2012/13 TRAVEL PLANS 1

During my recent absence from the blog a whole lot of researching and planning for our up-coming trip south has been going on.

For those of you that have been with us for a while and regularly check in - I feel like I have been withholding important information from you!

It's time to spill the beans!
Remember back here in July when we were so BOLD with our BIG dreams of traveling ALL the way through Central America - right down to Panama - visiting all SEVEN countries between here and there?

Well, that plan has been revised ---- slightly.

The slippery slope leading to the NEW plan began innocently enough as I was getting a start on my hefty list of research. To my surprise and utter excitement I stumbled upon the site 99 days to Panama. Just what I needed - right?! I mean - we have about twice that much time but what better way to make the trip then to pretty much follow a couple that has already done it - and with a C Class!

By the way - a short interruption. I KNOW that when we announced that we were heading to Central America next winter there were a few of you that held your breath with the words..... be careful ..... coming to mind. Yes - I CAN read minds don't you know. Anyway, we were sort of holding our breaths too - can we really take on THAT kind of trip? Well, what I soon realized is that based on the number of travel blogs and sites out there and the sheer number of people that are or have been making there way around Central America by RV, bus or foot is HUGE. It makes one wonder how many people HAVEN'T been there. We are certainly not doing something new.

Back to my research on 99 days to Panama. This site chronicles the trip undertaken by Harriet and John and their dog Brindle, from Texas to Panama and back again. They provid a ton of information about border crossings, traveling with a dog (VERY important for us), food, documentation, boondocking and camping locations and much much more.

I had definitely struck gold here!

But we struck something else too!

I can't seem to find the page back right now but it really stayed with me when they gave their thoughts about the trip - gee I hope it was them that wrote it - anyway - SOMEONE wrote it. They said something to the effect .....

"..... Costa Rica and Panana were not our favourites - we found them touristy and very westernized..."

hmmmm - not really what we were going for this trip.

Don't get me wrong - I'm sure they are beautiful and all the rest but 'touristy' and 'westernized' give us a bit of a rash. Although we really weren't surprised what with hearing about all of the retirees and expats who have settled there.

And so our trip route changed a bit - we took off Costa Rica and Panama - and Nicaragua while were were at it. (We had probably bitten off a bit more then we could chew for this trip anyway - right?!) So

New Plan: Canada, USA, Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Belize, Mexico, USA, Canada.

hmmmm - but wait - a camper here is from El Salvador and didn't have much good to say about her country - let's maybe skip it too! So -

New Plan - again: Canada, USA, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Belize, Mexico, USA, Canada.

hmmmm - you know - Derek - I can't find ANYONE writing good things about Belize right now - particularly Belize City. Both Bacon is Magic and Discover. Share. Inspire have given very good reasons why NOT to visit many parts of this country. And so......

New Plan - again: Canada, USA, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, USA, Canada.

And that's how it stands now - I have yet to find anything bad (within reason of course) about Guatemala and Honduras and in fact we have found a TON of good info and great looking places to visit.

So - that's where were headed and we are pretty darn excited.


Right now I'm back to multi tasking and making Cinnamon and Sugar Rice Pudding out of Joy the Baker's Cookbook - you know the one that I raved about in the last Sunday Cook. Fingers crossed that Cassia likes it for breakfast - she is on an orange kick right now and the recipe includes some zest. What DO you feed a toddler for breakfast?- Cassia has pretty much nixed all the regular choices - so this is my new idea! Ya - I know - it's ONLY 10 o'clock at night when I'm doing all this!

Thanks for checkin' in!

Teresa

TODAY'S INTERESTING LINK: In the up coming posts I'll write about all the places we have been finding to visit or camp - or both! I figured I had completed exceeded at my job as a good wife when I found Derek a micro brewery in Honduras - the FIRST and ONLY microbrewery in Honduras - D & D Brewery. And if you can believe our good fortune - it costs around $3 a night per person to camp there.