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What We Learned Backpacking for 2 Months
40 liter packs are (almost) all you need
Imagine living out of a suitcase no bigger than a 1.5 square foot box. That’s basically what Shannon and I did for two months backpacking around Central America. We’re proud to report that not only did we have the smallest bags of anyone we met but that our 40 liter packs were perfectly adequate for this specific trip.
While “perfectly adequate” is a true enough description of what we experienced, “barely adequate” fits too. We’d have been in trouble if we needed to plan for colder weather or multiple seasons. Traveling through Central America we had the luxury of packing lightweight clothing, although the highlands of Guatemala got surprisingly chilly. I was happy to have a heavy fleece I didn’t originally intend to pack but brought along because Houston was so damn cold when we left.
Even in colder climates, we probably could have made the 40 liter backpacks work if not for all of the electronics we hauled: two laptops, a digital camera, a video camera, an iPhone, a surge protector, a universal power adapter, battery charger, and the cables needed to power all this junk. Leaving the electronics at home would have freed up almost an entire bag – but we’d never do that.
Howler Monkey Madness
Not one other traveler we met had Belize’s Community Baboon Sanctuary (CBS) on their itinerary. Most had never heard of it, which is a shame because it is definitely within the top three things we did in Central America. Tikal gets all the attention. Savvy travelers know that ATM Cave is a must do, but CBS should also make any list of top sights both because of the sanctuary’s awesome work and the unique opportunity to have an up-close encounter with wild and endangered black howler monkeys.
In 1985, 12 private landowners banded together to preserve their property as a sanctuary for black howler monkeys (called “baboons” in the local Creole dialect). Over the years, CBS has grown to over 200 landowners, in seven villages, who have voluntarily dedicated their 20 square miles of land to arrest the habitat destruction that, left unchecked, will cause an estimated 60% population decline over the next three decades. Meanwhile, the “baboon” population at the sanctuary has tripled in size to over 2,000 monkeys.
Visit the Community Baboon Sanctuary
CBS is considered the first conservation effort in the world to rely exclusively on local community cooperation to protect an endangered species. Local landowners benefit directly from the ecotourism revenues generated by the sanctuary creating a win-win scenario for both man and beast.
We’re happy to have lent a hand in the continuation of this good work, and delighted to meet the furry residents in the bargain.
No Reservations
Over the course of our three hour commute from Punta Gorda to Placencia in Belize we got to talking with a couple from the U.K. When the boat docked we said our goodbyes. They turned to their guidebook to look for accommodations and we consulted a map to chart the best course to the guest house we had booked a couple days earlier.
As we waited for our room to be ready we pulled up a seat at a “road”-side restaurant and watched the throngs of tourists from what looked like a cruise ship convention amble by. Apparently it was the last day of some kind of festival and the place was mobbed.
Before we finished our lunch we saw the U.K. friends we had traveled with earlier in the day, only this time they looked dejected. They couldn’t find a room and were leaving. From Placencia they’d have a four hour bus ride to Belize City, on top of a likely hour or more wait for the next bus. By the time they arrived in Belize City the last water taxi to their next destination, Caye Caulker, would have long since sailed. “All part of the experience,” they said.
Make Awesome Shit People Love
If only artist Dale Chihuly were more prudent, he could have become an accountant
Totday’s post is titled after the new motto of writer and happiness researcher Will Wilkinson, who is leaving a successful career and moving across country to pursue a dream. In announcing the move on his blog, he writes:
I think the most important thing I took away from all that time with my nose in happiness research and behavioral econ is that we overestimate the value of what we already have and so underestimate the upside of taking a chance, leaving something behind, and making a big change. Most of us end up where we are through a sort of drift. Sometimes that works out splendidly. And drift hasn’t not worked out for me. I really like what I do. But, alas, I don’t really love it.”
How many of us does this describe? Our lives, the result of an accumulation of unrelated choices, are nothing like anything we ever envisioned or planned. This isn’t necessarily bad, but is it what we want? Are our current lives what our younger selves would have chosen for their future?
Most of us arrive where we are for perfectly prudent reasons. Our mothers tell us, quite rightly, that our dreams of achieving greatness as an artist or a musician or whatever need to take a backseat to more practical considerations. We’re told “we need something to fall back on” and it’s true. Achieving the level of greatness necessary to make a good living doing something you love is no sure thing.
So we commit ourselves to building a safety net which often involves getting a responsible job with a reliable paycheck. The job then dictates major life decisions like where we live and even our professional ambitions. All of the sudden we’re working hard for a promotion to middle management.
No child ever dreams of being a middle manager. And yet here we are.
All is not lost. In fact, you’ve likely already achieved that objective of your wise mother’s counsel: something to fall back on. If you have an income, you obviously have a skill so valuable someone is willing to pay you for it. That’s a wonderfully liberating thing. Because now that you have “something to fall back on” there is no reason not to pursue your long-neglected dreams.
For Will, that means trying his hand at fiction writing.
I never wanted to be a pundit or a “public intellectual.” I always wanted to be an artist of some sort and I still want that. I want to make awesome shit people love. It’s my new motto: make awesome shit people love. So here we go!”
Indeed!
Where Next, an Update
We wanted to say thanks to everyone who offered suggestions on our upcoming itinerary. Here is a map of what we are planning for the weeks and months ahead. We haven’t researched everything fully and we don’t know if this route is something we’ll want to take the RV along, but for the moment this is a rough sketch of what we’re planning.
Everywhere Once 