Packing is the worst part of traveling in my opinion.  It’s complicated and quite frankly annoying. When traveling to Central America, you don’t need much.  You can leave all your winter clothes behind (you don’t even need a pair of pants).  Necessities include: shorts, t-shirts, bathing suits, a few sundresses, flip flops, something to hike in, toiletries, maybe a surfboard (but why bother when you can rent one here), and lots of sunscreen.  Simple and light for the beautiful very hot days in Costa Rica.

A unicorn is in Wendy’s Costa Rica backpack!

I set out to find some of the unusual stuff that some of our guests snuck into their packs.  I wasn’t expecting to see what I found!  First, I met Wendy, a very kind and spunky woman from Canada. After sharing stories with Wendy and hearing about her travel,  I asked her if she had packed anything out of the ordinary in her bag.  Well, what she pulled out surprised me – a stuffed unicorn.  She told me she never traveled without it. I thought this was so bizarre until I heard why and how she ended up bringing this with her on her travels. The story behind Wendy’s stuffed unicorn is that when she was back at work she had an intern she really connected with. Wendy described this intern as “magical” and could do anything and everything. She was her “unicorn”. When Wendy decided to pack up and travel she was presented a stuffed unicorn by the intern. Wendy now travels with it to remind her of her hard working woman who helped her in so many different ways.

Stacy with her bunny!

Stacy, another Canadian, I met, packed her stuffed bunny she was given by her family when she was just a baby. I was really touched by this.  It’s a little reminder that no matter how far and long you travel, there is really no place like home.

Then I met this guy Sean who has this crazy mustache. Unfortunately, he left before I was able to take a picture. But as a visual, it was a very retro handlebar stash. His odd travel necessity was mustache wax to keep the stash on point.

So next time you are packing – what unusual item will you pack?  Send us a note and let us know what is in your Costa Rica backpack!

About the author:

Erin didn’t need to put anything extra in her Costa Rica backpack to jump off a 75 ft waterfall

Erin is a sophomore at Endicott College just outside of Massachusetts.  She is studying hospitality and did a 3 week internship at Room2Board in January learning about the hostel business.  That’s Erin on the right jumping off a 75 foot waterfall on her day off!