Day 81: Big Trip Decisions And Going Lightweight

When I first planned this trip, I was trapped in my BigLaw job with a mere glimmer of light at the end of my proverbial student loan debt tunnel.  I dreamt big to give meaning to the day-to-day grind of living on a strict budget.  And then one day, I found myself nervously pedaling towards Tijuana, Mexico feeling like Argentina seemed like a really really really long ways away.

I used to have a very hard time allowing myself to divert from an original plan.  If I set my mind to get to Argentina, I would get there whether I really wanted to or not, simply because I said I would.  So I promised myself from the beginning that I would only keep bike touring so long as it made sense to me to keep going, either because I was in love with the trip, or because I still had a lot of soul searching to do on the road.  One of my biggest fears, in fact, was that I would arrive at the end of the world and be no closer to figuring out what I want from life than when I started.  

I've come to realize that I really like bike touring, but right now, I don't love it in and of itself such that I want to keep pedaling indefinitely.  And while I still have a lot of soul searching to do, leaving everything familiar and erasing all sense of permanence has helped me realize that I'm not programmed to be a wandering soul forever.  Although bike touring Mexico has truly been my most amazing adventure so far, it's time for me to be closer to my family and to make a new home for myself.

Gonzalo and I have talked a lot over the last few weeks about the prospects for this bike tour, and while both of us have exciting plans awaiting us back "home," neither of us are quite ready to end the trip.  We officially decided that our trip will live in the history books as an amazing bike tour of Mexico, with Cancun as our final destination in two months, which will allow me to join my family for a trip to Yosemite in early September.  

With this new trip plan in mind, the two of us spent some time reviewing our gear to see what we could send back to lighten our load for the last two months of this tour.

Not quite ultralightweight... but I've shed probably about 20+ pounds of gear by removing the front panniers, winter gear, and other gear I don't use so much.

What did I decide to send back?

Pair of Ortlieb frontroller panniers
Park Tool big blue book of bike repair
Tubus front racks
MSR water filter and repair kit
Down sweater
Pair of winter gloves
Winter hat
Bandana
Pair of mountain biking gloves
Miscellaneous bike parts
Thermalite sleep sack
Spanish grammar book
Book about Batopilas
Mophie charger
Batteries
Universal plug adaptor
Spare Schwalbe mondial marathon tire
Thermal underwear

Our awesomely taped up boxes... Gonzalo engineered a custom box from a huge piece of cardboard for his gear.

*** IMPORTANT NOTE:  You should not tape your box up before heading to send anything from Mexico to the U.S. ... they opened my box to review everything and took out a years supply of contact lenses, a bottle of drops to sanitize water (which in retrospect, I wanted to keep anyway), and my stormproof matches.  Thanks to Gonzalo and Victor for so patiently dealing with all the red tape of mailing items back to the U.S. ***