15

The sailing trip to Colombia sounds far cooler than it often is... check past archives and you'll find at least a dozen horror stories of people having terrible trips, though it's hard to say how many of those are companies trying to discredit their competitors.

Anyway, flying from Costa Rica to S.A. is a good idea regardless.

16

enroutesiglo: you don't think we would miss a lot if we cut panama out? i mean i would really like to go there but i don't want to rush around.

to everybody: we are really scared about guatemala. i think we would like to book a 10-14 day tour. can anybody recommend a tour there? i don't know it sound really dangerous for us. maybe we would feel better if we would travel with a tour.

17

thank you solohobo for your really interesting message. of course we know that everywhere in central- and south america are some safety issues. i checked out our german homepage with the international embassies (i think this is how you call it in english, anyways a german government hp) and the uk one. and according to them guatemala sound really scary. for the german one they even want us to inform the german embassy in guatemala when we are there and when we are leaving. i wrote them an email asking if we even should go and i got the answer that if we are aware about the safety issues and if we are travel with local thourism agecenies everything should be fine.
i also know that if you want to hear bad stories about any latin american country you will find them for sure, but the same is for the positive stories.

so fare i think we just in cancun as we are flying to cancun ;) then i would give us 10 ten days to go to playa del carmen, tulum and san ignacio, then i planned 14 days in guatamala (no idea yet where to start and stop, most interesting part for us is mayan history), then i was now thinking of flying to costa rica and spend the rest of the 18 days in costa rica and maybe panama, but i don't know if that would be too much or if it would be better to stay only in costa rica.

what does everybody think to this new itinerary? or should we still travel overland from guatemala to costa rica but cuting panama?
again our many interests are historic places and second some nice beaches (awesome landscaping scenery as well of course).

solohobo I've seen that you have been to Nicaragua, Honduras. would it be enough time to travel from guatemala through those two countries or do you recommend to fly to costa rica and stay there?

thanks everybody. you all are a great help and much better then any travel guide :-)

18

If you read the Embassy Travel websites, including the USA, you would never leave home, the way they paint a picture of a country. The safety/embassy warning question comes up here weekly, and its really overkill and inaccurate warning of a country IMO. I do read the US State Travel advisory, just to get a taste of the issues depending on the country, then I read a guidebooks warnings, then I read a forum like this.

Yes there are precautions a traveler needs to take, but overall, once you know what the risk are, and how to avoid them, its rather easy and comfortable to travel in this region. Guatemala has a well organized tourist infrastructure with shuttles/busses and local guides, that is very easy and safe to use.

As far as the plan, it really needs to be based on your interest, you need to choose whats important to you to see, and then try to put a plan together. With the Yucatan and Guatemala the cultural highlight of the region, I would spend at least 3 weeks exploring this area. You can access Copan Honduras easily via shuttles/tours from Guatemala's Antigua or capital.

Then maybe fly to Costa Rica, and work your way down the caribe coast, cross to Panama and hit Bocas Del Toro, and then to PC, three weeks for that would be about right. Depends what adventures/parks you want to see in CR.

19

sorry i would like to add a thought to my last message:
copan sounds really interesting and doesn't look too far away from where we go in guatemala. maybe time will be enough to go there and fly from there to CR?

20

so solohobo if i understood you right you would advise the following route:

cancun-playa del carmen, tulum and san ignacio 10 days
guatemala city - antigua - CHICHICASTENANGO - lake atitlan - tikal - livingstone - copan 21 days
Costa Rica: Rincon/Celeste/Tortuguero/Bocas del Toro
Panama: BDT/PC/Canal/San Blas - 21 days in total

means we would spend 10 days longer then usually planned. but i do believe it will take 10 days from cancun to guatemala right?
just means cutting out 10 days in south america....
unless i would cut panama here. don't really know what do to now.

21

ups i meant of course:
CR: Rincon Tortuguero Panama: BDT PC - but not sure about San Blas as its way down and we would need to fly from PC to colombia...

22

Well you can get to PC Panama two ways, either via the caribe side and BDT, or the Pacific side ( Pan Am Hwy), if you go the Pacific side, allow 3-4 days minimum for Osa/Corcovado in southern zone, a highlight of the entire region, most bio diverse park in the world..

23

hm I'm just having trouble getting a round.
if we are coming from north then it means we would start with tikal - flores in guatemala. then guatemala city - lake atitlan - antigua, but then how to get to livingstone and copan?
how could i get a good route for those destinations? and to fly to san jose i need to be in san salvador or san pedro sula airport.

any help to get a nice route?

24

You can go from Flores/Tikal two ways, via Livingston to Guat City to Antigua, you can go straight thrur or take busses or shuttles, and stop in Livingston then same again to GC/Antigua. Or you go via shuttles, operating between Flores/Lanquin/Chemuc/Coban and then same again to GC or Antigua.

These are all long legs too, no easy way to get from Tikal to Antigua without a long bus ride (night is popular). I flew from GC to Tikal and back on Taca. I didnt have time for Livingston/Rio Dulce which serves at least 2-4 nights, or also Chemuc/Coban which is a good 5-6 hours from Flores or Antigua, if I am not mistaken.

I dont know what flights from where go to San Jose Costa Rica, but Taca and Copa are the main airlines. You could check for departures from Guat Cty, SPS, etc...many people do Copan via a shuttle/tour from Antigua or GC 2 days/1night.

25

ok i did a route on google map now.
starting in cancun - Playa del Carmen - Tulum - San Ignacio - Tikal - Flores - Río Dulce - Copán - Guatemala-City - Antigua - Lake Atitlan - Guatemala-City

according to google map this is 1713 km. the only route that doesn't seem to be to nice is Copan - Guatemala City and Tulum - San Ignacio.

But 4 weeks for this shouldn't be to short. I traveled in Canada 8000 km in 4 weeks, in Australia about 2500 km in 2 weeks. i know CA and OZ is not the same and we always had our own car but 1713 doesn't seem to be too much in 4 weeks. then we could fly from guatemala to san jose.

how do we get those busses. is there more then one company? which one would you recommend. what about our backpacks? i do have a 65 Liter one, but i don't quite know if i should get a smaller one so i don't have to put the backpack away.
where did u put your camera and important stuff during the day? just normal day backpacks?
we do have a good camera (cannon g12). is it not a good idea to take it?
is it ok to take a laptop? would be ideal to keep my homepage updated... but I'm not too sure if we want to carry the laptop all the time. to check emails i got an iPhone... which i also need to put away safe during the day.

lots of questions. thank you so much solo that you take the time to answer :-)

26

Dont compare distances to developed countries, as the roads in CA are all two lane and often slow and delays are common.

All the lodging can arrange the onward travel shuttles for the most part, depends where your going. But the main tourist highlights are well organized to arrange your shuttles/busses in Guatemala, and most of the region for that matter.

I always keep my valuables on my person on busses/transport, and leave in hotel when out doing activities.

Bring the camera, just be wise as to where you keep it, and also when you use it.

I would forget the laptop, there are plenty of internet cafes everywhere you are going, cheap and most have Skype too.

I have a rule of thumb, dont take what you cant afford to lose. If the Iphone is unlocked, you can get SIM cards but unless you have a major situation you need to stay abreast of, leave it off, or use for the pictures and leave camera. One less thing to worry about. you can Skype on the Iphone and use wifi to make calls.

27

so but what are you saying to my route so fare is it still too much?
we are kind of professionals when it comes to photography. so taking pix with an iPhone is a no way! of course i don't wanna loose either of it, but i do have insurance for it. the iPhone is unlocked by the way....

have u seen tourist with professional cameras? it is not one of those big ones, but a little bit bigger then a "normal" one. and u can tell that this one costs something.

now to costa rica and panama. if we fly to san jose from here which way would you choose to go if you only had 2 weeks?

28

Yes, plenty of tourist with very expensive cameras...

29

oh ok, thats good to hear :-)

which way in CR an panama would to choose for 2 weeks?