feat. South and Central America, and hopefully one day the Caribbean too
GETTING IN 4:20am in San Ignacio and I was getting ready to scamper out onto the main highway (conveniently right outside my hostel) to catch what I hoped was a direct bus to the Mexican border. As I was doing one last belongings check by the front door, another guy trundled into reception with his backpacks and, […]
Acatenango and Tikal were among Central America’s foremost highlights for me, but my experience on Guatemalan vehicles was so injurious that I couldn’t hack another day in what was otherwise a tremendously beautiful nation. After finishing my morning exploration of Tikal, I headed straight outta the country: I’d arranged for the Tikal tour bus to
San Ignacio (Belize) Read More »
GETTING IN As mentioned here, after receiving a spiritual battering courtesy of Nicaragua’s chicken buses and El Salvador’s pervasive noise pollution, I booked myself onto an expensive shuttle to go directly from La Unión to Antigua, Guatemala. By this point, I’d deemed my reserves of time and patience more precious than my ever-dwindling budget – and I
After Nicaragua, my goal was to speed through Honduras and reach Guatemala ASAP. This wasn’t anything against Honduras per se – one of my buddies in Shanghai was born there and the dad of one of my childhood best friends used to work there too; I’ve always been curious. But there honestly wasn’t too much that
La Unión (El Salvador) Read More »
GETTING IN Despite my best efforts, I was unable to convince staff at the Monteverde bus terminal to conjure a direct connection to Nicaragua. Instead, I was told to wake up at 3:30am and take a bus to a highway junction – that’s right, not a town but an actual roadside – where I’d need to flag
GETTING IN I woke up at 5:30am in Boquete, Panama, to catch the first bus heading to David, the main regional hub. Once at the terminal, I asked around for a connection to Paso Canoas (shout “FRONTERA!” whenever you’re trying to cross a border in Central America – someone will direct you accordingly) and caught a second bus
BACKGROUND Mexico and Central America have long formed the most glaring ‘gap’ in my map of visited countries. There are other blind spots of course, but they’re either less prominent as travel destinations (much of the Arab world, West Africa) or things I’m saving for if I ever make it to old age (Scandinavia, the
It had taken over three decades of existence, but by early 2019 I’d gotten myself to a stage where I’d stepped foot on every inhabited continent bar one: South America. Aka the one that was most logistically difficult and financially taxing in relation to my home location of Shanghai. But I was scheduled to begin