In the end, we tried to keep it simple. For travel, comfy clothes that were warm yet light enough to not be intolerable if it was hot when we arrived in BA. A couple of outfits for warm weather for our time in the middle of South America. We figured we could make things work for a few wearings each.
For the far south, we brought a few long sleeved tops each as well as a couple of pairs of jeans each. Again, we planned on using things a couple of times each and also planned on using hotel laundry in Ushuaia. We each had our Arcteryx shells from skiing. These shells are great because they are gore-tex along with being super wind resistant and light weight!!
For the far, far south we planned on using the above as well as each adding one pair of fleece pants , two sets of long underwear, four pair ski socks, balaclava, neck gaiter, two pairs of gloves/mittens, two pairs of glove liners, ski hat, and sunglasses. I also brought along a waterproof backpack to use wherever needed.
Quark was going to give us a removable, fleece lined parka and they would be letting us use rubber boots for the expedition. This saved space on the way, but we did have to leave space so that we could add the parka on the return journey.
That covers the clothes..... on the techie side I brought my computer(Mac Book :). I knew I would be taking many, many pictures and wanted to be able to download and back them up. This came in handy as I was able to weed out pics daily and I was able to start organizing them in iPhoto daily. For this task, I also brought along a card reader and two 16 gig flash drives. (The flash drives were for my second back up...did not want to lose these pics!) I made sure I had a couple of 8 gig memory cards for my camera too. These were cards that were meant to be able to take video, so I knew they would be pretty fast on the storing of photos. This came in handy as I took multiple pics of penguin rear ends and empty water while trying to get that elusive photo of the penguin flying through the air while porpoising through the water!!
A last minute tech purchase was a Kindle. I am an avid reader and the thought of leaving for 17 days without 17 books is difficult for me. I had no idea how much reading time I would or would not have. Having 17 books in my luggage was just not going to fit with my plans to have clothing with me on the trip. I also have a hard time throwing out books, so I knew I would have a hard time fitting in souvenirs if I bought them! With the Kindle, I was able to load up 10 books before I left. The Kindle, also pretty slim and light weight, fit easily into the carry on luggage. We also managed to add a few books while in BA, waiting for our flight to Ushuaia.
One of the most important packing items, besides all the various charging cables, was a power strip. This way we could charge multiple electronics all at the same time and with one converter!
Things I wish we had packed? Ski goggles- sunglasses did not do it for protecting the eyes from blowing snow and sleet. There were several times I was kicking myself for not bringing them along. They would have been ideal for stopping the snow as well as being good in low light conditions.
Dishwashing gloves- I had read that these worked great as waterproof gloves, but just could not picture it for some reason. Trust me, they work well. Most of the expedition team were using them for zodiac purposes. The kayakers also seemed to be using them as well. I am thinking buy large and you should have no trouble fitting glove liners underneath. They are lightweight and easily moved into a pack for storage while on land.
Much of the time, I was just wearing glove liners while on land. The only times we had problems with cold hands was while we were doing zodiac cruises, sitting for an hour or two does not stir the blood!
Finally, sunscreen and anti mosquito spray were packed as well. Sunscreen was handy for most of the trip. The mosquito spray came in handy for BA and Iguazu~
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