Help, newbie with a fun trip planned!

So to start off with I'm going to Ecuador for a school trip! We'll be gone for 9 days, 2 of which we're supposed to be roughing it on a sand bar. The other 7 days we'll be in a lodge (to my knowledge at least!)

I'm mainly just looking for some advise on the smaller stuff to bring along like for example which brand of water purifying tablets are good to get.

I've got almost all my stuff I just have to pick up my shoes and knife then I have all my bigger stuff. I still need to get my purifying tablets, water bottles, all that good stuff. Since I'm new to all this stuff I really don't know what other "small stuff" I need so..help? lol

Also I've been debating on whether I should bring a small first-aid kit with me or not, my class will be going with 2 teachers. Both of them are going to be carrying a first-aid kit with them so I'm not sure if I should bother?

Thanks,
Spencer

Welcome! If you haven't already found them, there are lots of excellent articles for beginners and on gear selection listed in the left-hand column of http://www.backpacking.net/, the home page of this site.

Are you actually doing wilderness trekking, or just traveling with a pack and staying in hostels? This site is for wilderness trekking, so if that's what you want, you're in the right place. Questions on "backpacking" as budget travel will receive more responses on travel forums like Lonely Planet.

Since this is a school trip, I'm assuming you're under 18, so I'd rather not recommend any specific items. If you are over 18, come back and I can give you some brand names for water purification. If you're not out in the wilderness, it might be easier just to buy bottled water as you go. You might want to check with your physician or a travel clinic to be sure you have all the proper immunizations and whatever else you might need.

You should be getting all this information from your trip leaders. If they aren't telling you, ask!

Have a great trip!

Thanks for the welcome! I was actually lurking around the site reading threads and some of the articles before I joined but either I missed what I'm looking for or its not there haha

We'll be doing a bit of both, trekking and staying in the lodge. I'm not really interested in talking about my budget and what not seeing as I have almost everything for the trip, thanks for the link though.

Yes I am under 18, might I ask why you don't feel comfortable recommending any brands? If it helps ease your mind I'm 6' and 242 lbs, so I'm basically adult size! haha

That was my plan actually (to just buy water bottles) but I'm the kind of person who just want to have it in case something did go wrong, you know what I mean? Not to mention all the reading I've done on this site is really making me wanna go hiking/backpacking when the snow melts! So the tablets would end up being used either way.

I have all my immunizations so I should be fine, that includes Yellow Fever and Hep A. They have informed us of everything except for what specific items to bring like for example whats the best fire starter or like I mentioned earlier, what is the best purifying tablet. Which is mainly the only thing I'm looking for from this post.

So in short I'm mainly just asking about recommended/useful items to get to bring with me, and of those items which are the better quality.

Thanks!

It's due to the litigious nature of our southern neighbors to not want to give you advice when you're underage..

Having said that, if there's an MEC in your area you can head in there and look for a dual bottle purifier sold in canada called "Pristine" - it's chlorine dioxide, and I've used it all over the world. You have to use it properly for it to work though. When you travel you also want to put the bottles inside a ziploc freezer bag and keep them from getting beat up in the airplane - if the bottles leak they do nasty things
to clothing. Take your folks with you into MEC and you can talk to the folks there about little things to take.

The best "first aid kit" you can take on such trips can be made in your bathroom. Take a ziploc bag, put in some bandaids and blister pads (you'll be doing a lot of walking)

However bear in mind, do this with the knowledge and advice of your parents and trip leaders - while *you* may think it's no problem for you to treat your own water, if your school is saying "bottled water only" as a policy stick to that. Otherwise if you get sick and you're not following the school's own stuff, you may end up making it where your local school board gets an even further attack of anal-carotid constriction syndrome than school boards usually have, and make it where future classes at your school can't go on such trips.

There is most certainly a MEC near us, I'll be sure to check them out.



Alright sounds good. Do you think I should go all out on it though or just bring what you said? Is that what you bring with you when you go out?



Oh deffinatly, I plan I sticking to what my teacher recommends religously as this is his 4th or 5th time going to Ecuador. The water treatment is simply a backup should anything happen. I realize that boiling water does the same thing but you can't always light a fire. Not to mention its nice to be able to walk with it purifying.

If you're under 18, I can recommend to your parents and let them make the choice, but not you for legal reasons--you are still their responsibility. Sorry about that, but it's the law! It has nothing to do with your size or maturity level! I actually don't know what the age of majority is in Canada; I'm just assuming it's the same as the US. And I agree with Phat--if you use something other than what the school recommends and get sick or hurt, there very likely will be no future trips. Ask your teachers first!

I will recommend not to use anything containing iodine in your water. It doesn't kill everything in the water that might need to be killed, and it can cause severe reactions--it did to me!

I bring a little more than that, but I'm typically in the backcountry. This is a question for your group leader.

(my gear list, below, has what I carry in the backcountry.)