Sunday, March 30, 2008

Lightening my Load

ALTERNATE TITLE: A Freakin' Sweet Steak Dinner!

As those of you who have held a professional camera know, they're big and heavy. I've been getting tired of lugging this Nikon D3 around, so I got rid of it, in lieu of my Nikon D40x, a much smaller, lighter camera. Also, as those of you who know me are aware, I am a person of extremes. In this case, that means I'm going to go really light, not just a bit lighter. I got rid of more than just my Nikon D3 body. Here's the complete list of items I disposed of in search of a lighter, leaner approach to travel:

  • Nikon D3 DSLR body
  • Nikon 24-70 f/2.8 lens
  • Nikon SB-800 flash
  • iPod Nano (3rd generation)
  • Koss PortaPro headphones
  • Three lens filters (neutral density, grad ND, polarizing)
  • MicroTrack II digital audio recorder
  • Several Spanish books (grammar, verbs, dictionary, etc.)
  • 2 VISA cards
  • Passport
  • Driver's license
  • Insurance papers
  • Vaccination papers
  • Photocopy of passport (in case passport gets stolen)
  • Extra passport photos (in case passport gets stolen)
  • $300 USD
  • 400 Argentine pesos (over $130 USD)
  • Pen and paper
  • Earplugs
  • Alarm clock
  • Map of Buenos Aires
  • Map of South America
  • 3.5" USB hard drive containing approximately 11,000 photos—that's a lot of photos to be carrying around—my pack is way lighter now.

To top it all off, I couldn't see carrying my small backpack with me when I won't be carrying its contents, too, so I just offloaded the whole kit 'n' caboodle. It's good to be free of all that crap.

Someone's having one sweet steak dinner tonight! (Hint: It ain't me—I've got about $4.25 to my name, in pesos. That's about a buck forty-two USD.)

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