I've been guided by expats living there what they suggest I bring:
Good bed sheet sets - hard to find and expensive there
Favorite pillows - if you need them
Electric blanket but we've opted for a good down blanket
Mattress pad
* A good memory foam mattress pad for my bad back
Large bath towels sets
Warm clothes that you can layer & wool socks
Rain Jacket & Totes umbrella
Good walking shoes
I've also been told that certain spices are not available or not easily found in Cuenca. I've included our favorite ones:
Black Pepper Corns
Old Bay Spice Packets
Cinnamon
Onion Powder
Garlic Power
Celery Salt
Chili Powder
Tabasco Sauce - Ed couldn't live without this one
I have also decided to include things we still own, so we don't have to buy them again down there:
DVD player with a few movies
Good fry pan
My favorite saucepan with lid
Good kitchen knives
My other preferred utensils:
Hand held cheese grater
Good Grips Veggie Peeler
Good Grips hand held can opener
Measuring spoons
Wine opener & VinVac with stoppers
Pepper Mill
Lipton Decaf large tea bags - we understand it isn't easy to
find these locally & these are Ed's favorite
My size XL Kitchen Rubber Gloves
Bathroom night lights
I had also keep a few things aside from our estate sale: a few special pictures and several trinkets with special memories of our travels.
There were other items that I feel might be needed:
Special nails for cement walls
Adaptors to change electrical 3 prong plugs to a 2 prong
Good surge protector for our computers for when we arrive
We didn't have enough large suitcases for this move. I hated to spend a lot of money on luggage that we wouldn't use again. I researched on a great web site; www.ebags.com to see what they offered. I found the Kelty XL duffel bag. It is made of strong polyester and reinforced bottom and the cost was reasonable. I bought six of them!
Yesterday was a very productive day for me. I had bought lots of bubble wrap for all the breakables items. I got about 80% of all the stuffed packed into one box, one large suitcase and two Kelty Duffel bags. I marked the duffel bags with our name and a number on each one. As I was packing each bag I made a complete inventory of the contents. I printed off the list so I would know what each bag held.
It now feels like this journey is becoming real to me. I kept waiting for that to happen and it just took some serious packing! Ed has the other big hard sided suitcase with him in Montana and I needed it to pack the other 20%. I still have two of my favorite pictures to pack in that one. They are double wrapped in bubble wrap and then in a large bath towel. I feel they have a good chance to making it down there.
The other project that I wanted to work on is getting my receipts put in order. I am scanning only my favorite recipes into the computer for the trip. Yesterday, I went through hundreds of recipes and sorted them all out. Now, I have a stack of the ones that will be scanned. Another project is getting under control.
I also got two other boxes packed and mailed yesterday. The first box was to my cousin. It contained two items from my grandmother, an old plate and vase. I had found them while I was getting organized for our estate sale. The second box was to my brother-in-law. Ed had an old film camera with a zoom lens and flash that he wanted to give Jim. Yup, a productive day!.......
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