Destination Central America

Tiny on a map, Central America packs in more diversity than any comparably sized area on the planet. No matter when or how long you visit, daily adventures are for the taking, and they come in all types – fun, easy, bumpy, challenging, surprising, fulfilling – the sort you’ll be talking about for decades. For starters, there are Caribbean white-sand beaches and offshore reefs at laze-out backpacker towns offering cheap scuba-diving courses. On the Pacific there are fewer people and bigger waves attracting expert surfers or first-timers wanting to learn. Inland, coffee-scented mountains reach, Dr Seuss–like, through smokering clouds. In 16th-century colonial towns, Spanish haciendas line cobblestone streets, often under the gaze of lava-gurgling volcanoes that can be climbed or just looked at. In the jungle, bulldog-sized rodents scurry past and howler monkeys commute in the treetops above as you meander to (and up) Mayan pyramids that date a millennium. Getting from country to country can mean open-boat trips over chocolaty waters, and excellent Spanish schools make border-crossing study hops a viable option. Best are the people you’ll meet. Witness colorful modern Mayan life, not much changed over the centuries. Along the Caribbean sit back in a Garífuna village, home to an African-Carib culture. Stay with a family throughout, while studying Spanish, to open up more insights into daily life. Central America – Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama and parts of southern Mexico – is distinctly apart from its bigger, more well-known American neighbors. That it remains a mystery to so many, makes the trip all the more rewarding.

In Central America on a Shoestring, by Lonely Planet