We Are On Our Way

We are finally on our way to the South-American leg of our trip. The last week was a bit hectic, but we made it and are ready to depart....there is nothing we can do anymore ;)

Our current plans are to explore Colombia for 3 weeks. Then travel to Peru for another 3 weeks where we will end up in Bolivia. After that, maybe Brazil, maybe Chile, maybe Asia, only time will tell. Finally, we wanted to say thanks to everyone for all your good wishes and we hope to see you along the way.

Merino Wool

One of the difficult choices you have when travelling for a year is what to bring and what to leave behind. When travelling for a 2 week trip, you usually try to make sure that you will not have to do any laundry.  However, for a year long trip, you cannot bring 365 T-Shirts.

That being said, I was looking for a shirt that I could wear more than 1 day and that was easy to wash. Looking around, I found two options:
    1) Exofficio who's slogan is: "17 Countries. 6 weeks and 1 pair of underwear. Okay, maybe two"
    2) Merino Wool: Merino Wool - Odor Control

In order to choose what I would bring, I put the T-Shirts to the test: Monday, I wore the shirt to work and to a volleyball game. Wednesday, I wore the same shirt to another volleyball game. Thursday I played Racquetball and volleyball. After all that, neither shirt smelled bad.... that is impressive.

At the end of the day, I choose the Merino shirt because they offer more variety than the Exofficio. The only problem with the Merino shirt is the price: A T-Shirt costs between $45 and $95.

Update (August 31st 2012): After 3 months of traveling, we prefer Merino Wool. The main reason is that it really holds to its oderless reputation. The only drawback we found is that sometimes it gets little holes.

My First Post

Welcome to "Beyond The Maple Tree". Jen and I will use this blog to recount and remember all our crazy adventures on this around the world journey.

At this time, we are still in Calgary preparing for our trip....There is still a lot that need to be done. We have not set a firm date yet, but are expected to depart sometime in 2012.

Hope you enjoy.

Dominic