Tag: around the world

Powerbank

The List
Our Equipment For The RTW

After the decision to leave everything and go travelling comes the most difficult part: what should you take with you? You start reading and buying all this fancy, new stuff but is it really worth it?

We had the same problem, we also didn’t know what to take and we had no idea if what we decided to bring would be handy or not. But now we know… let’s go through our list of handy, useless, and missed stuff

 

Top handy:

  1. Powerbank

We got it as a gift actually and didn’t know that it is such a life saver! We use it all the time. Our powerbank can charge a mobile phone four times and it has a light. It’s also not too scared of water which helps. Check out our powerbank the Sandberg IP54. Powerbank

  1. Backpacks

Without it there is no backpacking. The most important thing is that it’s not too big because when it is you will pack it full before you notice and then you will have to drag way more kilos than necessary! Another feature that is really handy for your big backpack is that it opens like a suitcase as well as from above.

Initially we took two 38 L BACH backpacks and a tiny itsy bitsy BACH. All three of them are still with us and serve us very well. Later on we bought two additional backpacks but about those you will read futher below:)

  1. Washing kit (line, universal sink plug and soap)

Another great gift we got! We didn’t even realize that we wouldn’t be able to just leave our dirty clothes by some laundry place or that in so many places it would be so expensive. It saved us from stinking so many times!Washing/Drying Kit

  1. Shoes

It’s very important to have good ones just because they should be your only ones if you want to travel light. We both trusted Scarpa and never regretted it. They are perfect for hiking, walking around cities and surviving rain. They are also not too ugly. They are our only footwear on the road except for flip-flops.

  1. Sowing kit

When your clothes break (and they will!) you will need it. We used it soooo many times.Sowing Kit

  1. Earplugs

Without those be prepared for many sleepless nights. There is always at least one snorer or drunk in the dorm!

  1. Microfiber towels

They are horrible, they give you this weird feeling that you don’t get dry. Everywhere we could, we tried to use a normal towel but it doesn’t change the fact that the microfiber ones dry way faster than the normal ones and they occupy way less space.

  1. Layered clothing

A key to pack clothes is to bring lots of layers so that you can still use seperate things depending on the weather. We each brought an underlayer, t-shirts, a fleece and a rain jacket. With all these layers we managed to survive in Patagonia in the beginning of the winter.Glaciers, El Calafate, Argentina

  1. Headphones

There is nothing more uncomfortable when the whole hostel hears your skype conversation. Headphones give you privacy and the right to listen to some music and watch a movie when everyone is sleeping

  1. E-reader

I personally love the smell of books, I like holding them, seeing how much I read but… they are heavy. When you want to have many books and some guide books it’s better to invest in an e-reader. P.S. E-books are also cheaper and you save a few trees- that’s what I tell myself to cheer myself up when missing a real book:)

  1. Hard drive

We take pictures almost every day and not every day we have internet to upload them. Besides uploading takes ages. So to have a backup we always have a hard drive.

  1. Universal plug adapter

Unless you are in the middle of a forest and you want to just enjoy the nature without any electronics...

  1. That little something for a special occasion

Every now and then it's amazing to put something on that doesn't have stains and holes. It doesn't have to be fancy but a shirt for a guy or a dress for a girl would be great. Believe me, there are times when you don't want to feel like a hobo!Astrid and Gaston, Lima, Peru

 

Things we missed and bought along the way:

  1. Good camera

Before we were traveling with two pocket size cameras- one underwater as we love diving and one normal compact camera. After some time of taking pictures every single day we missed something better. We had more and more the feeling that we couldn't capture what we were seeing so we went for the real deal and bought our precious Canon... and some lenses:)

  1. Other backpacks

For our camera we needed a separate backpack so we bought an amazing Lowpro one. It's absolutely perfect, it fits not only the camera but also the lenses and it has quite a big space for some food, water and whatever you want. It's also very safe because the openning of the compartment where the camera is, is at the back so when you have it on you can't even see it's a camera backpack.

Except for the camera backpack we also bought just a standard north face day pack. Our itsy bitsy was just really uncomfortable when taking big weight.

Bastimentos, Bocas del Toro, Panama

  1. Laptop

We though we would manage only with our smartphones and an old tablet but no way! To mantain the blog and work on our pictures we bought a very simple and light laptop.Alto Bonito, Salamina, Colombia

Things we took and were useless:

  1. Merino wool socks

So we took two pairs of socks each because we were told that those wouldn’t stink and were unbelievable for hiking. We wore them at home for one week straight and they were great but during the trip they were a total miss, they stunk like normal socks do and they were not as special as you would expect from 20 euros a pair.

  1. Sheets

We read it would be super dirty in hostels and we would need to use our own sheets. That was not true except for the Amazon and The Lost City in Colombia. Except for that they were useless. Although we will give them another chance when going to Asia.

  1. Money belts

Absolutely useless really. We wore them maybe twice and they were extremely uncomfortable, not to mention that after two times they stunk like sweat. We never regretted not wearing them. We never had any unsafe situation and no one ever robbed us. Well maybe except for a dirty pair of panties that got mysteriously stolen from me.

  1. Medication

We were prepared for everything starting from bladder infection to malaria and guess what … we didn’t use most of it and we had to drag it around. We only used diarrhea related stuff and that’s what we’re gonna bring to Asia. If something happens there are pharmacies everywhere.

 

Stuff we missed and will buy

  1. Speaker

When we finally had a private room and wanted to watch a movie we had to wear headphones cuz we couldn’t hear a thing. Going to Asia we will definitely take a speaker to enjoy our private cinema

Salt Flats

A year in South America. How much does that cost? And why so much :)

In 368 days we traveled through Argentina, Uruguay, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia and we paid short visits to Ecuador and Brazil. In total we spend of 24 938 euros for the two of us.

Can you do it cheaper? Yes, for sure. We met a guy who was only eating rice and sometimes for the variety leftovers from other people. We didn’t do that. We also didn’t drink water from fountains and we didn’t sleep in parks. We did volunteer every now and then. You can always volunteer more. It’s a reasonable budget of two people that like good food (mainly cooked ourselves during the travel), don’t mind sleeping in dorms but sometimes get a double room and definitely don’t go for drinks every other night. OK let’s break it down then:)

Which country was the most expensive?

As you can see below Peru was the most expensive country. We spent 75 euros per day with the two of us. In total 5227 euros over 70 days. That’s because we did a very expensive Salkantay trek and we went a bit crazy on very fancy dining and we bought a cheap laptop (around 200 euros). We also didn’t do any volunteering. Honestly speaking I definitely feel Argentina was the most expensive country. We spend 65 euros per day for us two but we saved a lot by volunteering there for a month out of 99 days in the country. During the month on the farm, where we volunteered, we didn’t spend anything as the food and bed and rats were all included:) Otherwise the budget per day would be much higher. While expenses in different parts of Peru are comparable, in Argentina they are really different. For amazing colorful mountains and delicious wine in the North we paid way less than for omnipresent ice and coldness in the South. In Patogonia for a bed in a dorm in low season (so in total winter) we paid around 18-20 euros while in the north for that price you can find a nice private room with private bathroom.

 

Which country was the cheapest?

Bolivia. No doubt about that. Food, local transport and hostels are ridiculously cheap! And fun. While Colombia or Uruguay can be compared to Europe, Bolivia is definitely the furthest we got from the western world. The typical Bolivian Cholitas, their outfits and their hats- incredible. And I still can’t forget the dead baby lamas for good luck… On average per day we spend 45 euros so over 48 days “only” 2346 euros.

Salt Flats

What were the budget breakers in South America?

Well definitely Patagonia in Argentina. It’s one of the most beautiful things to see there but it’s really expensive. We went there in low season and it was still quite pricey and the variety of food was just ridiculous. We went there mentally prepared to eat instant noodles and potatoes and that was already difficult to find. That I’m not going to mention that we bought the most expensive pack of pasta there for 5 euros (nothing fancy just pasta).

Another one would definitely be Machu Picchu in Peru. We spend 843 dollars with the two of us to do an organized Salkantay trek to get to Machu Picchu. You can definitely do it on your own but Machu Picchu is still really expensive. Especially if you want to get a train to get there and then a bus and then maybe sleep somewhere close…

Machu Picchu, Peru

We also didn’t deny ourselves a paradise experience on the islands of San Andres and Providencia. We couldn’t cook there so we had to eat out every day and even though it was really cheap (around 5 euros for a meal) but it’s still not as cheap as something you cook yourself. We also didn’t go there to chill on the beach and count the seals. We went diving. Even though a two tank dive is only around 45 euros it’s still quite a lot of money for two people for more than one time.

One time we also decided to pamper ourselves with renting an apartment. We wanted to spend Christmas in a flat not in a dorm and we didn’t want to share a kitchen or bathroom. As a matter of fact, we didn’t even have to share a bathroom with each other.

OK, so on what did we spend all that money?

Accommodation was the most expensive part. We spend 6334 euros. We slept in many places. Countless dorms, some private rooms, sometimes a tent and a few times even a hammock which we definitely don’t recommend. A few times we went crazy on nice private rooms like in Minca for a room with a terrace and a nice view or Christmas when we rented a whole apartment for just the two of us. If we only slept in dorms we could probably cut the budget by 2000 euros.

Medellin, Colombia

To get from one place to another we spend 6212 euros. That includes also our flight to Buenos Aires from Paris (780 euros for both of us) and our flight from Colombia to Barcelona (1059 euros for the both of us). In South America our main mean of transport were local buses which were cheap everywhere except for Argentina. There for a 24 hour bus ride we paid around 130 euros (imagine in Peru an overnight bus was around 40 euros). And you need a 24 hour bus to get anywhere in this huge country. Colombia was the only country where we decided to fly around a bit since it was sometimes even cheaper than a bus!! God bless their Viva Colombia (Colombian Ryanair).

Food is not far behind. We ate for 6180 euros. Most of the times we cooked ourselves (really around 85%). But when we ate out we didn’t go to the cheapest places. We preferred to spend a bit extra to get good quality food. We also went for a few dates and a few drinks. Nothing too crazy. Well maybe except the 2 times we went for super fancy dining in Lima🙂

On tours, museums, fees and all things that you could call tourism we spend 4381 euros. Definitely a big part of it was our Salkantay trek on which we spend 843 euros and an 8-day kayaking tour through the amazon for 562 euros.

Jandirk took also an intensive Spanish course for a month, 4 hours a day which cost us 363 euros.

448 of our precious euros went for peeing in public toilets, medicine, books and other little things that out of the sudden became big money :O

On equipment we spent 966 euros that includes our new laptop, clothes that we bought along the way and other little things.

Alto Bonito, Salamina, Colombia

Our tips to travel cheaply.

  1. Keep track of every peso, euro, dollar spend. It’s the most important thing! For all of our expenses we have a spreadsheet to keep track and understand on what we spend our money and why. It helped us to be conscious with our spendings
  2. Sleep in dorms, always choose a hostel that has a kitchen! Those two saved us a lot of money. Even in cheap Bolivia eating out is more expensive than cooking yourself
  3. Volunteer when you can! It’s an awesome way to meet the locals and their culture and save a lot of money on accommodation and maybe even food. We volunteered chasing chickens on a farm in Argentina (WWOOF) and in hostels in Colombia and Panama (via Workaway)
  4. When you go to Argentina try to take as much US dollars as you can. You save a lot of money exchanging dollars on the streets for the blue dollar rate. And it’s not as dodgy a business as you would think. No one will slice your throat when you do it. At least we didn’t have any problems... ever
  5. Do your research! Check how much things should cost, ask the locals! We always checked how much a bed should be or a taxi or anything. Otherwise people will let their imagination loose with their prices and you won’t even know
  6. Try to use local transport!
  7. Try to travel off season
  8. If you speak Spanish try to use it to be a translator for tours! It’s definitely a big save up when you can do tours for free because you can translate. I did that during the Lost City trek

On our blog you can also find detailed budgets from each country:) if you still have any questions we will happily answer them:)

Lost City hike, Colombia

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