Messageboards - Central America

Ooooh, where to begin lol. The Chicken busses aren't THAT bad. The windows all slot down, so whilst there's no AC on board, once the bus gets moving it feels like there is! They're a really good fun experience - riding along with the locals. Some of the bus drivers play really old 60's music - depends on whether they're in the mood for music that day or not. They can get really busy so if you don't board the bus at the start destination - and you don't get there 15 or so mins early, you MAY have to stand - though I have seen the London underground trains in far worse conditions with people totally crammed in standing! The seats are really big so usually three people (or possibly more) sit on one. Chicken busses are basically the old American yellow school busses - sometimes painted in REALLY crazy colours and patterns which is awesome. I've spent a couple of summers working at a kids camp in upstate NY, and we used to put 3 people on the seats so when I got to Central America, it seemed normal for me lol. Supposedly they can be a bit crazy - for example people are allowed to take chickens (hence the name) on board, pigs etc. though I didn't experience that (unfortunately - I'd have loved to see it!)

I mentioned Granada and Ometepe Island in my last post (Nicaragua) and as you've said you don't really know much about the country, I would personally recommend both places. There's some really gorgeous cold springs at Ometepe so if you go - don't miss them. As for Costa Rica - I LOVED this country. It's a bit more expensive than Nicaragua and Honduras as it is a bit more westernised and set up for tourists. Your bus from Panama will most likely take you straight to San Jose. It's a nice enough city, but you'll easily get bored so don't plan too much time there. There's more than one bus station - one which serves the west coast, and another for the East Coast. First off I headed north east to 'La Fortuna' it's a village really set up for tourists. There's a great activities centre just behind the church that's on the village green - and they offer just about everything. All different grades of rafting to white water rafting, then offer stuff like a guided walk through the forest to see the wildlife, a trip to Arenal volcano is a must as it is constantly erupting and it was freaking amazing to watch. There's some pretty impressive hot springs there, they also offer caving, and guided mountain hikes - oh and stuff like volunteer for the morning at an animal sanctuary - so yeah - heaps of stuff to pick from!

From there we headed to Monteverde. It's supposed to be the best place to go zip lining through the cloud forest, and hands down it was the highlight of my trip for me. The weather is a lot cooler here so be prepared for that, and because you're going in rainy season, I'd recommend booking a morning zip line trip as it tends to rain in the afternoon more so than the morning. There's also other stuff to do there like a frog farm, a tour of a coffee farm, the national park, but the zip lining/sky walks is probably what you go there for. There's a restaurant/internet cafe in the town called the Treehouse - and it's built around a massive tree and it's just awesome really - so eat there if you go!

Manuel Antonio is a stunning National Park still on the west coast. The abundance of wildlife was amazing, and the beaches inside the actual park are obviously totally unspoilt, white sand, turquoise waters, the beach just leads into the forest, so no crappy touristy shops lined along the beach with annoying rent-a-sun beds etc - just bliss. Obviously the beach outside the park has all of that, and surfing lessons and stuff, but I'd say it's well worth a visit.

To get from one side to the other you might have to do an overnight stay in San Jose. August to October is Green sea turtle laying eggs time, and in Tortoguero (East coast) 100's come up onto the beach to lay their eggs. It was such an amazing sight to see. Aside from the turtles - to get to the area, going by boat from Limon via the canals is the easiest way as the town doesn't have roads. I saw all sorts of animals from otters to crocodiles, caimans, beautiful exotic birds, sloths, monkeys etc. so even if you just miss the sea turtle season, I'd recommend it.

There's also Cauhita to the south of Limon but I didn't think much of it. Another beachy kind of place, but not as nice as Manuel Antonio.

My tour lasted 28 days, but put in mind all my hours in the day were totally free for me to just explore and have fun, I didn't need to take time out to book hotels/hostels, find out about transport and stuff. But then this said also, I was restricted, and a couple of places I visited, I felt like I didn't really need the amount of time we were given, and I'd have moved on to the next destination a day early had I been given the chance (eg. Cauhita) I think the initial cost of the tour, inc. local payment was around £1000. On top of this I also paid for optional activities, tips and meals - so yeah I'd say I probably spent about another £250-£350 on top of that. (I did opt for some slightly extravagant activities such as swimming with dolphins which I think was $75 or $80, but I really wanted to do it and didn't want to leave regretting not doing it whilst the opportunity was there!) Bear in mind I will have paid over the top to have the luxury of a tour guide do all the planning and prep for me, so you'll save a fair bit by doing it on your own. I've heard that Belize is crazily expensive - not even close to the cost of all the other countries you'll be going to, so budget for that. I'd think about spending more time in places in other countries that are similar to destinations in Belize (eg. Roatan is supposed to be similar to one of Belize's islands just off the coast) Eating out is cheap, but beware of places where they add tip and tax on top of the menu price. The tax tends to be a bigger percentage in very touristy areas such as Roatan.