Good-bye to Central America, after spending about seven weeks traveling through Central America we hopped on a plane (first plane ride since we arrived) from Panama City to Medellin, Columbia. Traveling through the seven countries of Central America made for a diverse and interesting trip. We left Mexico from the small border town of Chetumal, taking a shuttle through Belize (brief stop in Belize City) and into Guatemala. In Guatemala we stayed in the island town of Flores, on the edge of the jungle in Lanquin and touristy Antigua (see posts on October 2 & 5).

We decided not to stay in Honduras as its Caribbean coast is mainly a scuba diver destination or a place for visiting ruins (we burned ourselves out on ruins in Mexico). We chose instead to visit El Salvador. We were surprised that they use American currency but it was so inexpensive, we ate full meals with drinks for less than twenty dollars. The people were warm and eager to please. We avoided the cities and had a great time in the small beach towns of Tunco and La Tortuga Verde (see post on October 7).

We travelled through Honduras to get from El Salvador to Nicaragua. In Nicaragua we went from the revolutionary flavored Leon, to seeing volcanos outside of Granada to the touristy Pacific Ocean beach town of San Juan del Sur (see October 14 post).

On to Costa Rica and its Caribbean coast. We spent a quick night in the capital of San Jose and then traveling by bus and boat we visited Tortuguerro (national park) and Puerto Viejo (touristy beach town) (see October 21 post).

Staying with the beach theme we headed down the coast into Panama to the island town of Bocas del Torro (October 31 post). On we went to the higher elevation of Boquette (November 6 post) for a few cooler days and then headed to Panama City to finish with Central America (see November 2 and 12 posts).

We really enjoyed our time in Central America. We found the people to be warm and friendly. The countries are very different from each other with the obvious harsh poverty of Honduras to the much more well-off communities of Panama. There is also a great difference in visiting rural areas where we could see the traditions of the country to the big cities that are very cosmopolitan. As for the cuisine, Michael still says that no one out cooks the Mexicans.