Central America Travel Blogs | Travelogues | Travel Journals

OK, this is a bit of a behemoth.  I thought I'd write a summary of the country as I found it now I'm leaving it.  Although life is full of shades of grey, the old B&W best of/worst of format will suffice for this resumé.  Sorry it is huge, I have tried to break it up though to make it easier.  Photos later when this goddamn machine stops acting up. Onwards...ExperienceBest: Has to be Arenal Volcano.  It is simply something one doesn't often (if ever) get to see.&...

Note: Left my camera in LA and won't be able to upload photos until I get back next week. Check out some of Dave's photos from the trip here:www.travbuddy.com/travel-blogs/12062-----Before the trip, Dave and I meticulously packed up our surfboards. We smothered the boards with bubble wrap, padded the rails with piping insulation, and threw them into cushy board bags. It appeared that our boards would be traveling more comfortably than we were.The first test came at LAX airport. We handed the ...

This day was pretty uneventful.  Sarah and I made the sad drive from Arenal to San Jose, which took about three hours, dropped off the rental car, and headed to the airport to catch our respective flights.  I had a connection in Guatemala City, Guatemala (a new country for me!).  I was lucky that I encountered no rain delays.  Again I flew TACA and loved them.

  COME AWAY TO BELIZE • Jerry Jeff Walker   (CHORUS) They say your heart never leaves Once you've been down to Belize!

    It is 3:30 and Jen and I popped right out of bed anxious to see what this morning is going to bring us. Jon and Kara decided to stay in so, we are meeting up with Oliver on our own. We walk up to the front entrance and there is the security guard for the hotel, greeting us with a fresh brewed pot of coffee. We are continually impressed with the hospitality and small gestures of consideration that everyone at Casa De Don David has shown to us. Oliver arrives and off we drive...

So Anders, Ariel and I went through downtown Guatemala while we were waiting for the bus to Rio Dulce.  We came across the market in the centre of this metropolitan city and there was this guy who had just milked a goat and had given the glass of foamy warm goat milk to a woman in nice clothes on the street who I suppose was thirsty.  She gave him some money and wiped her goat milk mustache off her face, transaction complete.

Early in the morning I awoke to thousands of people chanting Catholic hymns in the streets.  Although I was jetlagged and would have liked to sleep a couple of more hours, I was very excited to see what was taking place.   Before we started our journey around the city, I had the hotel concierge call to the rental car company to inquire the where-a-bouts of my car.  The company informed me that there was no longer a car for me and that I should be thankful that they would not ...

The flight to San Jose was about 5hrs and I slept most of the way. They served blueberry pancakes and a whole host of other things for breakfast, and then I watched the sun rise over the mountains. I even saw a smoking volcano out of the window which was awesome! When I arrived in San Jose I caught a taxi to Gaudys Hostel and had a shower before passing out on the bed for 5 hours or so. I woke up at about 4:30pm and then at 5:30pm met my Intrepid group. There are 5 Aussies, 2 Swedes, 2 people...

To say goodbye to Puerto Viejo, we went to the beach all morning and then packed our plastic bag with our few clothes and left. First we made a stop in Cahuita to see the national park (nice!) and catch a road by the ocean which was "sin salida" ...we just found this out after 1/2 hour driving... We got to San Jose late and still had to find a backpack or something...guess we couldn't travel with a plastic bag :)  Went to the supermarket and got a school backpack :)) nice..and sma...

Well lets just say i am back from hell!!! aka "JACO" what a dump i mean seriously i mean the place is a absolute dump!!! It was a cross between Falaraki and Luton!!! but without the sunburnt english barmy army, no instead it was the American barmy army, and truckloads of rubbish and cheap ladys of the night!!!i am not joking the place was not very nice, it gives such a terrible lookout of Costa rica and its culture. And as for the hostel we was gonna stay at,,,,, well................ d...

Early morning around 5 am i picked up Tayler at his hotel in Zona 10 Guatemala city, Exactly Xamanec student inn, (i have a review about it), and we headed to Antigua guatemala, where we were gonna get our tour to the pacaya Volcano early that morning, we stopped by a gas station to get on food for the road and drinks. When we got to Antigua, went to a hotel in near central park, that way we were going to take our bus to the volcano, started talking to some locals sitting outside the ho...

Lucian and i, met in Antigua Guatemala, infront of Catedral Metropolitana  at central park, i had a great time with Lucian, we talked about everything that came to our minds, we went to a church Called Escuela de Cristo located southeast of the city of Antigua, stablished in 1689, very quiet, a nice atmosphere, a place Lucian didnt know about, hes first time there, it has a beautiful small very well taken care park. We continue our walk to have lunch, (man was i hungry), went ...

Located deep within the Chiquibul Rain Forest, at the foot of the Maya Mastif, in Belize's Cayo District, Caracol is truly one of the greatest Maya archaeological sites ever recovered.  Said to have been occupied as early as 1200 BCE, its greatest period of growth occurred during the Maya Classic period and by 700 CE (AD) Caracol may have reached 180,000 in population, making it one of the highest inhabited Maya cities to ever exist.  An interpretation of a very elaborate stone loca...

New place, new language, new people . . . new experience! I guess what surprised me the most when we first arrived to Belize was its diversity & all the chinese food joints!! After having spent several weeks in Mexico, it was nice to be able to see faces different from my own! Here, you have your Afro-belizeans, Mayans, Mestizos, Taiwanese, Indians, and even a large Menonite community . . . a melting pot! In Belize, the big towns are small and the small towns are even smaller! It's stil...

After 15 days in Belize, I returned to Panama to prepare for what is turing out to be quite a busy "rainy season".  I received alert and had been monitoring Suriname, as they also received quite a bit of rain at the beginning of June, and there is a large chance that we will also launch an operation there is well!  Good to be back at the office, at least for a few days to sort things out. :) The operation in Belize is making notable progess, however some of the long term needs...