answer:I can’t think of anything more riveting than books on the geography, culture, and history of the places you’ll be travelling through, and then collecting local books on the same subjects as you travel. Even pamphlets from the various Turist Buros are interesting, because they often enhance with local detail what you’ve already read, and sometimes even contradict what you’ve read. My wife used to cringe at the amount of books I had with me when we traveled together. I would have to post them back home along the way. I could have saved a lot of postage and baggage if we’d had the internet in those days. A laptop would be essential if I were travel those places today. Except for the local stuff, it would almost take care all my needs. Locals love it when you know something of the history or culture of their environs and often open up with little-known facts and lore when they hear a knowledgeable question from a foreigner. You’re suddenly seen as an interested traveler and not just another day tourist breezing through to buy the T-shirt or the cuckoo clock souvenir just to prove you got of the bus.