Preparation
Lots of prepping and things to do, including taxes before we go. Test fitting and choices of what to bring, last minute purchases of reef friendly sunscreen, and a rash guard. It has ended up we are wearing hiking boots and cargo pants on the plane. We have to arrange our carry-on to be no more than 22 pounds and 45 linear inches to fit on small plane to Galapagos and Cusco. Our travel bag works with our attached backpack un-attached as our under seat item. Then we have a gym bag with the stuff that doesn't fit and things we can't take on the plane, like trekking poles. We hope to accommodate alpaca clothing souvenirs. We bought water bottles with built-in Life Straws filters since you can't drink the water in Ecuador or Peru. They're kind of cool cuz you can take the filter device out so we can have a larger quantity of water while we're still in the states. But you can't add any flavoring with the filter in place, or you will clog up the filter and ruin it. Fi...