Hints, Tips, and Hindsight (5)

Clothing
Lightweight, fast-drying long-sleeve shirts and convertible pants worked well for us. Ours were either REI Sahara Tech and Columbia Silver Ridge II. I brought a couple of regular cargo shorts but these were unnecessary. The convertible pants were more than adequate.

Shoes
I brought a pair of lightweight hiking boots. These were lifesavers for me. They were slightly heavier than a pair of tennis shoes but provided a lot of support and protection. Scrambling over the boulder fields and sharp lava were made much easier with these boots. Wendy had lightweight hikers that looked more like regular training shoes and they worked well for her. We had Tevas (sandals) for wet water landings and for when we would be staying on the beach. These also doubled as on-ship footwear. We saw a few people with the Keens type closed-toe sandals and it looked like they worked pretty well. I don’t know if they would have been supportive enough for me to wear on a hike. I still prefer the regular sandal style. They also seemed to be easier to rinse out the trapped sand. I think I would have been good to have had some lightweight flip-flops for the ship. The Tevas were ok but some days they were still wet and a little uncomfortable.

Hats
Lindblad gave us all baseball cap type hats. Wendy used this hat exclusively. We had brought large brimmed hats for sun protection but with good quality sunscreen we didn’t feel the need to break these out.

Toiletries, Personal Items
Our bathroom was stocked with shampoo, shower gel, and lotion so we could have avoided packing those items. There were also hairdryers but they seemed to be very low power and would take a long time. Wendy says that she used a minimal amount of makeup. She had also brought some jewelry which she never wore. It’s just a very casual atmosphere and casual attire was the norm. We took a small first-aid kit (band-aids, antiseptic, lotion, anti-diarrhea pills, Benadryl, Tylenol, blister patches) and any medications we needed. The Endeavor had a ship’s doctor who was available 24 hours a day. I heard a few people had visited her for minor issues (scrapes, blisters, etc.).On the equator the sun is very intense so go for high-quality, waterproof sunscreen. Lip balm with high SPF rating is also beneficial. We didn’t bring or need insect repellant but I have heard other people recommend it.

Technology
We made sure to bring all the chargers and adapters we needed for cell phones, the laptop, hard drives, and camera batteries. Luckily a number of devices used similar chargers so they could multitask. We had a small powerstrip/extension cord that came in handy. There were only two 110-volt outlets in our cabin. We usually had one outlet taken by the fan so it was convenient to have the powerstrip for all the chargers. I liked having the laptop for backing up the memory cards and reviewing photos during the trip. If I had to I could have done without it. The Hyperdrive could have done stand-alone backups. I could have obtained a second one for another set of backups. Satellite-based WIFI was available for a fee but those that used it said it was very slow and somewhat unreliable. The ship did have some PCs available for use and I suppose I could have used those to transfer files.

Other
When we got onshore we each had a small day pack. We kept a water bottle, our camera dry bags and padded cases, and on wet landings sandals or hiking boots. On the Endeavor water bottles are issued to all the passengers but we had brought our own. Sunglasses are essential and we each had a spare pair. In a couple of previous trips we had started using packing cubes from eBags.com. These helped keep our luggage well organized. I liked them so well, I made some additional ones for this trip.