Belize to Panama

bernardbarbour

Observer
Hello All, we are starting out Trans Central America Overland Expedition today. I guess I should be getting some sleep, but tomorrow is going to be an easy drive. Here's the plan. We are driving from Placencia Belize to the Panama Canal. We are in no rush but kinda do want to back home (Florida) by Thanksgiving. In the morning we will leave Placencia and transverse Belize. Our 1 st stop will be in San Ignacio before crossing the border into Guate on Thursday. Our next stop will be in Rio Dulce. Hopefully we'll be successful getting internet so we can do road reports and keep you all up to speed on our progress. Thanks and stayed tuned.
 

Aashima

New member
You only have 'a day or two'? There are no options other than flying. Traveling by bus, it will take you at least four days to get to Belize from Panama there's no way around that.
 

bernardbarbour

Observer
Antigua to Monterrico

After leaving Placencia belize we crossed the border into Guatemala and spent the first night in Rio Dulce. From Rio Dulce we traveled to Guatemala City. We spent the night here as we had plans to get the trucks serviced at the Land Rover dealer. Well that did not work, as we were meeting up with members of the Guatemalan Land Rover club and they suggested an independent shop. This proved to be a very good move. The indy was way cheaper than the dealer and they stopped working on other vehicles on a Saturday morning to do all the work and then some on our trucks. We are very appreciative of: http://autoserviciosgyr.net/inicio.html, Andreas and his Dad Carlos were great and we highly recommend them. Andreas even took the time to take us to a Land Rover graveyard, in which there were over 20 old Rovers he plans to restore. After touring Guatemala city and participating in the Independence Day celebrations we headed out for Antigua.
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bernardbarbour

Observer
El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua in one day?

Call us crazy, but we did it. Two borders and three countries in one day? I was the biggest skeptic. Having crossed many borders before, I knew that just one border crossing alone could take half a day depending on various scenarios. Dealing with customs, immigration, insurance, vehicle inspection, money exchange, and getting what seemed like a hundreds of copies of this, that and the other documents could reduce any timeline you may have about accomplishing our ambitious plan.



After a good hearty breakfast in La Union, El Salvador, we had two more quick stops to make before arriving at the border of Honduras. Stopping for gas and money from the ATM we made a beeline straight out of El Salvador. We had done all the reading up we could several nights before and knew that this was supposed to be the worst border crossing of all the Central American countries. Less than a mile from the border all of the shenanigans started. Suddenly traffic came to a crawl, mostly big trucks and a few herds of cows interspersed for good measure. Then it happened, the money changers and border helpers swarmed all over us. One guy even jumped on the side of Angela’s and Scott’s truck, while we were driving, and demanded that he was our man to help us with the border crossing. He would not take no for an answer.

Once we finally arrived at the official border crossing we did elicit his help, and he was quite helpful ensuring that we had all of our paperwork straight. Once out of El Salvador and now into Honduras the fun really began. For some reason Honduras's Customs and Immigration needed more copies of everything we had, requiring multiple times to get copies, go to the back to pay vehicle importation fees and more. It took all of an hour and thirty minutes and we were officially in Honduras. Now it was after lunch and our plan was to cross Honduras in three hours or less, enter Nicaragua and make it to Leon before sun down. Driving across Honduras was uneventful and we made it to the border with Nicaragua. We admired the beauty of Honduras but did not stop. Now at the Nicaraguan border, we did the same old paperwork drill again and found ourselves across the border with about an hour and half of daylight. Finding the road to Leon was easy and we pressed on, but with a heavy rainstorm now and potholes the size of craters. Finally about 20 minutes before dark we arrived in Leon. So far we are very impressed with Nicaragua. The people are friendly, helpful and ask you questions as they like to practice their English. And the landscape is to die for. Stay tuned as we explore Leon.

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