General Availability: High
Quality of Bandwidth: Medium
Frequency of Internet in Campgrounds: Medium-High
Frequency of Internet in Hotels: High Internet availability is excellent. Almost every hotel, hostel and guesthouse had some type of connection. Although availability may be excellent, the speed and reliability was a mixed bag. Cost for a Tigo SIM card was COP$20,000 at the Bogota airport. Considerably less anywhere else in the country. Tigo's rates are cheapest for calling the USA, at COP$400 ($.23) per minute.

Primarily, the size of your backpack. Feel footloose and fancy free with as few accoutrements as possible. Remember that where you're going there are shops with cheaper toiletries and markets with more exciting clothing. The lower your luggage's value, the more relaxed you'll feel, particularly on night buses, choppy seas and long-haul flights. Keep it as carry-on for maximum ease! Secondly, your itinerary. Cramming in too many places will mean a hectic whirlwind of a schedule, with no time to really appreciate each stop. Ideally you'll travel with no set plan at all - spending as much or as little time wherever you wish. But, if you do have a time limit, it's best to keep transportation to a minimum. Relax and really get to know each place, find the best bargains and suss out the local hang outs.

You just landed in Roldanillo, Valle del Cauca, Colombia and need a mobile phone to get in touch with your new local friends. Go to the main square and look for a small mobile phones shop in Calle 7E. Rent a 2nd hand mobile phone for 10 dolars and once you give it back you'll get your ten'er back as well.

People forget that because Apple bring out a new product every five minutes it's possible to pick up a monstrously large ipod (80-160 gigabytes) for very little money. This proves ideal for music and also storing thousands of photos. If you have a sports sleeve for it, you can hide it under your sweater whilst on night buses. I even had an emergency money supply in it!!!! I went travelling for over a year and it was easily the most important item I took.