IIRC) the Volcan Baru hike, where the reduction in bulk and weight over a full length cable made carrying it much more palatable. (I had taken my powerbank with its torch head adapter as a backup torch, so adding the nice but not essential ability to recharge my phone from it only cost me this extra 9g and not much space. On a hike like that weight is more significant, but even ignoring that, the reduced bulk compared to a full length cable is valuable.)
[November 2024 - I can't remember the timeline, but I did continue to have trouble with the USB C port on the O6 once I got home. One or two cables worked fine, but others didn't. In the end it turned out to be nothing more serious than an accumulation of dust/lint in the port, and cleaning it out with IPA and a stiff-bristled brush seems to have fixed it. I haven't retested my travel cables, but it's possible they are fine. That said, I suspect the short one *is* still too stiff to stay reliably in the port, or might strain the port, if used to charge in a bag or pocket.]
As far as I can tell - I did give it a look over - the Deuter backpack is still in good shape and would be fine for another trip. It was a tiny bit dirty in places, I gave it a wipe down with a damp cloth but haven't gone out of my way to really try to clean it. It doesn't look conspicuously dirty at a quick glance.
On a random note, when I was sitting with my iced coffee in that coffee place I liked in Salento there was a religious leaflet with a painting of Jesus on the front. When I got back to London, there was a leaflet (presumably the same but translated) with the same painting on the front waiting in my mailbox. The London one says jw.org on the back, so I assume it's Jehovah's Witnesses and the Salento one was too, although I suppose it is just possible this is a stock image which multiple organisations chose to use - although the pamphlet is a similar shape and design which makes me think it is the same thing in both places. I just snapped a photo of the London one for reference, not that it matters.
Skimming by chance the post-mortem notes for my 2020 Colombia trip on the blog, it seems all the language exchanges I went to in Medellin were apparently on Couchsurfing not Meetup. I don't *think* this is why I couldn't find any this time, because I was only looking on Meetup, but I can't really rule it out.
Looking back at some of my photos and videos from the Costa Rica trip last year, I am reminded that I did miss having the optical zoom on my digital compact camera. But this mostly can't be helped, since as I think I've said various times, digital compact cameras of the actually compact consumer grade type don't seem to be a thing any more - it's smartphones or pricy "prosumer"-ish digital cameras which are big and in particular far more expensive than I want to be carrying around routinely (risk of loss/theft/damage).
[December 2024: I have actually bought a Pixel 7 Pro now, and part of the justification for splurging on the Pro was the fact it does have an optical zoom. So fingers crossed that will improve photos on a subsequent trip, although even second hand it is an expensive enough phone that I'm a bit edgy about carrying it round and exposing it to muggers or simple damage. It's also possible that the digital zoom on more modern smartphones like say a Pixel 6/6a/7/7a with a 50MP sensor would provide some genuinely useful digital zoom, compared to the O6's ~12MP sensor, but I thought the optical zoom was worth getting, at least as an experiment. The increased physical screen size of the Pro is a mixed blessing, but when my phones are my only "computers" on a trip, having that slightly larger screen may make viewing videos on quiet-ish evenings in a bit more pleasant. It was the optical zoom that really sold me on the Pro though.]
On another random note, the postcards I sent from Panama City have still not arrived [as of December 2024] and presumably never will, although I guess there's always a microscopic chance they magically turn up.
As I write this in late November 2024, I have still barely started to sort out the photos for the 2024 trip, because I got massively blocked on the 2023 photos. The big problem is that because I "had" to backup to Google Photos (because my homebrew solution IIRC broke in different ways during both 2023 and 2024 trips), I ended up with thousands of duplicate photos which are *not* binary identical - my own full quality copies and the Google Photos copies. Because of things like HDR photos and just repeated clicking of the shutter sometimes, I can't use "visual duplicate" detection software to absolutely reliably identify duplicates and this has mired me in a situation where checking for actual duplicates I can safely delete rather than keep (because they're lower quality Google Photos copies of photos I still have the full quality original for) has been a massive chore. I haven't even started on the GPS tagging yet, and it may be that I'll decide to let that go. [Despite using phone cameras, a lot of photos don't seem to have been GPS tagged - probably because my O6 doesn't have wifi triangulation, although it may just be some other random glitchiness. I am taking a GPS track log and that works on the whole, so it's not as if the phone can't get GPS locks in general.] Every now and then I make a bit of an effort to push through with the de-duplication and final cleaning up but it never seems to quite get done.
I'm not blaming Google Photos for this, it did get me out of a hole (of not being able to back up my images and being vulnerable to physical theft or loss or data corruption while abroad and losing all my photos), but it's still a fact that having all these visual but not binary duplicates has been a huge drag.
I did sort the 2023 photos into folders based on location (albeit imperfectly) ages ago and I think I even made a start on this for the 2024 photos. This is mildly tedious but not a huge job (especially since I have the blog to refer back to for dates/times). It's the cleaning up of duplicates and wondering if I remembered to locate random photo set X (e.g. the ziplining stuff) that turns it into a bit of a nightmare.
Videos are a little bit more unpleasant to sort as they never seem to have any metadata, notably "the actual date and time of recording" (there's just the timestamp on the file, which often as not gets turned into the time it was copied around a few days later to put on an SD card or phone, not the time of recording), but luckily I don't have *that* many.
I hope to avoid Google Photos on a future trip, but if my homebrew backup solution breaks again (touch wood) I may have no choice, of course.
Another irritation is that because I have all these various multiple copies and downloads but I can't do a nice "formal" backup (e.g. on to optical media) until the work of tidying the photos is finished, I end up with pretty bulky copies of e.g. Google takeout and my own copies of the files occupying valuable space (including on miscellaneous USB sticks, stopping me reusuing them for anything else). Which also reminds me that I *hope* I "moved" rather than copied (but that feels risky) the files off the phones and USB stick I took with me, otherwise wiping that off to make space for a future trip is going to be its own "argh, can I safely delete these?" nightmare. I suppose if I do this before I do any GPS tagging (or at least, if I keep checksums of the files before GPS tagging) this is at least a binary duplicate issue, but it's still something which is a regularly occurring source of faff and stress when I'm trying to get things ready pre-trip. I hope I already learned this lesson, but I can't be sure I did.
1st December: Just been doing a bit of basic sorting into folders of 2024 photos and this is feeling incredibly easy. Slightly tedious but really not that big a deal at all, especially with the blog to refer back to for dates. I suspect it was actually similar back when I was initially sorting the 2023 photos into folders. This isn't hard. It's dealing with the duplicates and trying to collate assorted random photographs, sound recordings, GPS tracks, etc that end up in miscellaneous places plus the GPS tagging which takes the time.
No comments:
Post a Comment