Packing for the tropics

SANTA BARBARA, CALIF. -- Well, I'm off to Central America early tomorrow morning for a three-week trip. I don't plan to take any time off -- just transition from "telecommuting" to "extreme telecommuting." I need to pack light because I'll be walking a lot, taking buses, boats and other forms of transportation that punish the over-packed. Here's my equipment list for the trip.

My wife and I plan to land in Cancun tomorrow, stay one night, then hit the road and leave the gringo-tourist bubble behind. We'll eventually end up in El Salvador, and will depart from the San Salvador airport.

I'm a huge fan of checklists. I always "tweak" them whenever I notice something I'd like to have during a trip. Because of my checklists, I never forget anything -- which is a wonderful thing for business trips (nothing like getting dressed for a meeting in another city and realize you brought the jacket for your suit but not the pants...)

I start with a gigantic master list of every possible thing I might take on a trip. I eliminate all the stuff I don't want to take, then pack according to the trip's custom checklist. Here's my checklist for this trip:

Dell Latitude D810 (charged)

BlackBerry Pearl (charged)

Bluetooth headset for Pearl (charged)

Olympus Stylus 830 digital camera (charged)

Olympus Camedia 8080 digital camera (charged)

Garmin GPSmap 296 (loaded with Garmin WorldMap) (charged)

Amazon Kindle (loaded with travel books, etc.) (charged)

USB webcam

Headset for VoIP calls

2 "mini" USB cables

"micro" USB cable

Charger for Olympus 8080 digital camera

Extra battery for Olympus 8080 digital camera

Silica gel packs (dried)

Plastic bags

Lens cleaning stuff

Charger for Dell Latitude D810

Modular drive bay extra laptop battery (installed)

Modular drive bay CD-rom drive

Wireless broadband PCMCIA card

USB mouse

RJ-45 cable

Charger for Garmin GPSmap 296

spare AAA batteries

Kindle charger

Kindle cover

You'll note that at the top of my list are all the gadgets that need to be charged. Organizing them this way makes it easy to charge everything first. I usually plug in everything that needs to be charged, go pack my clothes and other non-electronics stuff (I also keep checklists for that stuff), then come back to pack the electronics last.

Although this seems like a lot of stuff, it's actually missing some things I might bring on other kinds of trips. For example, I have no MP3 player. I'm leaving my iPod at home for this trip. I also don't have my high-quality Sony headphones. If I need to listen to my laptop for whatever reason, I'll use the headset I'm bringing for VoIP calls. I'm not bringing chargers for gadgets that can be charged via USB.

My Amazon Kindle makes it super easy to pack light. For example, I'm not bringing a single book or magazine. In addition to the "normal" books I've bought and have loaded on the Kindle, I've also got my trip-specific travel books and online information already loaded, plus MP3's for listening to music.

I'm also not bringing two other things I wish I was bringing. First, I'd love to have a satellite phone on this trip, both for urgent calls and for urgent data access. I'm going to be taking my chances with available cyber cafés, hotel WiFi networks and other sometimes hard-to-find connections. I also wish I had purchased an ASUS Eee PC in time for this trip. Its tiny form factor would be perfect for cramped busses and other modes of travel. Plus, at $299 a pop, I wouldn't worry about damaging it.

You'll notice on my list "silica gel packs." I collect these things, because they can be very helpful in the tropics. They come inside boxes of shoes, and in boxes of consumer electronics. When you place them with your gadgets inside a ziplock bag, your stuff stays dry. The packs soak up the moisture. They're "renewable," too. I put them in the oven at about 200 degrees for about 15 minutes before each trip.

Well, adios, amigos. I'll keep you posted from the road.

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