The World Off Road Pt 6

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central america is a 10,000km drive through eight
countries with turbulent pasts but plenty of colonial towns,
colourful fiestas, caribbean beaches, mayan ruins andsmoking volcanoes. You just need to speak Spanish
to survive this adventure...
words by Akis Temperidis Photos by Vula Netu and Akis Temperidis

Zapotitlan is the ultimate
cactus reserve in Mexico.

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OVERLANDER JulY.1045

The World Off Road Pt 6

The cobblestone road to Real de Catorce.

Crossing a Chiapas Village
south of San Cristobal.

The border between the US andMexico is an extremely vibrantplace. On the northern side of Rio
Grande lies the big ‘American Dream’.
On the southern side, a gang war
between cocaine cartels still goes on,
despite the efforts of the Mexican
government. At least, this is theidea you have about Mexico comingfrom the US. Right after you cross the border you forget
the negative hype. Apart from the border areas, Mexico is a
lovable and pretty safe country. This is not only for the greatcolonial towns, the colourful fiestas or the exquisite cuisine
but mostly because of the people. Mexicans are maybe thehappiest folks in the world despite many of them being among
the poorest.
After a long time in the US we were delighted by the vibes,
the energy and the laid back approach of Mexicanos. We
learned to walk again, after six months of a drive-throughlifestyle in the States. Our trip started from Monterrey, themost Americanised city in the country, and took us all the way
to Mexico City, through glorious towns that flourished thanks
to silver and gold mines. Saltillo, Zacatecas and Guanajuatostill keep a sense of their old glorious days, when the Spanish
colonialists were sending tons of silver back home. Most
famous of all abroad is San Miguel de Allende, a beautiful
town where more than 12,000 expatriates from the US andCanada live permanently.
Driving in Northern Mexico is straightforward thanks to adecent motorway network. We skipped all motorways to avoid

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Sometimes you need to be courageous with Mexican cuisine- like tasting ‘chapulinas’ - deep fried cockroaches.

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Mexico is the mostpopulated city inthe world, and anever expanding
theatre for no lessthan 30 million!

the expensive tolls and followed smaller roads which gave us abetter insight of the country. One day, we took a cobblestoneroad up to 2800m, entered a mining tunnel and found theultimate Mexican village, the heroic Real de Catorce. This wasan old mining town where indigenous people where exploitedhumanely by the ‘conquistadores’. Real was a ghost town
when the price of silver plummeted but locals rediscovered it
as a pilgrimage destination thanks to a miraculous picture ofSan Francis of Assisi.
Arriving in Mexico City we took a deep breath. This is themost populated city in the world, an ever expanding theatreof hard working life for no less than 30 million people! We
camped 50km to the north, next to the famous Teotihuacan
OVERLANDER JulY.1047

Palenque attracts more hippy travelers than any other
Maya kingdom not only for trekking in the jungle butfor the magic mushrooms flourishing around as well…

An old Kuna Yala woman posing for
one dollar promised fee…

pyramids and we didn’t drive our car downtown fearing
we would get lost in the horrific traffic forever. Downtown‘de-effe’ (the shortcut for ‘Distritto Federal’ as Mexico City isreferred) is a lively place to stroll around but the shanty towns
in the suburbs make this metropolis an unbearable place tolive. One good thing is that you don’t really need to stay there
as there are more colonial beauties that are worth staying atfor days. This is the case for Puebla and Oaxaca, possibly themost vibrant Mexican towns of all and the ones with the best
culinary culture. Taste a chicken with ‘mole poblano’ (a thickchocolate sauce) and you will never want to leave this place.
Cactus is Mexico’s trademark. If you need to cross theultimate cactus desert, don’t miss Zapotitlan biosphere, next
to the main road that connects Puebla and Oaxaca. Whatmost people don’t know is that the vast country offers agreater variety of landscapes. Around Oaxaca itself and up on
the Chiapas mountains the environment is similar to Central
Europe or South Australia, where pine and cedar forests areabundant. We are now in Southern Mexico and the huge
Yukatan Peninsula extends to the northeast. This looks likea totally different country. An infinite plain of rainforests all
the way to the Caribbean coast. The country of the Maya isalways hot and humid. There are no rivers at Yukatan but only
‘cenote’, the underground, interconnected water sinkholesthat played a major role in the Mayan civilization. They wereused as sacrifice places. Now, cenote are used as naturalswimming pools by hordes of American tourists who prefer

El Castillo, the best
preserved pyramidof the Maya at
Chitzen Itza;
more than an
architectural
masterpiece it
is a giant
astronomical tool.

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Mundo Maya

Roots of Maya civilization dateback to 2000B.C.
in the tropics extending fromthe Yukatan Peninsula
to Guatemala and to Honduras territory. Maya
had an astonishingly flourish
ing period from 200
to 900 AD, during which they
became masters inarchitecture, astronomy andmathematics. Apartfrom their unique culture andgreat architecturalwork, archaeologists more exci
ted about why theempire declined, six centuries before the Spanish
arrived on the continent. The
re are different theories
on this, connecting the Mayan
decline to a longdraught, to an epidemic or tointernal conflicts
between different kingdoms.
The truth is that
Mayan people did not disappear and today theyremain strong populations within Central America.
The kingdoms were just gone so somebody supportsthat maybe there was a people’s revolution thatterminated the rule of the glor
ious kingdoms...

The World Off Road Pt 6

The Canal is not
only the backboneof the Panamenian
economy, it is thereason behind thecreation of thecountry.

Visiting
Hondura the volcanic Isl
s is defia del Tig
nitelyretrack ex an off the be inperience.
atenYukatan more than any other place in Mexico for their summerholidays. You can find more gringos at the massive Cancun
resorts than in California during summer. Cancun is the Gold
Coast of the Caribbean, the kind of places we hate, you know...

Former Banana Republics
Belize has a completely different feeling than any othercountry in Central America. It is the only former Britishcolony in the mainland Caribbean. Belize is smaller than any
Mexican state but worth a visit for the exotic islands – theCayes (pronounced keys) that form a belt on the second
longest barrier reef in the world – second only to Australia’sGreat Barrier Reef. We took a break at Caye Caulker, theonly island affordable to backpackers. We had a nice grilledlobster listening to classic reggae hits and met some funny
Rastafari men there for a night. The next day we hit the roadto Guatemala through the mystic Mayan ruins of Xunantunich.
Guatemala is a country with a turbulent past considering
the civil war only ended in 1996. It’s still infamous for theirhigh crime rate but it is actually a poor but visitor-friendly
country of Mayan people. There are two main reasons tovisit Guatemala. Number one is the lost city of Tikal, themost impressive one left from the Mayan golden years. AfterPalenque and Chitzen Itza in Mexico, we visited the place and– believe me – we were completely lost in this magic world,
still hidden in dense jungle. If you go to Tikal, you can skip any
other Maya ruins...
Guatemala city – the capital, is a place better to be avoided.
It is ugly, busy and potentially dangerous. Only 50km fromthere, lies the nicest colonial town in the country, Antigua.
This is another one great town of the Spanish baroquearchitecture. Hordes of backpackers stay here for months,
possibly attending a Spanish language course. Antigua lies

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Driving on volcanicash, on the slopes of
Cerro Negro, one of
the 17 volcanos ofNicaragua, close toLeon town.

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The World Off Road Pt 6
In the 2.5km long tunnel
to Real de Catorce.

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Guanajuat
museum inen mindedsiemmu
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in the shadow of three volcanoes, one of which erupted in1972 for the last time.
From antigua we had two choices en route to Panama.
To enter Honduras or take the Pacific road to el Salvador,
the smallest and most densely populated country in theregion. we chose the second option. The border crossing
proved to be the trickiest part of our trip – worse than any
in africa! long queues of trucks and an incredible amountof red tape would’ve required us to stay overnight there
if we were not showing our press passes to the customs
director. after that, everybody moved, so we could enter
the country on the same night. The pacific coast of el
Salvador is a place that gets in the tourist map as a surfing
destination. If you don’t surf, probably you will hate el
Salvador for the heavy traffic and for the Iguana street
sellers on the road to Honduras.
upon entering Honduras you realise that this is
the poorest neighbour in the region. The villages look
dilapidated like in central africa, the traffic is low and theroadside is filled with rubbish. This seems to be a country
you need to drive though fast. we did less than 200km in
Honduras but we have some good memories thanks to thenight we spent at the volcanic Isla el Tigre. It was like goingback to the colonial years as the houses, the church andthe main plaza were like they were in 19th century. we werethe only foreigners on the that day and we enjoyed being
among the local people.
The next day, a huge banner of former Sandinista leader
and today president, daniel ortega, welcomed us in tonicaragua. This was a country we always associated withcivil wars, with the Sandinistas front and the uS backed

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Upon entering
Honduras you
realise this is thepoorest neighbour
in the region.
‘contras’ who fought them unsuccessfully for years.
nicaragua is now the hidden gem of central america. It
gets touristy at leon and Granada, two wonderful cities
with a colonial feel, but there’s definitely something more
to explore here. Today’s nicaragua is finally peaceful but
still a very poor country, which is good for the adventurous
traveller. It is cheap and rewarding like a downhill ride froma volcano on a wooden sand board – an activity exclusive tonicaragua. Believe it or not, people in nicaragua don’t hateamericans, despite the fact that they paid the price of uS
policies for decades...

Darien Gap Dead End...
costa rica is a totally different scenario if you come fromnicaragua. It is like an escape from the third world. Thisis the only country in the isthmus which is not includedin the international travel warnings. It was peaceful andpolitically stabilised since the end of ww2, when all
the other ‘banana republics’ of central america were introuble. costa rica has had no army for the last sixty
years but is equipped with a powerful tourist machine
which supports the local economy as much as the coffee
production. The country is a tropical paradise and thanks
to their environment-friendly policies, a great amount of
its territory is protected. costa rica offers everything a
tourist dreams of; five star resorts on the beach and in
the forest, canopy walks, bird watching and other outdoor
activities that will keep you busy for weeks. But for theRed tapeA visa is not required from Mexico to Panama. In June 2006
Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador signed theCA-4 agreement under which travellers may travel between
signature countries without completing exit and entry
formalities for periods up to 90 days. Entry procedure gets a
bit more complicated when you drive your own car because theFIA Carnet de Passage is not recognised. A short manual for
driving on your own in Central America is as follows...

MexicoOn the border you get issued a sticker permit valid for6 months. It costs 920 pesos. Mexican car insurance isobligatory. We paid 82 USD for a basic one (third partycoverage), valid for one month. Don’t pay for a ‘departure tax’on land borders, even if you are asked to. Ask persistently fora receipt!

stsclad touri
by bikini- lum.
edertharen’t bo aside ruins of TuIguanasat the seBelize
Caye Caulker oflaid back destinaBelize is the ultimatetion in the Caribbean.

60km of gravelfrom the famous
Tulum ruins, inYukatan, takeyou to Punta
Allen Peninsula.

real adventure seeker, the country is dull. everything isoriented towards tourism, there is nothing left to discoverand it lacks culture as the locals have turned to a morewestern lifestyle. Sorry mates, but for all these reasons
we crossed costa rica pretty quickly and entered Panama.
our choice was good.
Panama may seem like an american colony – which it
was until ten years ago – but it is more like two different
countries in one. Panama city is a trade and shopping
heaven, a city of unfinished skyscrapers, shipping
companies and rich people, situated in the most strategic
geography on earth. on the other side of the canalindigenous Panama still exists. when we took the road tothe infamous darien gap we realised that this is a placethat few – if any - white collar Panamenios visit. darien
Gap is real no mans land. It’s a dense jungle gap between
Panama and colombia, synonymous to hidden drug cartels
and bloody conflicts between guerrilla groups that still
go on. our trip in central america ended at Yaviza, theeasternmost village of Panama, where the Panamaricana
Highway terminates. we thought we could find a path to
get into colombia but there is nothing actually beyond
dense jungle and rivers. There was a Tv crew in landrovers that attempted the trip in the 70’s and they
were the last to succeed. we would need four months ofwinching and bridge building to cross the 400km gap – likethey did - so the only way to get to South america was toship our car to colombia. The last part of our adventure is
yet to come!

You pay ten Belize Dollars for fumigation 10 to enter
the country. Procedure on customs and immigration aretransparent and straightforward. Car insurance is obligatory
but not checked on the border (7AUD/day). When exiting thecountry, we paid 25USD to get our passport stamped plus
6USD environmental tax. This is official.

GuatemalaThe immigration officer asked for a 2USD ‘process fee’ for eachpassport. Don’t pay or ask for a receipt! Temporary car permits
cost 7AUD for us. Don’t forget to get it stamped when you exit,
unless you can’t enter El Salvador. We were not asked for car
insurance.

El Salvador

We nearly spent the night at the border because of the longqueues... Temporary car permits costs 5USD. There were signs
at the customs office that the Salvadorian officers ‘don’t acceptbribes’. They actually don’t!

Honduras

For every passport you pay a 3USD process fee. Temporary carpermit costs 35USD and should be paid at the bank. Ask theofficer politely to arrange this if you enter after working hours.
Car insurance is compulsory.

Nicaragua

You pay a process fee of 7USD for every passport. A temporary
car permit, valid for one month is free. Car insurance isobligatory and costs 12USD for one month.

Costa Rica

Passport process fee costs 2USD. Your car gets a fumigationfor 4USD before you enter the country. A car permit is free (forthree months) but gets issued only after you buy insurance thatcosts 17AUD – for three months.

PanamaYou pay 1USD ‘tourist tax’ fee to get your passport stamped,
plus 1USD for car fumigation. Car permit is free but car
insurance is obligatory and costs 15USD (18AUD).

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