Travel Plans - Back to Central America

Art Model, Leslie ©2013 Terrell Neasley

"A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving."

~ Lao Tzu

Its about that time again. As most travelers know, its hard to stay OFF the road for any given time. I think my mother has always hated my tendency to keep staying further and further away from home. I grew up with woods behind my house in Terrell, Texas. Yes...Same name. No, I wasn't named after the city I grew up in. As I were... I've always been an explorer at heart and its tough to not wonder whats around the bend, over that hill, around that corner, or beyond that horizon. I'd wander further and further back into those woods and explore more ground and become familiar with the area. Sometimes I'd use the excuse that I was hunting. I'd take a gun but never come back with any game. I moved away from home just after high school and lived on the other side of the tracks, but still in Terrell. Then I moved closer to Dallas. Two years after graduating high school, I found myself enlisted in the Army and assigned to my first duty station in Germany. I had hardly been 200 miles away from home at any given time. Now I was on the other side of the Atlantic in Europe.

Art Model, Leslie
©2013 Terrell Neasley

Art Model, Leslie
©2013 Terrell Neasley

Its gonna be back to Central America around the first part of the year. This is the plan anyways. The goal is to hit every country, starting up north in either Flores, Guatemala (and then traveling across into Belize), or just heading straight to Belize City and beginning my exploration there. Having been down that way before, I have the majority of this trip planned out, but El Salvador and Honduras in particular still elude me in terms of what I wish to do there. I'll be spending the majority of time in Guatemala and Nicaragua. I still have to make plans for Costa Rica and Panama, but I don't see that being a difficult task. Mainly, I just need to get a general plan secured just to have better cost estimates. Nothing will be written in stone or have schedules and deadlines, or strict itineraries. I like to travel slow, get to know a place, and leave when I wish. If I like a place, I want to be able to stay longer. If I don't, then I'm out sooner than expected. I'll have to schedule a flight in advance while in Nicaragua, but only by a week or so. As I get down to Managua, I'll fly over to Little Corn Island for a spell and then return to Managua to continue my trip.

So I could definitely use some suggestions as to El Salvador and Honduras. And any other spots any of you might know of in Central America that would be appealing. So far, I'm weighing options on the Caribbean Islands off the coast of Honduras and maybe its capital city. Part of the fun though, might be in just waiting til I get there and just checking things out and not finalizing plans til a week or two away. Or maybe be like some friend travelers I've meet on the trail who just show up! I'm not as great as Heather Rae Murphy with planning these things. And I usually have to budget more than what I estimate I'll need. So I'll probably never do a blog post on saving money on these trips. I can do better with sharing with you my mistakes though which can be just as equally beneficial to you. And trust me, that can add up to a lot of friggin' information.

Art Model, Leslie ©2013 Terrell Neasley

But back to the matter at hand, I'd like to get all this worked out by the end of this month, which doesn't leave me much time. But if I recall correctly, it was this time last year was when I decided on an extended stay in Nicaragua. So maybe I'm right on schedule. I'm very much looking forward to this. What's next after this trip you ask. I'll push on to South America, of course. Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia! The western and southern coastal countries in South America interest me most. Here's another tid bit for you. If you don't already have it, download Google Earth. Just zoom in and have a bird's eye view look around. Its a good start.