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Review: Eneloop Batteries and Charger

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These are the rechargeable batteries of the future.

These actually come pre-charged because they hold their power just like a regular battery…only these can be used a thousand times. Like other rechargeables their energy capacity is higher than standard batteries but unlike those other rechargeables they do not lose their energy over time. This gives them the best of the rechargeable world and the best of the non-rechargeable world. There is absolutely no reason to purchase another battery on the market…if you do you´re throwing away your money. Great for travel, we haven’t had any problems recharging these batteries around the world- currents be damned!

These can be purchased from several places and often include a battery charger than can charge both AA and AAA batteries. Nothing else touches our electronics. Nothing else needs to touch our electronics.

Highly Recommended.

Review: Chaco Shoes

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These sandals are the best footwear known to man. Seriously. We wear them daily whether on the trail, in the city, or swimming through a rapid. The vibram sole always has superb traction and our feet never feel tired or sore…regardless of how much mileage we do. Added bonus…the tan lines one grows while wearing Chaco’s are a mark of honor. 🙂
Chacos – There is only one sandal I will ever wear.Backpacking Chacos

Chaco’s come in many colors and designs, Danny wears Z1 (no toe strap) with the new lightweight sole, while Jillian is in the ZX1. Made of 25% recycled rubber, you can send your Chaco’s back to the company to have them resoled or even replace the straps, reducing waste in your local community.

Do allow some time to break these in and get used to them as adjusting them the first few times can be difficult.

Highly Recommended.  Get a Pair Today

Review: Kayak Pucon (Pucon, Chile)

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We chose to do our Chilean whitewater kayaking with Kayak Pucon for a few reasons, but mostly because it was owned and operated by locals. We actually didn’t know it existed originally and walked into another whitewater shop in Pucon only to be turned off by the rather cold, business-like attitude of the proprietor. Had we not literally stumbled onto Kayak Pucon, we would have skipped kayaking in Pucon all together.

For starters their gear was some of the best we’ve rented in our travels, (we’ve had awful) complete with everything we could want for cold water paddling with the exception of gloves…but we didn’t want those anyhow. We had our choice of boats and aside from our guide we were the only ones on the river. Our guide, the owner, spoke his native Spanish as well as fluent English. We not only chose which river we wanted to run, but also which section and how much time for warm-up we wanted. In short, it was our own, privately tailored trip all for less money than that original gringo wanted to charge us. We had a great time on the river, no incidents to report despite the unusually high water, and hope to kayak with them again someday.

I do really want to stress the quality of the equipment. This was the first time we were in cold water and with were provided with farmer john neoprene wet-suits as well as dry suits. Several times on this trip we’ve kayaked in cold water with none of this made available to us.

Review: Steri Pen Classic

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There is no doubt in my mind that this device has already paid for itself simply because we don´t have to constantly buy bottled water when the tap water isn´t clean enough to drink. The fact that it may one day save our lives is an even bigger benefit. There are other, fancier Steri-pen models on the market but we chose this one because it uses AA batteries, which we can recharge easily on the road. The safety features included in this device can make it difficult to use at times, but they’re safety features, so can we really complain?

SteriPen Water Purifier Classic

When the SteriPEN doesn’t adequately clean the water it tells you this with a series of red lights. You know something is wrong and that you shouldn’t drink the water but you don’t know if the problem is a dirty bulb or a lack of battery power or plain old human error. The series of lights usually tell you which it is but it can be difficult to understand; the new models on the market have addressed all this.

Having pointed out the difficulties of using this device I must say that when it does work it works brilliantly. It is surprisingly simple to operate and we´ve yet to get sick, in more than a year of travel, which means we must be doing something right. We use this pen almost daily to clean tap water in cities and stream water in rural areas. The fact that when using this we can drink the water right away and don´t have to wait (like with tablets) to drink has been a lifesaver as well. The only place this won’t work is in dark water as the UV light won’t be able to pass through the water.

Highly Recommended.

Review: Peter Tours & Mountaineering (Moshi, Tanzania)

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Sitting in Moshi and staring at prices for multi-day Safari tours, our heads began to spin. We’d researched several options on line and walking around town most of what we found seemed much too high in price for our taste. We wanted to go with a local company, but we also wanted to know that we were going to be safe, and not ripped off. Sitting with one safari guide, watching as his “arithmetic” defied the laws of probability, continuing to raise the price higher and higher, I politely excused myself and walked across the street to buy a soda. IMGP0239
As I did, a man named Peter asked me if I would come into his office when I was done where I was. As my body and mind were still quite weak, having only returned from our Mt. Kilimanjaro hike the day prior, I reluctantly agreed. I did not regret that decision.

We found Peter to be a pleasure to work with from the start. He provided us quickly with a variety of options so that we could design our own safari. He willingly confirmed several safari concerns that I’d had, that the Serengeti was too far from the Crater and to pay to do them both would have been a waste as we’d spend most of our 3 days in the car. His price was better than a 25% off discount from most of the quotes we received and he beat the next best price by 10% as well. Then he started to throw in extras and those extras just kept coming.  His advice was spot on and everything he told us turned out to be factual and 100% true.  That may not sound like much to you, but trust me, in this part of the world, that means a lot.
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The Land Cruiser was about par for the course, as was our camping accommodation. The nicest thing about the Land Cruiser was that the roof popped up allowing us to stand inside the vehicle with our heads and bodies sticking out the top. This was particularly nice when the lions decided to rest in the shade of our vehicle and we could sit on the roof with our beers in hand and just look at their beautiful faces. When the rains came the top came down and our tents did not leak either.

Our safari itself went according to plan. We had no problems, no surprises, and most importantly, excellent food. Our three day safari not only included two nights camping accommodation near the parks but Peter also put us up in a nice hotel with air conditioning (a big step up from where we’d put ourselves before the safari began) and kept the food coming, paying for dinner on the 3rd day and breakfast the next day as well. When I left something behind in the safari vehicle, he even arranged for it to be brought back to Moshi for me at no additional charge. Like I said, Peter was a pleasure to do business with and  we wish him great success.

Although we only found Peter in Moshi after we’d completed our Mt. Kilimanjaro hike, we did learn that he also arranged treks up the mountain as well for, what we felt to be, an extremely low price. If you are looking to climb Kilimanjaro and then take a rewarding safari after the climb, I think Peter can probably arrange an amazing combination tour for you. He started on Kilimanjaro as a porter, later a guide, and recently started his own touring company.

Peter Tours & Mountaineering
www.ptmtours.com
P.O. Box 419. Moshi, Tanzania. East Africa.
Email:i[email protected]

We received no compensation of any kind for this review.

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