Luggage Issues

I am unable to pack lightly. For a while I was living in Switzerland I kidded myself that I had become a capsule packer – when going home to Ireland for the weekend and I would "only" take 10kg hand luggage with me.

Packing for South America was an ordeal that took 8 hours alone to make the stuff I wanted to take go into the bags (yes, bags, plural). But there's a lot to do here (and I want to do it all) & in a lot of different climates: I had to take into account summer weather/Patagonia/polar weather/amazon weather and horse riding gear lists. I have lost count of the amount time that planning and agonizing over what to bring took me. People laugh at me when they see the amount of stuff I haul around. Then the amusement turns to horror as they contemplate lugging it around themselves, and then incredulity when I tell them it all weighs 27kg and takes up an 85l rucksack and a 35l day pack.

Or at least it used to weigh 27kg. I haven't had the opportunity to weigh the bags recently but everything is fitting much more neatly and the bags don't seem as strained or difficult to close. I'm not holding my breath and praying that the zip doesn't burst each time I close the bag anymore. Either: 1) the bag has stretched, 2) I've gotten really good at packing, or 3) I'm lugging so much crap around with me that I can't possibly remember it all; and I'm slowly but surely leaving stuff behind all over the place that I didn't really need in the first place and now I don't even notice when it's gone. I'm hoping it's a combination of 1 & 2, but there is more than a sneaking suspicion that it's number 3 L.

Here's what I know I have lost/forgotten/misplaced so far: 1 pair of converse trainers, new bottles of shampoo/conditioner/shower gel (1 each) – these all went missing in Cordoba – but I was moving hostels a lot there, and usually hung-over at the time. 1 pair of riding gloves – I managed to lose these on the last day of the ride between and after taking my saddle bags off my horse and unpacking the same saddle bags a couple of hours later at the hostel. Silly me – I was annoyed about that one even though they were really old gloves but I specifically brought the old woolly ones so that I could use them in cold weather as well.

Yesterday I realised I couldn't find my phone. The last time I remember having it/using it as an alarm clock was in Uspallata – which is over a week ago – so I must have left it there. Again I don't mind too much – it was useful for receiving texts but I wasn't able to send any – the only real problem is that I have lost all my numbers. So if you are reading this & I had your number before, please email it to me, thanks J.

I have also ditched a sum total of 4 items of clothes so far: a skirt and 3 t-shirts. At the beginning I couldn't bear to do it but the novelty is starting to wear off. I don't mind the weight or lugging it around – that's not the issue – it's the worrying about whether my bag will break/burst that I can't handle. I've also bought a pair of shorts, ¾ length trousers & a sun hat, and got a really nice top from my mate Grainne who was purging her bag – so I guess all that negates the stuff I did toss. Woops – watch this space to see if I end up living in my bags cos there's enough room in there for me...