3 months in Central America

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On February 22d, I started my travels across Central America. First, I spent about 1 month in Mexico, then 2 weeks in Guatemala, 10 days in Honduras, 2 weeks in Nicaragua, 3 weeks in Costa Rica and, finally, almost 2 weeks in Panama.



If I compare with my original plans, I haven’t quite followed them. I have gone to most of the places that I had wanted to see and, following the advice of other people, I have seen much more than these places. That’s how it often goes and how it is most interesting and fun : make a plan, have a basic travel direction and, then, just go with the flow! :-D I can’t say I regret anything I’ve done, any advice I’ve followed. Thanks to not being strict in my plans, I’ve had an amazing time, seen many interesting places I would otherwise have missed. So, I’m happy I am a rather spontaneous person, able to just enjoy the moment and not worry too much about where I will be or what I will do tomorrow. :-D



I have enjoyed every second of these 3 months and I have met a lot of amazing people. In Mexico city, I was happy to spent a few days with some JCI friends that I hadn’t seen in 2 years ; they showed me where they live and shared their stories with me. In Oaxaca we were a big group of people who spent a lot of time together and who continued traveling together for a few weeks, not always all together, but we kept in touch and I always found some of them in my next hostel. We had a great time together and it felt great being in this community. I also met someone in Valladolid with whom I shared some very deep conversations and who has become quite important to me. Besides all these wonderful people, I have enjoyed Mexico immensely because of it’s beautiful nature, it’s interesting ruins, it’s cute colonial cities and the amazing food.



On my last day in Mexico, I was lucky enough to meet 3 other people with whom I would share my experiences in Guatemala and who helped me find the most beautiful places in this wonderful country. I had the chance to see beautiful lakes and rivers, to visit ruins and even to climb a volcano.



Just like in Mexico, during my last days in Guatemala, I met someone who would continue to travel with me for more than one month, exploring Utila, Nicaragua and Costa Rica with me : Rebecka from Sweden.

In Utila (Honduras), we learned during 10 days scuba diving and met wonderful people. In Nicaragua, we visited beautiful places and had a few wonderful adventures with Gwen from France. We climbed other volcanos and did volcano-boarding ; we saw stunning sunsets on beautiful beaches and we lived the beginning of the crisis in Nicaragua with 7 dead students.

In Costa Rica as well, we hiked a lot, visited beautiful national parks, waterfalls and volcanos and we met Michael from the UK and Julieta from Argentina.



In Panama, I felt quite a bit of travel blues and was prepared to just work and recover a bit, but, of course, even then, I met some fascinating people that have showed me that you can never escape meeting wonderful, fun and kind people. :-) I spent a lot of time with some wonderful people, like my friend Eddy, in Panama city and visited the famous Panama Canal. Id spent 5 days sailing the ocean to Colombia, eating the absolute best food and seeing some of the 362 beautiful San Blas islands.



When you travel alone, you’re never alone. When you travel alone, you will always meet other people, because many people travel alone and since talking is one of the basic human needs, it’s unavoidable for you to get to know other (solo) travellers. Of course, you can’t always like everybody, but almost all the backpackers I have met so far are kind people with fascinating stories. And, funny thing, most people you meet, you’ll see at least twice in your travels. You show up at a new hostel and, totally unexpected, you’ll run into a friend you’ve met in a hostel a few days or weeks back. It’s always wonderful to see a friendly face and, often, these are the people you’ll get most close to. See, at the beginning when you meet someone, conversations are backpacker’s stereotypes : Where are you from? Where did you just come from? Where have you been so far? How long are you staying? What’s your next destination? How long are you travelling for ?

These questions are certainly interesting, but at some point you get kind of sick of them and need a break, that’s when you’re very happy to see someone that you already know and with whom you can have a more deep conversation. That’s why these people often become more close friends than people you just met once in one place, but that’s certainly not a rule. :-)



All of the countries I’ve visited in Central America were beautiful and had something special, but my favorite one has been Costa Rica. Like I said, Mexico has a wonderful landscape, just as Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama, but Costa Rica has this more wild beauty that the others don’t have. I can’t quite explain why I preferred Costa Rica... Maybe because the people were so kind, helpful and respectful ; maybe because we’ve seen so many interesting wild animals, I really don’t know. I’m pretty sure, it has to do with my visit of the Corcovado national park. Even if Costa Rica was my favorite country, the highlight of my 3 months in Central America was my sailing trip from Panama to Colombia ; it was like 5 days in Paradise with wonderful people and delicous food ! :-D





I can highly recommend you to visit all of these countries, each one has something special and is worth seeing. :-) I certainly know how lucky I was to have all these experiences and get to know all these people and places! :-D

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