Central America though
small, has seven countries: Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras,
Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. As the area comprises about
one quarter the size of Mexico, this traveller naively thought
she could easily wander from northern Belize and end up in Ecuador,
in South America six months later.
I got as far as Costa
Rica.
The region offers,
in travel brochure-speak, a diversity of things to see and do.
Costa Rica harbors some of the richest flora and fauna in the
world, is home to over 850 species of birds (more than in either
Europe, North America, or Australia), and 200 mammal species,
living in and outside almost 40 national parks with eco-systems
as diverse as swamps, rain and dry forests. Guatemala has spectacular
mountain scenery, and Mayan Tikal, located deep in Tikal National
Park. Neighbouring Honduras is home to Copan, another famous Mayan
site. Wonderful colonial towns dot Nicaragua, and everywhere urban
plazas, parks and Roman Catholic churches remind one of Spain,
the region’s former coloniser. White, sandy, deserted beaches
abound and inexpensive scuba diving is very popular on one of
the world’s largest reefs off islands governed by Belize and Honduras.
Spanish is universally
spoken, except in the former British colony of Belize, so it’s
advisable to have at least a smattering of the language as most
people cannot converse in English.
Bring American dollars.
Traveller’s cheques are safest, but cash is necessary when voyaging
off the beaten track, changing money during out-of-hours banking,
or when crossing borders at less-than-usual hours. Living costs
are higher in Belize, Nicaragua and Costa Rica than elsewhere
in the area, but $400 a week should easily suffice a traveller
who eats the local foods, sleeps in budget accommodation, uses
public transportation and purchases the occasional souvenir.
This solo female explorer
experienced no problems in the hospedajes, or guest houses
found throughout the region. They’re good places to meet like-spirited
people and average about $20 a night. Bring your own towel, soap
and toilet paper as the rooms are clean, but basic. Hostels are
almost non-existent.
Family-owned comedors,
or small restaurants, are the recommended places to eat with a
new-found friend. A set midday meal costs the knock-down price
of approximately $5.00, and includes a fresh fruit drink, a pasta-based
soup, and rice, beans, chicken or high cholesterol fatty meat
and maize tortillas for the main course. These thin, flat, circular
breads, made with the region’s staple grain, are eaten at every
meal. As most locals consume their main meal at midday, it’s often
a repeat menu in the evening.
The diet can become
incredibly monotonous and basic, but bean-loving tourists disagreed
with me. It seemed the cooks in the restaurants were blissfully
unaware of the abundant availability of fresh fruit and vegetables
found in the local markets, as few of them ever made their colourful
appearance on my plate. This backpacker greatly pitied the few
vegetarian tourists she encountered along the way, and as the
half year’s travel began drawing to a close, I could no longer
stomach (metaphorically speaking), the sight of another red kidney
bean.
Buses are the way to
go, as train transportation is almost non-existent and car hire
costs are exorbitant. The bus comfort-gauge ranges from zero (when,
for example, if you’re keeping company with live chickens sitting
on your Guatemalan neighbour’s lap), to ten (if you’re occupying
a seat designed for average-size posteriers in Costa Rica). The
latter is rare, and a welcome luxurious change from the usual
way of sitting half-cheeked into the narrow, crowded aisles for
what seems like an eternity over long, hard, often bumpy roads.
Hitch hiking is possible and generally safe, even for single females,
but nobody was interested in giving me a lift in Nicaragua, so
I hitched a passing bus. However, after a Costa Rican bus departed
an hour before schedule, I again tried sticking my thumb out.
This time I was more successful.
The majority of the
area’s inhabitants are Latinos, a people of Spanish and Indigenous
mix. Guatemala, with almost three quarters of its population pure
Mayan, is the exception. The Christian-bearing colonisers passed
through this small country and left it and its people more or
less untouched because gold, the raison d’etre for their presence,
wasn’t something that this very poor country had in large quantities.
What they left behind
survives to this day. Guatemala has the region’s highest ratio
of indigenous peoples to Latinos, making this a land of incredible
cultural diversity. The visitor will probably first notice the
huge variety of unique rainbow-hued woven fabrics worn by the
local womenfolk and some of their men that visually testify to
the village or region they originate from. It’s one of the most
wonderful, colourful destinations this world traveller has ever
visited.
The Mayans are creators
of beautiful handicrafts, and mountainous Guatemala surpasses
its central American neighbours in the variety and quality of
hand-made products available. Fabulous hand woven materials and
wool blankets top the list, but silver jewellery, woodcarvings,
pottery, tourist and local clothing (particularly huiples, the
women’s’ embroidered blouses), can be found in the lively regional
markets. Even if you don’t want to purchase anything, these regular
once or twice weekly markets are worth visiting to observe and
be part of the hustle and bustle of lives lived differently.
The region’s people
are friendly and open, none more so than in El Salvador, where
so many of its citizens died during its ferocious civil war. In
the standing-room only buses, the sitting locals will gently tap
your arm, relieve you of your parcels, and place them in their
already full laps until you arrive at your destination. As friendly
as the people are, be a little wary of asking the local inhabitants
for directions, as Hispanics seem to prefer that visitors go on
“walkabouts,” rather than lose face by telling them that they
just don’t know.
The most common physical
aliments a visitor may experience are intestinal upsets caused
by unsanitary food preparation or unpurified water. My theory
is that it’s the consumption of too many beans! You may suffer
cramps, diarrhoea, vomiting or more seriously, dysentery, which
may require hospitalisation. Insect bites are at best a nuisance,
at worst dangerous, as in the case of the malaria-carrying mosquito
found everywhere except in the colder, higher altitudes of Guatemala’s
central highlands and Costa Rica’s mountains.
Travel Information:
How to get there: If you’re the owner of time rather than its'
servant, the cheapest way to access the region is to take a quick
flight from Miami, Florida, to Cancun in Mexico. From there, it’s
a day’s bus ride to reach the Belizian border where your adventure
begins.
Travel Information:
The Footprint
Mexico and Central American Handbook is the travel bible for
the region, whether you have pounds to burn or pennies to watch
in your budget.
Let's
Go Series
Lonely
Planet Series: Central America on a Shoestring
Sierra
Club Travel Series
