Nearing the halfway mark, 17 countries visited so far ! It's off to New Zealand next for a month, then onto Australia for another month or so & then we make our way back to Europe through Asia with a brief stop in Dubai, all going well we arrive back in Dublin on June 20th for a holiday (a little holiday within a holiday) before we travel back to Tossa to pick up the "Big Rig" & start our European leg. Visited Countries Map Our favourite countries list goes like this: 1) ARGENTINA (by [View Full Entry]

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As the New Year comes in, we have visited 10 countries with current plans for 20 or so more but that will surely change. Visited Countries Map Our favourite countries list comes in as follows: 1) GUATEMALA 2) PANAMA 3) COSTA RICA 4) EL SALVADOR 5) NICARAGUA 6) CUBA 7) VENEZUELA 8) HONDURAS * BELIZE & MEXICO Don´t reckon we can rate Belize or Mexico as we spent so little time there. Mexico is somewhere we would go back to though. Our favourite places list comes in as follows¨ 1) LAGO A [View Full Entry]

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BOCAS DEL TORO (Carribean Coast) - Thu 28/12 to Sat 30/12 Well after a bit of confusion at the Costa Rican border - them trying to convince us that we never left Nicaragua and us trying to convince them that we did cause there we were standing in front of them in Costa Rica, we finally got the exit stamp from Costa Rica, put our watches forward and hour and crossed the death trap that was a bridge into Panama. No problems at the Panamanian border and onto a bus to the boat that would take us to our first stop [View Full Entry]

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ALAJUELA (Middle Costa Rica) - Thu 21/12 to Fri 22/12 We left San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua early on Thursday the 21st with 3 days to get to Puerto Viejo del Talamanca on the Caribbean (or East) coast for Christmas. We took a one hour bus back towards Managua (Nicaragua´s capital) & hopped off the bus at a cross roads. We hadn´t bothered to check on bus schedules as we were up & off very early. We were about 5 minutes there & were just asking ourselves how long would we be waiting when along comes a bus right to the [View Full Entry]

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LEON - Mon 11/12 - Wed 13/12 So after a lengthy bus journey down from Honduras on chicken buses we finally crossed the border into Nicaragua at Guasaule, without realising it. We are sitting on the bus and it had come to a stop, I looked out the window and a guy was shouting what I thought was ´agua´(water) at me. There was nothing quite unususal about this as every bus we go on there are numerous entrepreneurs selling anything from water to banana chips to sandwiches either on the bus or through the window. I kindly said ´no gracias´and turned [View Full Entry]

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SANTA ROSA DE COPAN (Western Honduras) - Thu 07/12 to FRI 08/12 So no passport stamp again & on we walk into Honduras. We had been on the road since 4.30 AM & decided that our 1st job in Honduras would be to get breakfast, so we ordered scrambled eggs with onions in a border town restaurant, a safe option we use rather than the local choices which usually include beans in some form. With coffee, it all came to about $1.50 :-) We then grabbed a shared taxi to the nearest town Neuvo Ocotepeque & from there took a 2 [View Full Entry]

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ACHUACHAPAN, APANECA & JUAYUA (Western El Salvador) - Mon 04/12 to Wed 06/12 We crossed the border into El Salvador at La Hachadura at approximately 5 PM and had no problems whatsoever, in fact we were in El Salvador & had to be called back by a lady border officer. We asked about getting a stamp in our passports but were disappointed to hear that Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras & Nicaragus had an EU type deal going on & when you entered one you entered them all, petty tourist thing I know but we all do love to look back [View Full Entry]

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FLORES & TIKAL (Northern Guatemala) - Fri 17/11 to Mon 20/11 So....last time we were taking a bus from Belize City to the Guatemalan border. Well we arrived & paid a ridiculous departure fee (something like $37.50 each), & stepped into Guatemala. Immediately, we were under pressure from bus owners & touts telling us all sorts of stories about broken down buses, hijacks, "bandidos" & the like, but........they could bring us there safely for $40, we bargained hard & in the end after walking away from them in the direction of where we hoped would be a bus-stop we agreed on [View Full Entry]

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Belize City - Thu 16/11 to Fri 17/11Belize was a bit of an afterthought, it is a beautiful country however, it was never on our agenda. We decided to make a brief stopover because we had to go through Belize to get to Guatemala and we knew we wouldn't make it to Guatemala before dark. One of our rules from the start was never to arrive in a new town/city after dark, so we made the stopover in Belize city. We got on the bus in Mexico and headed for Belize City, we met an English couple on the bus who [View Full Entry]

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PLAYA DEL CARMEN - Mon 13/11 to Thu 16/11 We arrived in Cancun airport on Monday 13th November excited about the next leg of our journey. The weather was beautiful and we decided to head to the beach town of Playa del Carmen. We picked our bags up from the Carousel, went through customs and lucky enough it was green for go for both of us so no bag checks were necessary. We went to the ATM and withdrew money - Pesos again - always difficult in the first few days trying to get used to a new currency. We [View Full Entry]

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