finallyme wrote: "Take out the food, and bibles. How much does your pack weigh?"

David, I suspect that it's the food, machete, dive knife and mask, caving lights, climbing gear, repair kit, and medicine/first aid kit that might be weighing me down. To save weight I depend on eating the wild fruits in the jungles as part of my food supply, but the mountains are a bit scarce of food (and water) during the dry season. We have a dry season of 6 months out of the year and when off the beaten paths, I always pack 64 ounces of water minimum at any one time. I use a homemade ceramic gravity filter to make use of the streams or the local hand dug wells.

During the rainy season it rains every night, and I capture rain water with my hammock tarp. I can also get a quart of water or more per day from the stump of a large banana tree as a back up. You can live indefinitely in a banana grove since each freshly cut stump will seep water for 2 or 3 days. Fresh bananas at arms reach, and a supply of protein is just one roasted (plentiful) Iguana away. A freshly cut, large diameter, jungle bamboo will drip water for about 12 hours from the stump and the suspended top section.. a cup per night is average from one 30 foot stalk, and the bamboo forests here have tens of thousands of stalks.

Now, ya see there, I'm trying to go light weight. I weigh everything with a gram scale and bring only the things I really need...well, sorta, I have a small pillow too....and my pipe, and tobacco, and, my broad band radio to receive tsunami warnings when beach camping in Michoacan, and my digital camera, and my Carson MA-30 microscope, and my wife makes me bring photos of her.... <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Brum