Roaming Rileys

Well, we’re down to 11 days before our short trip to Mexico begins. We will be flying out of JFK and into Mexico City and from there heading down to Puebla to stay with a friend. We don’t have a set itinerary which will be unusual for us, but should prove to be interesting. We will be in Puebla for several days and then heading down to Oaxaca for an additional 3 days.

In anticipation of the trip, I decided that I was not happy with using my PacSafe Daysafe 200 backpack as my day pack due to its size. Its a great bag, but when walking around in a downtown area I find it a little cumbersome. I typically carry around my Nikon and an additional telephoto lens and now that we don’t really ever purchase souvenirs or anything like that, we don’t really have a need to carry much else. Amy wasn’t too keen on losing the big pack just in case we did end up buying anything, but then again she’s not the one carrying it 😉

After some investigation I decided on getting the ‘Crumpler 5 million’ camera bag. My decision was based on 2 primary factors: 1 it doesn’t look like a camera bag, and 2 our local REI shop had them in stock so I was able to take my camera down and try it out. The camera fit perfectly and there’s enough room to store an additional item as long as its no larger than a tele-photo lens. Hopefully that’s enough, we shall see as we tour around.

I’m still bringing the Daysafe as my carryon and just putting the Crumpler inside with our other electronics. We are planning on heading over to Monte Alban and perhaps Tenochtitlan and will most likely bring the Daysafe over the Crumpler because we will want to carry water and perhaps other items.

As luck would have it, while we were at REI, we found an Osprey Meridien 70 liter pack on Clearance! We both have the 90 liter which we have been used on several European jaunts these past few years and love. They have very rugged wheels and the ability to unzip a compartment and turn them into comfortable backpacks. We felt the 90 liters were a bit large for a one week trip so this new 70 liter along with the Daysafe and Amy’s messenger bag, we should have more than enough room.

We’ll put our packing list up over the next few days.

Brian