Sampling Central America's diversity using a regional air pass

We saw it first in ITN: the five national airlines of Central America have collaborated on a "Visit Central America" or "Mundo Maya" program.

As was explained, by purchasing a series of coupons, the number depending on how many flights one needs to take, and having an itinerary planned in advance, it is possible to travel to any or all of the Central American countries.

Changes for '96

We planned to see all the countries except Costa Rica, which we had visited previously, and sent for the flier which described costs, etc. The individual flights within Central America came to about $80 each, the total cost otherwise depending upon the point of origin and final destination.

Our first brochure was for 1995 and we made most of our plans from information in it.

Among other things, we discovered that Miami, our normal point of departure, was in their Zone 3 and Jamaica was in Zone 2.

It was sufficiently less expensive to depart from Miami and return to Montego Bay, so much so that we could add on a flight from Montego Bay to Miami for the difference and thus visit Jamaica virtually without cost, other than for lodging and food.

Thus, in February of 1996, we finally got ourselves organized and bought the needed tickets, Sarasota to Sarasota.

Not surprisingly, 1996 prices were higher, a somewhat bigger increase than we had expected. Also, rather sneakily, Montego Bay was changed to Zone 3, the same as Miami, so that our equally sneaky calculations for visiting Jamaica cheaply were for naught.

The entire round-trip airfare, Miami to Montego Bay (or Miami), was about $765 each, not including rather significant airport departure taxes.

Laid-back Belize

We continued with our original plan, however.

We arrived first in Belize, staying overnight in Belize City at the Seaside Guest House. It is a small place run by the Quakers and is mainly for backpackers. We never discovered a hot-water tap, but, at less than $25 double per night, perhaps it was too much to expect.

Haulover Creek runs through the center of the city and the bridge across it is unique in that it turns 90 degrees on a pivot in the center to allow boats to pass through. This happens only twice a day, so boaters have to be on the alert.

Unfortunately, when we waited to photograph it in action, mechanical trouble prevented the "Swing Bridge" from pivoting - not so serious for us but probably not so good for boaters caught on the wrong side.

A visit to San Pedro on Ambergris Caye (pronounced "key") by boat, at $10 per person each way, allowed us the opportunity to go by glass-bottom boat ($15 each) out to the second-largest barrier reef in the world (after the Great Barrier Reef of Australia) and do some snorkeling.

We stayed in the San Pedrano Hotel, one of several budget hotels. It was clean, had a nice bathroom with hot water and was within a block of the beach - all this for $35 double.

There are two or three reasonable places to eat. Elvi's, with sand floors, served good food attractively.

We thought we had a small problem with our boat trip back to Belize City and the airport as we were told the boat had not made it to San Pedro. Not so. It was merely very late in arriving, having been caught on the wrong side of the nonswinging Swing Bridge.

Colonial Antigua

Our next stop was Guatemala City, Central America's largest. The airline of El Salvador, Taca, proved to be our main transport throughout Central America and to reach Guatemala City we went by way of San Salvador. In fact, we visited the San Salvador airport three times in order to make connections to our next destinations.

(Yes, Armond, although we never left the airport, we did count El Salvador as a country visited.)

We had a busy stay in Guatemala. On our first full day we were picked up at our hotel by Clark Tours, which provided transportation, a guide and lodging. We were taken to the old capital city of Antigua and then on to Chichicastenango.

Antigua is a lovely city, one we would gladly revisit and in which we would spend more time.

The 17th-century Casa Santo Domingo, converted to a hotel, for example, is one of the most beautiful places we saw in all of Central America. There they were preparing for Easter, only about three weeks away, and had already begun to compose elaborate, traditional colored-sawdust designs along the walkways.

Antigua is home for a number of Spanish-language schools. Most are not very costly and many provide the opportunity to spend time with a Guatemalan family. We look forward to the possibility of doing just that.

Blend of cultures

In "Chichi," as part of our tour, we stayed at the venerable Mayan Inn, which still has a lot of class. Clark Tours will, however, provide transportation and guide only, allowing you to choose another hotel.

The Mayan Inn has a lovely dining room with excellent service. Also, the inn is only a block or so from the Church of Santo Tomas, while the Indian market, which one should visit on Sunday, begins just a few steps from the entrance.

We planned to be in Chichi on Sunday, of course, and we were not disappointed. It was a marvelous experience. The church service in the Iglesia de Santo Tomas - a mixture of Catholic and Mayan, with chanting, music, incense and candlelight - was a scene we will not soon forget.

Later that day, floats of the various saints, carried by the faithful, were transported in a procession throughout the market area.

This, together with the myriad natives in their unbelievably colorful costumes and the nearly unending display of local handiworks and produce, combined to make our experience in Chichicastenango a memorable one.

We should add that our guide, Julio Gordon, was most knowledgeable and went out of his way to make sure we did not miss anything.

We stopped on our way back to Guatemala City to view Lake Atitlan. The haziness that day reduced visibility. Nevertheless, the whole experience of Antigua and Chichicastenango was one of the high points of our Central American trip.

Tikal side trip

The first night in Guatemala City, we had stayed at the budget-priced Colonial Hotel ($34 per night, double) with spacious rooms.

The restaurant was closed, so in order to get an evening meal we had to explore the older part of the city by night, something we had been cautioned against. We had no problem, but, at both the hotel and the small-restaurant, we were warned to be very careful because of the high crime rate at night.

When we were describing this experience to Julio, he suggested another hotel for the remainder of our stay in Guatemala City and took us to La Casa Grande (about $60 per night) on the Avenida Reforma next to the American Embassy.

It was a gem, the best accommodation we had during our trip, with a delightful dining room.

The next day was spent on a quick trip to Tikal, the most elaborate of the Mayan ruins in Central America. The visit cost $120 each for the round-trip airfare to Flores via Aerovias plus $10 each for the round trip by van from Flores to the ruins.

We had started to do the whole trip independently but for $10 each joined another group at the ruins and had a very good guided tour.

There is far too much to see at Tikal in a single day and there are various facilities for an overnight stay, but we had budgeted only one day, so that evening found us back at La Casa Grande once again.

Honduras cloud forest

The following day took us to Tegucigalpa, Honduras, as usual via San Salvador.

We stayed once again at a budget inn, the Nuevo Hotel Boston ($22 double), just a few blocks from the city center. It is operated by Jim Winberry and his wife, who speak English - not always the case in the smaller hotels. In fact, Jim was from Missouri.

He helped us locate Tom Taylor, who operates the Shakespeare Bookstore and who for $20 per person would take us to La Tigra National Park not far from the capital.

Most of our literature had described how difficult it was to reach the park where the elusive quetzal (Guatemala's national bird) as well as many other animals might be seen. There apparently was no public transportation and we were not planning to try hitchhiking, the recommended way.

We had hardly entered the park when we saw a quetzal. Even Tom, who had been there a number of times, had never seen one before, so we considered ourselves very lucky.

La Tigra is a cloud forest and this day it lived up to its name. Low clouds were hanging over the city that day, and the park, which is situated at a much higher elevation, was literally dripping with moisture. We explored the well-constructed trail for almost three hours before returning to find Tom waiting for us.

On the drive back to Tegucigalpa we had a very nice lunch at La Cumbre, a lovely restaurant overlooking the city.

In town we had lunch one day at a popular city restaurant called Duncan Maya (a young man who tried to help us with directions to it, recognizing us as Americans, sent us to Dunkin' Donuts first) where we got a very ample meal for three or four dollars.

After just two nights in Tegucigalpa, we resumed our trip, flying onto Managua, once again by way of San Salvador.

Managua break

By this time, the rather strenuous hiking in Antigua, Chichicastenango and Tikal (where it had been very hot) as well as on the mountain trails in La Tigra had begun to take its toll on two 75-year-olds and we opted to stay at the Hotel Mercedes just across the road from the Managuan airport.

There we relaxed and got in a little bird-watching in the beautifully planted grounds of the hotel.

After this inadequate visit to Managua, we flew on, this time to Panama City.

Panama and home?

Because of the flight schedules from Managua to Panama City and then from Panama City to Montego Bay, we had to spend either a single day or four days in Panama.

We had chosen the former, hoping at least to get an overview of the city and a visit to the Miraflores locks of the Panama Canal near the city.

At the airport we easily found a taxi driver who would take us to the locks and then to our hotel. Luck was with us at the canal as a ship was being put through as we watched.

We did, however, have one more errand to perform. Back in Miami, when we had originally checked in at the Taca airline desk, the agent told us that she was sorry but she could not find us on the computer for any part of our Central American trip.

Since we had our tickets in hand along with the computer printout which showed that our entire itinerary had been confirmed in Florida about three weeks before, no one could understand how our names could have gotten so completely lost.

We thought we might see our whole trip disintegrate before we got started. Nevertheless, she said, she would try to rebook us on the same schedule we had prepared. This she was able to do except for the flight on Copa airline from Panama City to Montego Bay.

The best advice she or the Copa agent could give us was to place our name on a wait list and hope for a cancellation - not a great idea, since we had flights from Montego Bay to Miami and thence to Sarasota already booked.

At every opportunity we inquired how we stood on this critical flight out of Panama City and each time we continued on the wait list.

The Copa representative in Panama City was not sure she could get us on the fully booked flight and when she came back from inquiring of her superior as to what to do, she looked very serious.

It was not until, with a smile, she asked, "Smoking or nonsmoking?" that we knew we were going to get out of Panama on time.

The next day we learned why this particular flight was so fully booked. Apparently, it is one which Jamaican street vendors, mostly women, use to go to Panama to purchase duty-free goods and bring them back.

The plane was jammed and noisy, as many of the passengers knew each other and, in order to avoid paying excess tolls for overweight checked baggage, had carryons filled to capacity with toys, clothes and even toilet tissue which they intended to sell.

It was an interesting flight and a fitting end, no doubt, to our rather hectic Central American excursion.

Our trip hardly gave us an in-depth view of Central America, but as independent travelers we did get an overview of the Central American countries and met with and talked to quite a few of the people.

Would we go back to Central America? We certainly would. If nothing more, our whirlwind tour whetted our appetite to learn more about this interesting part of the world.

COPYRIGHT 1996 Martin Publications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group