Monaloca

I’m a hyper-organized traveler before leaving home. Ironically, knowing most my ducks are in line ahead of time lets me unwind and act spontaneously once on the road. Advance planning with an infant feels even more essential but obviously more difficult. Nonetheless, I recently pulled my travel gear boxes from under the bed and started gathering what we’ll need for Portugal. This simple act showed me how much my travels – and my life – have changed in the past five years.

Out With the Old Gear, NLN
NLN=No Longer Needed for my travels:

• Sheet sleep. A sheet sleeping bag of sorts for cots, this was essential when I hosteled through Europe and the Middle East in my twenties. I haven’t used it in a good five (maybe seven?) years.
• Pack safe. A portable safe for stowing my valuables under the cheap mattresses of those hostel or bottom-rung hotel cots. I did use this on my 10-month Latin American adventure, but haven’t needed it recently.
• Mosquito net. Useful when camping in Central America… perhaps it will see some future use?
• Compass and whistle. Somewhere along the line I started carrying these around. I’m sure another traveler suggested it. They “feel” essential, but I use maps instead of a compass, and the two times I was mugged (on back-to-back nights in Managua), my whistle was safe in my room and given the circumstances wouldn’t have helped anyway. (Details of this are a different story.)

In With the New Gear, FWO
FWO: For the Wee One… here are just a few:

• Toddler sleep tent. This is where the Jelly Bean will sleep. We’ve had a few practice nights at home and I’m proud to say our little girl is amazingly adaptable. She slept in it like a champ.
• Portable high chair. We borrowed it from a friend. It inflates and deflates. Cool.
• Umbrella stroller and Ergo carrier. Otherwise she’ll be crawling her way through Portugal.
• Plane toys. Did I mention Meli will be a lap child on a 12-plus hour flight? A new kind of adventure will begin the moment we board the plane.

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