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I began 1997 in Guatemala, Central America. I was staying at a small hotel in the village of San Pedro on the beautiful Lake Atitlan. I stayed at the lake for almost a month and ended up running the hotel for three weeks! The American owners needed a holiday and they asked me to be the manager. It was quite strange trying to run a hotel with Spanish only speaking staff and my Spanish being pretty awful. While managing the hotel I met a group of travelers who had driven down from the USA in a four wheel drive, and were continuing all the way down to Panama. They were looking for an extra traveler, so I joined up. It was certainly a great opportunity to be able to drive right through Central America and have a rest from the rough old buses! All I had to pay for was my share of the petrol!
1997 Travel Diary (Part 1)
Gjcmcclurg2005-12-23 14:46:53
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the shore of the huge Nicaragua Lake. We took a boat out to the islands in the center of the lake and spent a few days relaxing, trekking and swimming. Although Nicaragua has a reputation for being unstable, we found it really peaceful and actually felt safer than when we had been in Guatemala or Honduras.
From Nicaragua we traveled into Costa Rica which seemed considerably more developed than the previous Central American countries we had driven through. Being a popular holiday destination for the US, it was certainly no stranger to tourists. In Costa Rica we visited some of the famous national parks, including the beautiful Cloud Forest of Monte Verde and the volcanoes of the interior. We also spent a few days on the Pacific beaches and did day hikes in the coastal tropical rain forests. We saw a good deal of wildlife while in Costa Rica including monkeys, sloths, tiny forest dear and many brightly colored tropical birds.
After Costa Rica we drove into Panama. Panama doesn't really have many famous tourist sights, but we found the people friendly and interested in what we were doing. We met up with a couple of American Air Force guys and ended up spending one night on a base! Of course we visited the famous Panama Canal, and watched the huge ships being lowered to the level of the Pacific ocean by gigantic, multi-step locks. Panama City certainly wasn't a safe place, one afternoon a group of guys surrounded me, but I just managed to avoid them by running into the middle of the road and stopping all the traffic!
From Panama there was no road through the Darian Jungle down into Colombia, South America. There used to be a ferry service, but this has ceased operating. The only way was to hike through the Darian Jungle for 5 days. The problem with this hike was that the Darian was full of bandits and drug traffickers, it was also very physically challenging. Also, two German backpackers had just been shot
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See photographs from:
Panama Gallery
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Nicaragua Gallery
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Honduras Gallery
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Guatemala Gallery
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Ecuador Gallery
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Costa Rica Gallery
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Colombia Gallery
