Not North, Not South. Central.

My sister has been back home for the past few weeks from Nicaragua,where she has been living for the past year.  As we were talking she was explaining to me how cool and beautiful Central America is.  So I hopped on the internet, to look at pictures and do a little research and I was intrigued.

At this time I was open to all and any ideas for a next adventure, and this sounded like it could be one.  So I hopped on my go-to site for airline tickets, SkyScanner, and looked at prices.  The first country to check was Guatemala as that is in the north of Central America and a great starting point for back packing travels. The first ticket to come up was $170 Detroit to Guatemala City.

Good enough.  Slept on it. Went to the bank. Deposited money.  Came home.  Bought the ticket.  Easy.

One of the hardest parts of traveling is getting over the fear and doubt and actually buying the ticket.  Once the ticket is bought, you're good to go.

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The Trip

So the general outline of this trip is to arrive in Guatemala, explore there, head to Honduras/El Salvador.  In Honduras I will go to Utila, one of the Bay Islands to get certified in Scuba diving.  This is the cheapest place in the world to get certified.  I'm not sure about Belize, I might head there, but I will figure that out as the trip comes closer or commences. From there, down to Nicaruaga to visit my sister in Managua.  Then down through Costa Rica and into Panama.  

From there it is up in the air.  It will all depend on the money situation, it is possible I may continue on to South America. Columbia, Peru, Chili, Argentina and Brazil are all possibilities.  Or I may find somewhere in Central America to stay.  We will just have to wait and see.  The idea right now is for this trip to last one or two months, but you can never be sure with these open ended things.

The slightly more detailed 'plan' is to arrive in Guatemala City on October 24th and immediately leave for other parts of the country as this city is notoriously unsafe and there isn't much to do there according to all   research so far. 

Arrive and head to a place called Antigua just a bit outside the capital.  A beautiful colonial city.  There is where I will stay for a couple of days to explore the city but mostly to get the head around the new surroundings.

After this I will be heading to Lake Atitlan.

Lake Atitlan

More specifically San Pedro La Laguna right on this lake and at the foot of one of the volcanoes.  A famous backpackers haunt where I will stay for a week or two to learn Spanish.

This is where the plan gets hazy because at this point any plan I shall make will most likely be thrown to wind anyway. This is where the fun of backpacking is, not making too many plans, being open and seeing what happens.