A one-month plan that became four months
After a dozen road trips back and forth across the USA and throughout Canada, I decided to head down to Central America.
Since Belize and Costa Rica both seemed friendly and semi-English-speaking, I decided to fly into Belize City and out of San José a month later. But plans changed once I got there. After four months visiting every country except El Salvador, I was running low on cash and had to get back to work.
Belize, Guatemala, and Spanish school
Belize was awesome. I only spent a week there, and all of it was on two tropical islands, but I hooked up with two women — twins, my age, Lisa and Jane — and we had so much fun.
They were based out of Guatemala City and were headed back there. Since this trip was mostly an educational extravaganza, and since Antigua, Guatemala, is known all over the world as an ideal place to learn Spanish through total immersion, the timing was perfect. I accepted their invitation to travel with them to Guatemala City, then enrolled myself in Spanish school for a couple of weeks.
I did lots of fun stuff in Guatemala.
Costa Rica, Cahuita, Corcovado, tapirs, and Arenal
A few weeks later, I decided to fly down to Costa Rica with one of my classmates from Spanish school. I had been living with a local family for two weeks, speaking nothing but Spanish, and was ready to try surviving away from the school.
Gretchen and I made the flight to San José without much problem, quickly left the city, and headed to the southeast coastal village of Cahuita near Panama. We got a room right on the water in a small but comfortable place. Within an hour, Anne came by and asked if she could walk into town with us for dinner.
Anne turned out to be one of those very special people who became a big part of my life. One day Anne and I hired a boat and went out looking for manatees. About a week later, Gretchen, Anne, myself, and about four others headed down into Panama.
Later, back in Costa Rica, I spent about eight days in remote Corcovado National Park with a very sweet woman named Heike from Germany. We backpacked in, about a seven-hour walk along the coast, carrying all our supplies. I also did some volunteer work at the ranger station, helping with radio telemetry of tapirs. If you’ve never seen one, tapirs look like a cross between a horse and a pig.
Eventually Heike and I headed north to Fortuna and camped at the base of Volcán Arenal, an active volcano. Every forty-five minutes or so, the ground would shake, lava would shoot up into the air, and red molten rock would ooze down the slope. In the morning, our tents were covered in ash. We stopped by a local hot spring for a bath and hot soak that morning.
A couple days later, on Christmas Day, we went caving. There were waterfalls throughout the cave system, so we had a blast but were soaked to the bone. Afterward, Heike headed north to Nicaragua, and I headed west to Montezuma for the Nuevo Año — New Year’s weekend festivities. A week or so later, it was northbound to Nicaragua.
Panama and the islands of Bocas del Toro
The islands of Bocas del Toro in Panama were wild. The place was incredible. After a week on the islands, several of us headed west, up and over the Continental Divide, and down to the warm and sticky Pacific coast.
Just north of Panama City, we all split up. Most of the others headed down to South America, but I stayed behind. I was running low on both money and time. After some time in the mountain villages around Boquete, I headed back down to the coast and up the Pacific coast of Costa Rica.
Nicaragua: volcanoes, lake islands, and a surprise reunion
San Juan Viejo in Nicaragua was a peaceful and picturesque fishing village. After three mellow days there, I headed for the big lake, Lago de Nicaragua — home of freshwater sharks.
I stayed out on the islands — two volcanoes — on the lake for a week and had quite a surprise one night. After a couple beers while watching the sunset and updating my journal, I went back to my room to shower before dinner. I heard a familiar laugh from the room next to mine. It was Heike again. How cool!
We were both there for the same reason: we wanted to climb the volcanoes. At 4 the next morning, we started the long journey. After climbing through banana groves, coffee plantations, cocoa farms, and several more plantations at different levels, we arrived at the rim of the volcano. We made our way down into the caldera and had lunch by the water. We were both hurting pups later that evening back at the hotel.
After a few more days visiting old villages in Nicaragua, I headed north to Managua. This place was said to be one of the most unsafe places in Latin America, but I enjoyed it. From there I headed to Honduras, and several glorious weeks of tropical paradise. The Bay Islands of Honduras were the perfect end to an excellent four-month journey through Central America.
One year later, I was back in Latin America
One year later, I was back in Latin America. Instead of Central America, this time it was South America. A lot of my time was spent doing scientific research for the Smithsonian Institute in the wild and remote Amazonian rainforest. But I also had some great adventures in Ecuador, Colombia, the Galapagos Islands, Peru, and more.
Anyone considering visiting any part of Latin America: go for it. Go alone. You’ll meet tons of great people and have total freedom. You’ll meet wonderful local people and be invited into their homes. Take almost nothing with you, because you can get everything you need there for very little money. One small backpack is plenty. The less you have, the better.
Latin America has to be the absolute ideal location for exploration on foot, by backpack, and by bus. Write me anytime if you have questions. Latinos are very special people, and if you give them a chance, you’ll want to go back to Central and South America again and again.