Our time in the USA quickly came to an end and yesterday we began our trek through South America. While we spent most of the time being stuffed with delicious food (there goes the weight we lost from Central America), we also spent an inordinate amount of time at outdoor equipment stores like REI.  In fact we went to two different REI’s in the Atlanta area.  After four months of use a lot of our equipment had either failed or begun to fail on us so it was time to exchange and resupply.  We’ve added a number of gear reviews to the website if you are interested and as always you can get an up to date list of our …

Gregory Women’s Jade 50 Backpack
As far as outdoor equipment and backpacks go the Gregory Jade 50 seemed like a dream. Cute in style and functional in design, the Gregory Z55 and Jade 50 won the 2007 “Best All Around Weekend Pack” from backpacker magazine. Unfortunately it doesn’t win any awards for best travel pack. [ad#reviews]
High quality construction and designed for a woman’s body, the Jade 50 is great for walking, trekking and hiking around in urban and back country settings. Unfortunately it is difficult to pack correctly. The curve in the back, which keeps your back cool when wearing it, makes the interior shaped like an hour glass. It is almost impossible to fill the bottom …

Gregory Z55 Backpack
Small enough for an overhead luggage compartment on an airplane yet large enough for all my worldly belongings, this 55L backpack is the perfect size for backpacking travel. I’m able to load everything [ad#reviews-image-only]into the pack without feeling like its going to explode. On average I carry about 15kg in the bag.
Having a large, outside mesh pocket to stuff wet clothes or nearly forgotten items is one of its best innovations. Although it is showing its wear after a year of use, giving its light-weight no frills design, I am more than pleased with is durability and fully expect it to last a long time.
Newer models have a curved back side to allow for airflow between the …