Size Matters

I've noticed that my backpack is smaller than those of almost every other backpacker I've seen. Everyone else has these giant backpacks that probably have twice the capacity of mine and they're often stuffed to the brim. I am quite proud that I can live out of my small backpack. And my pack would have been a lot smaller and lighter if it weren't for first-timer inefficiences.

Inefficiencies such as carrying a large beach towel as my travel towel. From previous experience, and on the wise advice of Douglas Adams, I knew a good towel is absolutely necessary for travel. But the towel I had was too big and didn't really serve any other purpose than as a bath towel. So, I am quite happy to have picked up a traveler's towel (really thin and absorbent material) that somebody had left behind. I mentioned before how it's really cool to see what kind of loot people drop at hostels and this is the best example of it. I've been wishing I had one of these towels for a long time, and now I have one, so I can get rid of the beach towel. This hostel is great for getting free stuff and food. A lot of people fly out of San Jose at the end of their trip, so a lot of people leave behind toiletries, equipment, food, etc.... here.

Another inefficiency is all the books I'm lugging around. I still have the guidebooks of countries I've already been to. My plan was to sell them (or exchange them for other guidebooks), but I haven't found a good bookstore that would buy them or exchange them at a good rate. It's always two-for-one exchange or a really bad price offer. So, they may end up being really bulky and heavy souvenirs. Plus, I have my spanish textbook that I haven't had the heart to get rid of because I keep telling myself I'll study it and teach myself spanish though I haven't opened it since Hawaii. And I have a fairly large spanish dictionary that I keep thinking I will need, but again, I haven't used it since Guatemala. Plus, I have the bulky sweater/poncho I bought in Guatemala. On the one hand, it is a cool souvenir poncho. On the other hand, if I had known, I would have brought a thin, warm rain jacket instead of that heavy cotton poncho to save a lot of space in my backpack.

So, If it weren't for the excess guidebooks, the too-large towel, the bulky poncho and the unnecessary spanish reference materials, I think I would actually have a lot of extra space and a much lighter pack. But even though my pack is kind of bulky and heavy right now, it's only a problem for those short times when I am going from hostel to bus station and bus station to hostel.