BootsnAll Travel Community

Red Bank, Belize
You will find almost no information about this place in the guide books, but it has an incredibly beautiful private reserve managed by a local man named Jeronimo Sho. During January and February it is possible to see flocks of around 40 Scarlet Macaws flying through the hills just west of the town. The town has no accomodations other than a campground at Jeronimo's reserve. I believe it is possible to get busses into the town from Dangriga, although we just had the PG/Belize bus drop us off at the turnoff and hiked in from there.

There are two ways to see the Preserve:

DIY: As John stated take the bus from PG or Dangriga and get off at the Red Bank turn off( we rented bicycles) and make your way to the little town of Red Bank( do stop at the gristmill on the right and at the little store/stand) ask directions to Jeronimos. He will let you go in or if he is already there, someone will show you where it is. There is a long road in through the banana planatation- sometimes you can hitch a ride but renting a bike at Dangriga or PG or Placencia and riding in is best.

Tour- Through Night Wind Tours out of Placencia- go in with Doyle- he is very knowledgeable and will put together a trip with transportation and a inner tube down the Swayze.
IT is beautiful- I took three trips last February, just missed the macaws on several occasions but it was still a highlight of my trip

For anyone that's planning to spend some time in Nicaragua, I would highly recommend Little Corn Island off the Caribbean Coast.

From the airport in Managua (which is surprisingly nice...the airport, not Managua), you can catch a puddle jumper flight to Big Corn Island via Bluefields. It only takes an hour or so, and I think it costs around $100. From Big Corn, you can catch a smallish water taxi that will take you over to Little Corn.

Little Corn itself is tiny, but beautiful. There are no roads, a handful of places to stay, a few places to eat, and one dive shop (at least that's what it was like a few years back). You can walk from one end of the island to the other in an hour or so. Life moves slooow on the island, even by Nicaraguan standards. The beaches are small, but absolutely incredible. Fresh lobster with coconut rice is an inexpensive local specialty. There's not much to do there but walk around, swim, lay on the beach, eat and drink. It's the kind of place where you can really take it easy, a place that Jeff Lebowski might like to hang out.

If you're looking to do something active, the dive shop can take you out diving or snorkeling (the snorkeling was pretty good, and cheap), and you can probably find someone to take you fishing. That's pretty much it though.

There are some decent places to stay, but Casa Iguana is by far the best. Casa Iguana is a true eco-lodge, not just some cabin in the woods. They generate their own power using wind and solar energy, capture rain water to use in the showers, encourage the fellas to piss outside, and have an awesome organic garden. At night they serve family style dinners for the guests with fresh vegetables from the garden, and the catch of the day. It's not cheap to stay there, but it's worth every penny. If it's not in your budget, there are definitely other less expensive options on the Island.

It's more than a little bit out of the way, but if you're looking for a place to hang for a few days while you're traveling in Nicaragua, you can't go wrong with Little Corn.

For those travelling through Honduras, I highly recommend a smaller town by the name of Gracias, starting to get noticed by the backpacking crowds, as it has access to the highest cloud forest in Honduras (very awesome, stick to the trails...) a cool castle that looks over the town, colonial buildings, old churches, Hot Springs (aguas termales) friendly people, and a collection of different non government agencies contributing in aiding the ¨pobre¨.

Also, La Campa, a smaller village about an hour bus ride away, that is renown for its Lenca pottery.

Suchitoto, El Salvador...quiet, friendly old town with tons to do in the area.

The people of El Salvador. Genuine and funny. They love to chop it up.

Anywhere on Ometepe, Nica. The volcano is alive, the people are alive and the air is alive. Every square inch of that island is alive.

The Pacific Coast of El Salvador. It's a little in accessible out side of Libertad (and expensive) but worth it.

Any bus.

San Jose, Costa Rica. I highly recommend the hotel Cinco Hormigas Rojas in San Jose, Costa Rica. It is a little piece of heaven. It's not all that cheap but it's so relaxing and quaint so it pretty much kicks the ass of places like the Hemingway Inn which cost pretty much the same anyhow. Plus, the breakfasts are delicious.

http://www.cincohormigasrojas.com/

For those people interested in volunteering in
Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica and Nicaragua,
there is a directory of free volunteer opportunities here:

www.volunteersouthamerica.net

Steve McElhinney

Great article on Monteverde Cloud Forest has been posted.

nicaragua, anywhere in nicaragua, its a hidden jewel!
http://harvard.facebook.com/photos.php?id=12080&l=5bdc3
just look above!

If you fly into Central America with Continental you have about a 20% chance of your luggage showing up 1 or 2 days late. If you're me it's 100% for sure.

My main suggestion would be to go to El Salvador. Period. Even with a week to spare you could take in the pacific beaches, beautiful lakes, and superb colonial towns - such as suchitoto.
Before i go there i had reservations due to reports of danger - but you can only speak as you find - and we didn't find that whatsoever. The people were inquisitive, helpful, kind, and extremely friendly.
we were going to visit for maybe a week and ended up staying for the best part of a month - it really is a wonderful place. Go there and you will see. I have written an article on an excursion we did there, just follow the link to my website and have a read. It was a truly crazy tour!
regards,

nath

I'm going to guatemala in 10 days (wa-hoo!). brief description = i'll see tikal, antigua and spend a couple of days fishing out of iztapa. this is my first visit to guatemala and wondered if there were any last minute suggestions out there.

how many days total do you have? it would be cool if you had time to see rio dulce as well.....

6 days in country this trip, but will be going back. a quick glance on the internet makes rio dulce look inviting. do you recommend near the lake? how did you travel to get there?

i second the nebaj recommendation. it's in lonely planet but is considerably less touristed than the big gringo trail. it's part of the ixil triangle, home to the ixil maya. trekkers have been coming here for forty years or so, and there are established trails with great stuff to see anywhere from two hours' to four days' walking. this is _the_ best place to talk to people about the war, because absolutely everyone here was affected.

what the guide books don't say is that there's a massive road improvement project going on, and it's getting much easier to travel here. we traveled from lago atitlan on chicken buses easily in a day, and on a shuttle to coban in about six hours, both of which lp says are impossible.

I just came back from trip to Costa Rica and had an awesome time. My favorite place by far was Playa Samara. It's a small beach town located on the Pacfic coast in the Guanacaste region. It's not flooded with tourists like Jaco and Tamarindo but it's got just enough amenities to get you by. The beach is unbelievable and the surf is great for beginners as well.

I ran into this guy who was running a volunteer organization in the area called Volunteer Visions and I ended up teaching English at one of the local schools for 2 weeks and ended up meeting so many locals and had a great homestay family.

Definitiely visit Samara if you are passing through Costa Rica. You'll be blown away.

For any of you single female travelers, I have a few raves in Guatemala and Belize.

Gua City - yes, its considered very dangerous but I liked it and stayed in Zone 1 and even went out at night. I loved the Posada Belen http://www.posadabelen.com/ because its very safe and on a quiet street. Francesca and Rene are fluent in many languages, friendly and great hosts. Francesca has booked travel for over 30 years and she managed to always get me the best rooms in all the hotels. The small hotel has 11 rooms and is very popular. It is run by 4 men ranging from 35-55 years and Juan is a great chef. The hotel was a home and museum and still has lots of artifacts around. The room rate is $30 to $40 (family) and you can eat 3 meals if needed.

Flores, Gua - I loved this island and loved staying on the top floor of the Caza Azul for only $30. I could see the sunrise and sunset from the rooftop terrace. Take a bus to the villages of San Andres and San Jose. I swam across the lake too. Tikal is nearby at only an hour but I recommend staying at the Jungle Lodge there for a few days. Francesca Belen can arrange all your tours for Gua and Belize.

Belize - Take the 4 hr bus from Flores to Belize City and then take the boat to Caye Caulker. I liked staying at the Tropics hotel and the rooms ranged from $10 to $50 and the beach is across the street. No cars allowed on Caye Caulker but you can rent a bike for $30 per week. Eat dinner at Wish Willys which is owned by a renowned chef Maurice. Swim at the Split and have drinks at the Lazy Lizard. Make sure and take the crazy all day boat tour with Raz Creek. He will take you out for 5-6 hours and give you fresh fruit, rum punch, amazing creole lunch and snorkling with Stingrays and sharks. Only $35 but tell him that Karin from Alaska sent you and see if you get a discount.

Ok maybe I'm the odd man (woman) out - but I love traveling in El Salvador. I've had great fun in San Salvador, love Santa Ana and have had some great trips to La Union. It certainly isn't as touristy as Guatemala or Costa Rica, but I've been there many times and highly recommend it if you like something out of the norm!

Tikal is cool, Flores is really mellow and beautiful, I think Rio Dulce is over-rated but really enjoyed Lago De Atitlan, especially Santiago De Atitlan. My persoanl favorite was Mirador about 50 miles into the Petain, but that will take you about 5 days out of Flores via Carmelita, but it is a trip you will never forget.

Guatemala City
Guatemala city gets a bad rap, mainly from people who haven't been for more than two hours. I lived there and loved it.
Start with zona 10 where you can stay at Xamanek, a wonderful, superclean and safe hostel or the Stofella Hotel for $50usd & up. Zona 10 is where you can walk to two of the best museums: Ixchel for traditional clothing and Popol Vuh for archeology. You can also walk to some of the country's best restaurants, bars and discos and confidently walk back home past midnight.
I'm not saying you should spend a week but give it two days and then join the tourists in Antigua.