Sunday, January 8, 2012

Packing and Preparing for Costa Rica

As I'm preparing to pack for my first "non-cruise" trip to Costa Rica, I feel partly excited, yet mostly anxious about traveling alone to a foreign country.

What to pack -- what to pack...Sure the information I received from Maximo Nivel (the organization that is putting this trip together for me), provided pages and pages of information. I read everything they sent. Sure, I know all about the basics...but ziplock bags, a first aid kit, and a "day pack"...hmmmm. Bring $250.00 in cash for each week, plus a major credit card or debit cards. They also had a host of other things they suggested I bring. I added them all to my list of things to contemplate.

Even though I had my son drag my suitcase downstairs to my bedroom days before I actually departed, the truth is that I didn't begin packing until a few hours before my plane was to depart. After all, I had to work that day. As always, I left the chore of packing to the very last minute. There it was, the day of my departure, and I was "rolling and folding", nearly 3 weeks of "must haves" into a medium sized suitcase that I was determined wouldn't weigh over 30 lbs.

Since I consider myself and expert packer, I've learned quite a few packing tips....the most important tip is to make sure that everything has at least 3 purposes. For example a long skirt with elastic in the waist also doubles as a shorter dress (by wearing the elastic high - chest level) and can even triple as a below the knee dress when wore with a sarong, which can also double as a scarf, and wrap. The pants I packed are all convertible. They can be worn as long pants, or rolled and buttoned below the knee (converting them to walking shorts, Voila). The key to packing light is making sure that everything is in the same color family for easy mixing and matching.

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