Driving Central America & South America.
chicago to costa rica
December 27, 2008 - 11:40pm
whats goin on everybody. this is my first using a forum. i am currently in lorado, texas, killing time in a hotel and found this site. been driving for the past 20 hours and am enroute to costa rica, going to cross into mexico tomorrow. il try to keep updating my trip everytime i get a chance to get on the internet. i am hoping to spend new years eve somewhere inbetween acapulco and guetamala on the pacific coast. if anyones gonna be there please let me know.
December 31, 2008 - 10:10pm
#3
hola
Happy new year. i am currently is esquipulas, guatemala. I am traveling with 3 of us and are pretty much hoteling our way down. Our route so far took us to monterrey, san luis, mexico city, acapulco, and crossed into guatemala at tapachula. we are currently in esquipulas, guatemala for new years, which is less than an hour away. we will cross into honduras tomorrow morning. its very difficult finding safe places to stay, but with patience, we found places. so far we have just over 3500 miles of driving. il try to keep you guys updated.
jeff
January 2, 2009 - 11:34am
#6
Crossing in tapachula was pretty hectic. this was our first experience doing that besides mexico/us. we got there at around 5 in the morning, they checked our passports but customs was closed until 8am. theyl do anything to squeeze some money out of you. watch out for the little kids, they try to steal. everyone warned us about guatemala and not to drive at night but we did until we found a decent hotel. i recommend esquipula if your goin that way but you can take a faster route to el salvador. we were planning on skipping el salvador but later changed our minds. el salvador has the best roads so far and cut out a loott of hours. im at the border in costa rica right now and they are giving us trouble because we got a quad on the back of our pickup. i am leaving the car in costa rica and flying back mid january. all in all i cant complain, it is an awesome trip.
Drive safe!
January 5, 2009 - 1:00pm
#7
Hey - which route did you take to end up in Esquilpas? Seems like a long drive. Did you do the Talisman crossing? We´re heading to Panajachel but are wondering if hwy 1 or 2 is better. Heard there are some highway robberies pretty often and are a little spooked. Thanks for the info!
January 19, 2009 - 10:49pm
#8
sorry for the late response, we went through esquipulas because we originaly were going to skip el salvador and go through honduras the long way. later, i found out el salvador has good roads so we went that route. i dont remember which highways it was. we didnt even have any maps through most of the countries. thought we would be able to buy one once we crossed, but no one had maps. we also didnt have to much trouble. we were warned like 30 times not to drive at night. we did anyways and had to troubles
January 20, 2009 - 1:26am
#9
Yep, that's the advice, don't drive at night.
Someone's cousin's brother's roommate's friend was robbed 5 years ago on that road....
It does happen. It's just rare. Want to be safe? Don't drive at night. Want to get there faster? Drive at night. On the very very low chance there's a roadblock, don't stop.
We're making our way down to C.R. now too and we'll probably be in Oaxaca around new years - maybe Puerto Escondido. We're in Patzcuaro now.
You traveling alone? Camping or hoteling? Just beating feet down to C.R. or stopping to smell the roses?
We're in a camper van with a dog - hit the Pac coast on the way down and are inland now. No set plans but wanna get to Guatemala pretty soon. Ending up spending more time in Mexico than planned.
Shoot us a note.
Leah and Matt