No matter how big a trip is, I always put off packing until the last minute. New York tomorrow? I’ll wake up early and get everything together. Chile in a week? Six more days to enjoy Taco Bell and Pie Hole.
Still, despite my packing habits, I’ve never been far from home without something critical. After a little bit of time away from home, heres a few things I wish I would have brought, and a few things I could have left at home.

Should have thrown in the bag before I left:

1. A book or two. Viewing everything on the computer is exhausting. Something fiction and fun would be a nice break when I don’t feel comfortable pulling the laptop out around town.

2. Ankle socks. It’s cooling down here, but still too warm for the full-length wool socks I brought. Some nice Smartwool ankle socks would be unbelievably handy walking through downtown when it hits 87 and I’ve got to walk into the muggy Metro.

3. A basic, shirt for running or working out. Maybe something like an Underarmour deal where it would dry quick and take up the size of a orange in my bag.

4. Soundslides. Sometimes it’s difficult to put together a whole post on anything and explain it. Soundslides, a program that combines photos with audio then exports them so they’re easily accessible on the web, would be very nice for when I’ve got a lot of photos but not a lot of context for them.

5. Better Spanish. It’s definitely easier to be motivated to learn Spanish down here then when I’m in virtually English-only Idaho, but a few months of preperation would have payed dividends once I got down here.

6. A cute, travel-loving gal’. While the mujeres here are friendly, my eyes might need a few years adjusting before I fall in love with a local.

Could have let get dusty for a while:

1. Three pairs of pants. A pair of jeans and a pair of dress pants would be just fine. I haven’t worn my dress pants though, so next time I bet I take just a pair of jeans + two pairs of shorts.

2. My big, warm, fleece jacket. I love my black Mounain Hardwear fleece. Honestly. It repels water. It’s super comfortable. And, sometimes best of all, it resists smelling like all kinds of stink. But at least in Santiago, it’s a winter jacket. It’s my bulkiest item in my whole bag by far and a tiny wind breaker would do the trick.

3.An expensive camera. I love my Canon S90, but I don’t think I would have missed out on much had I brought a cheaper camera. While it’s great in low-light conditions, going out at night – with gadgets in hand no less – isn’t exactly a recipe for safety but it is for getting something nabbed.

4. A great laptop. If I love my jacket and camera, then I double-love my laptop. It’s the same weight as a Macbook Air, it has the same graphics chip (Nvidia Ion/9400m) as a Macbook Pro but runs Windows 7 and  is sexy. While the cost was reasonable, $500, I could reasonably be doing all my updates from my iPod Touch.

5. Any ID. I haven’t drank much down here, but I’ve yet to be carded, even on my baby-face smooth days.

Tags: books, camera, Chile, espanol, Gear, laptop, Santiago, socks

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 25th, 2010 at 2:16 pm and is filed under Santiago de Chile. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.