After traveling in Asia for 12 weeks, we went home for the holidays in December to celebrate with family. Luckily, I had some old sweaters and jeans stashed at our friend’s house so I was able to stay warm. I also got to try out some of my clothes that I had made in Hoi An, which in real life I had mixed feelings about.

Then I set about packing for our Central and South American adventure. We planned to spend a week in Mexico, which was warm and dry. A month in Xela, Guatemala studying Spanish, which turned out to be a wonderful and really cold experience. We came back to Southern California for a long weekend to reunite with friends before flying LAX-Santiago-Punta Arenas to begin our month long adventure in Patagonia. We wound our way north through South America, spending our final month in Colombia and our final week on the Caribbean Coast, where this blog post was written. All that to say, we passed through every climate. We’ve been sweating it out in shorts and tank tops this last week, and our first week in Patagonia I wore almost all my layers through the course of a day.

I was most nervous about how to pack for Patagonia while also having something to wear in Buenos Aires that didn’t scream “I live out of a 40L backpack!” All in all, I think I did pretty good. In addition, I’ve been reading a lot about purchasing clothes that are ethically made (workers who  get a fair wage) and sustainable (made from fabrics that are good for the environment and our bodies). I’ve committed to trying to only buy ethically made, sustainable clothes (which includes just buying things used!) but some of the below items I’ve owned for quite awhile and would not fit that bill (I’m looking at you, Lulu Lemon).

Below are the details of what I packed.

Disclaimer: These are my clothes in their ‘natural habitat’. Aka, they have been rolled up from days we spent living in a tent in the mountains of Minca and many are dirty but since we fly home tomorrow I haven’t washed them. Thankfully you can’t smell them through this post, so we are all safe.

CLOTHES and SHOES

5 Warm Weather Tops 

3 Tank Tops:

• 1 Black Muscle Tank from Everlane, 100% cotton (second in from left side of photo). It has held up pretty well over the year though is pilling a little. A pretty good ethical brand.
• 1 Black Tank Top from Eileen Fisher, thrifted. It is 100% silk and I LOVE it. It doesn’t smell and I can wear it days in a row without worrying about stretching, deodorant, sweating, etc… (second from right of photo). A good brand for ethical clothes, plus I got it thrifted!
• 1 black Lulu Lemon yoga tank, that has faithfully endured a year in Tanzania, travel through Africa, Asia and now Central/South America. If you have seen a photo of me doing yoga then you have seen this top. When I’m not sweating in it all the time I also sleep in it. I wore this as a base layer most days hiking in Patagonia (center of photo). Not ethical, not sustainable. Except that I am wearing it into the ground.

2 T-Shirt Style Tops:

• 1 v-neck blue Madewell T-shirt I had all year in Tanzania. It was nice to have a basic T, although it has multiple holes in it now. Not an ethical brand.
• 1 v-neck gray shirt from Prana that I bought for hiking. It was ok. It wasn’t as quick dry as I hoped and not as cute as I wanted for everyday wear. When hiking, I usually wore this every evening as my post-hiking outfit in tents and refugios. Prana is a quality brand for ethically, sustainably made clothing.

3 Cool Weather Tops

3 Long Sleeves

• 1 long-sleeved black Patagonia thermal. I bought this with Christmas money and it was about $90 USD(yikes!) but so worth it. I wore it everyday hiking, on top of my Lulu Lemon tank top. It breathed great but also kept me warm. I also used it as a mosquito cover up. Patagonia is an excellent brand for ethically made, sustainable and high quality products.
• 1 long sleeved Chambray, purchased from Madewell years ago. I traded this out for my other light Chambray, which was so dirty and did not hide it well. Even though jean is thick and doesn’t pack down great, it took a lot to make it smell bad and was much cuter to wear in the city than a thermal top
• 1 woolish sweater from Royal Robbin. I wanted something warm for hiking and this sweater was great. It is made of acrylic, merino wool, nylon and linen. I usually wore it in the evenings and slept in it while hiking in Patagonia, rarely were the days so cold that I also needed to wear it and I liked to reserve a clean set of clothing for evenings. I think they are a good brand though I couldn’t find much information online.

2 Jackets

• Patagonia nano-puff, packs down small. If it was cold while hiking this was my layer on top of my black Patagonia thermal. This jacket was a workhorse all year. While I sometimes wished I had a cozy fleece instead, the size to warmth ratio of this jacket can’t be beat.
• Patagonia black rain coat. A friend graciously loaned me this jacket and I loved it! It is longer than a traditional raincoat, which I thought was perfect to cover my leggings while hiking and was cuter than your average jacket to wear in the city. I read a lot of Around the World packing lists that debated the merit of a raincoat. My thoughts now that we’ve been around: If you are going to South America, especially if you are hiking, it is a non-negotiable. I wore it in every country and daily in Patagonia for wind or rain or a light jacket. If you are only going to Asia, then definitely no. It rained but it was too humid for a jacket and a cheap poncho would do just fine.

2 Dresses 

• 1 black linen dress from Everlane. Another item that came to both Asia and Central/South America and I loved it. The linen held up really well and I could wear it with leggings or jeans when it was cold out. One of my favorite items.
• 1 black cotton dress from Gap, old. I traded in my travel-fabric dress and orange slip from Asia for this instead and that was a good choice. Since generally it was less humid in Centra/South America, it was ok to have the thicket cotton fabric. I also could wear it with jeans/leggings, stretching the uses of it.

5 Bottoms 

• 1 pair of Prana Uptown black pants- lightweight, quick dry, great for hiking or everyday wear. These pants traveled with me all year and I never hated them or loved them either. They were a little to travely looking but also they worked great. They ripped twice and will be laid to RIP as soon as I get home
• 1 pair of black Lulu lemon yoga pants. In an effort to buy things that are more ethically and sustainably made I wouldn’t buy these again but they sure have served me well so far
• Another pair of black leggings! This may sound crazy but it was a good choice. On the W, I would hike in the Lulu pants during the day then sleep in the other, an old Hard Tail pair, at night. When we were doing yoga regularly in Guatemala, I exercised in one and slept/wore the others out.
• Jeans! This is another hotly contested item when you are packing lightly. For South America, I am a firm believer that if you are a jeans wearer, they are a must. I wore them all the time and they helped me feel ‘normal’. Haha, how American is that? These are from Everlane, the straight fit from the men’s section.
• 1 pair of black shorts, Patagonia, quick dry- good for hiking, sleeping, and can wear them everyday too. I don’t love wearing shorts in general so one pair is enough for me. I never actually wore then out and about as shorts until Colombia’s heat and now I’ve been wearing them all the time.

Sleeping Attire

I had more delineation of sleeping attire in Asia but it was so much colder in Central/South America that I slept in so many different clothes I can’t really say I had a sleeping outfit.

3 Shoes 

• 1 pair of camel colored Sabah slip-ons, no socks needed, dress up or down. These were great. I brought one cute pair of socks to wear with them when it was chilly. Bonus was they dried pretty quick if we got caught in the rain. The shoes are hand-crafted in Turkey.
• 1 pair of Birkenstocks- Hands down my favorite shoes in this heat, for walking everywhere, and if I could only wear one pair the rest of the time these would be it. Most info I found sounds like Birkenstocks are a good ethical brand and I would buy them again
• 1 pair of Solomon low-top hiking boots- After the painful experience of hiking from Xela to Lake Atitlan in my Blundstone boots, I was ready to never look at them again so when we were home between Guatemala and Patagonia I picked up my old Solomon hiking boots. I’m so glad I did, I can not imagine doing the W-trek without them. Even if we had not done the W, we did so much hiking in every country in South America that I think real hiking boots are a must. The downside was they were my only true waterproof shoes, which meant I ended up salsa dancing in boots on one rainy day in Medellin. Maybe nobody noticed?

Unders, not pictured

• 8 pairs of ExOfficio underwear, which are the best! Quick dry, comfortable, pack small
• 3 bras: 2 sports (both Patagonia ‘barely there’ in black) and one regular. This was a good balance for me for exercising, sleeping and actually being able to wear the sports bra too
• 1 swimsuit
• 5 pairs of socks, one is SmartWool for hiking that are tall so they can cover my ankle gap and protect me from bugs, the other are ankle heigh to hide under my boots. On thin pair of Smart Wool wish I washed were thicket. And one thick pair of Smart Wool. I would have enjoyed a 5th pair while we were hiking Patagonia, as clean dry socks are key to no blisters. But also, I survived blister free with only 4 pairs, including reserving a clean pair for sleeping each night. The 5th pair I picked up in the airport as my ‘cute’ socks to wear with my Sabahs

Packing Clothes: Cubes!

I’m a huge fan of packing cubes, like everyone else. I use three cubes.

• 1 large white Eagle Creek Cube for my bottoms and dresses
• 1 small white one for Unders and sleeping outfit
• 1 small blue one for t-shirts/tops
• Patagonia Nano-Puff has its own special packing cube.
• Patagonia rain jacket also had its own special packing cube
• 1 small mesh bag for dirty clothes. When the dirty clothes started to add up then I just created a ‘clean cube’ and ‘dirty cube’ because a lot of dirty clothes in a mesh bag was quite bulky

NOT CLOTHES and SHOES

 

 

 

 

 

Other

• 1 Scarf, worked as scarf, towel when needed, extra layer on cold nights, on public transit as a pillow or blanket. It is bulky but necessary and I am so sad to report I lost it in Bolivia(the photo above is from Cambodia). I’ve been on the hunt to replace it but nothing has compared.
• 1small tan/brown scarf my friend Melissa bought me in Cambodia. I ended up really loving this, it was perfect to cover up my shoulders for a temple or my dirty hair on the road
• 1 yoga mat, Manduka Travel Mat, which I love. At the end of 2 years use it has mostly lost its stick but I feel it did its job and am happy to lay it to rest.
• 3 hats!
  • 1 I bought in San Miguel de Allende because I loved it. It was so inconvenient, toting around with me on countless bus rides. But I would do it all over again
  • 1 bought in Cartagena because the trip is almost over and I wanted to enjoy the beach vibes with a lighter hat that wasn’t my baseball cap
  • 1 baseball cap I bought in Target just before flying to Patagonia, after searching all over the place for an ethically made one. The hat was a must have for hiking
  • I had a warm hat for Patagonia that was also a must but sent it home with our friend Tess in Buenos Aires, so no photo
• 1 pair of water-proof gloves. I also sent these home with Tess. I can not imagine hiking Patagonia without them.
• 1 cross-body leather purse, for kindle and wallet and headphones
• Headlamp
• Coffee mug with back-up Via Coffee (I’m a coffee addict). See Jasons coffee post.
• Hydroflask water bottle Just sent this home with my friend, sadly there is rarely filtered water so we always end up buying water bottles anyways.
• I Flip and Tumble Lightweight Travel Backpack Having a collapsable backpack was great for Asia but I used it so much in Central/South that I wished I just had a proper, non-collapsable backpack
• Journal
• Spork! I wish I also had a reusable straw, since learning that straws contribute to a lot of waste and a reusable one is a simple solution
• Extra drugs

Toiletries, Bag 1 (green) and 2 (white) (This is all the same as previous post from Asia, no changes really)

Bag 1

 

 

 

 

 

• Toothbrush/toothpaste
• Deodorant
• Face powder and brush, mascara, eyebrow pencil, and my favorite lip/cheek stain and bronzer from my friend Leyna at Urb Apothecary
• A few pairs of earrings, (my favorite from Essie Day Jewlery) and necklaces, 1 headband
• Drugs: Taking up more space than I like but just a few essentials in case we get traveler’s diarrhea, itchy, nauseated, constipated, allergic, a UTI and to prevent malaria
• Eye mask and ear plugs

Bag 2 (where all the liquids live so if they spill they only spill on each other)

• 4 silicone Eagle Creek bottles with conditioner, shampoo, Dr. Bronners multi purpose soap and curly-hair stuff
• Nail polish and remover, so I can live in luxury
• Daily face moisturizer
• Sunscreen
• I also picked up Urb Apothecary’s Willow Charcoal Face Wash and I’m a huge fan!

Electronics

 

 

 

 

 

• iPhone and charger
• MacBook and charger
• Kindle
• Headphones
• Converter
• Recharger

Final Thoughts from living out of a 40L backpack for a year

It was a really fun adventure to live with so little. Until it wasn’t so fun, all my clothes were falling apart, and I was ready to come home. Ha!

Fashion Advice:

• Stick with a color palette. Mine, quite obviously, was black. In the future I wouldn’t bring two black tanks and I would bring another more interesting t-shirt but sometimes you gotta work with what you have and I tried to spend as little as I could on clothing.
• Personally I think dark colors are better, because sweat is real and the laundry mat isn’t usually separating your lights and delicates. I saw some women wearing cute white crop tops, bless them.
• Having a scarf, earrings, lip gloss, a hat, aka accessories, made up in a big way for all of the clothes that I did not have. It made the same black tank top seem a little more interesting
• Only bring things you would actually wear!
  • My most disliked items were the ‘travel’ ones- my black Prana pants, Prana t-shirt, black Toad & Co dress I took to Asia, and gray sweater. Some of them I would bring again because they served a purpose (I needed that gray sweater to keep me warm, so I forgave the awkward boat neck cut).
• Look good, feel good. I learned that I would rather wear the same thing I felt nice in many days in a row than something I felt screamed ‘I just stepped out of the REI dressing room!’. So that’s what I did.

General Advice:

• Definitely keep fabrics in mind. Linen was really wonderful and versatile in the heat and in temperate climates. Cotton is nice and loose but needs to be washed pretty much every wear. Jean is a workhorse and can also withstand many wears without washing.
• You can buy things on the road! While it can be hard to find/know if brands are ethically, sustainably made, it is definitely possible to buy nice clothes all over SE Asia, South/Central America and South Africa.
• Real hiking pants would be great for Patagonia. I didn’t have any, and I did survive. I only wore a garbage back as a skirt once and it worked out ok. I wish I had hiking pants but I also didn’t want to carry them around for 5 months.
• Do you actually need a backpack?
  • For Central/South America, yes. We converted them to daypacks often, or to 2-3 night overnight packs when we left clothes at the hostel and rented camping gear.
  • For Asia, no. I often wished I had just brought a roller, because we didn’t really hike or have need for a backpack.
• Patagonia: We flew down with hiking poles, which meant we had to check our carry-on. We carried them around Patagonia and then left them in Pucon. You can also buy them down there but they seemed quite spendy.

ALL PACKED

There aren’t really many changes from my Carry On packing for 6 weeks in Africa.  Check that out to see how it all fits/where it all goes.

Some outfit examples from Central/South America:

Above: Wine tasting in Mendoza. I wore my Lulu tank with jeans. It was super hot out.

Above: Because I decided I really wanted to carry my hat all around Central/South America, most ‘travel’ days I am wearing it. Also wearing my birks, black Prana pants, and thrifted Eileen Fisher tank. I wore this pretty much every day we were in Minca because it was dirty and sweaty up there and this hid that reality pretty well.

Above: From one of our days biking and hiking around San Pedro de Atacama. I wore my hiking shoes, black Prana pants which worked great for exercising in the heat, black Lulu tank. It was incredibly hot but as soon as the sun started setting I was happy to have my chambray on top.

Above: The first day of our Salt Flats tour. It was high altitude and cold to begin with, so I was wearing my leggings, a black tank top, my long sleeve black Patagonia thermal, my chambray, my scarf, and my hat. Drinking coco tea to try to help with altitude sickness. Turns out, I needed something stronger.

Above: Walking around town in Salento. Wearing my black dress, chambray, birks, and hat and carrying my small purse around. It was surprisingly warm during the days there.

Above: Wandering around Puerto Natales with Jess at sunset. Wearing my Sabah’s, black leggings, black raincoat and scarf. I don’t think my ankles were too cold.

Above: At the Mirador Britanico, in my W-trek hiking uniform. Solomon shoes, Smart Wool socks, Lulu leggings, Lulu black tank, black patagonia thermal and my raincoat. I didn’t always need my raincoat but the weather fluctuated so much, as did my sweating on inclines, that I usually just kept it on.

Above: Our first day in Punta Arenas, the farthest south I’ve ever been! Wearing my Sabahs with socks because it was so windy! Everlane jeans, Everlane linen dress, scarf and purse. And snack. Always snack.

Above: Our day trip to see Perito Merino Glacier in El Calafate. Wearing my hiking shoes, wool socks, leggings, chambray and Patagonia nano-puff jacket. And a hat, it was quite chilly. Then hot. Then it rained. Patagonia.

Above: Wandering around Mexico City in January. Wearing my city uniform of Sabah’s, jeans, a Madewell v-neck T, and carting around my chambray for an extra layer by draping it over my purse.