This post is a quick overview of the trip I took through Central America this month. I’ll have more posts that address specific issues over the next week or two. There will also be some PF type posts so you hopefully won’t get too bored with the travel posts.
I spent the first two weeks of my trip in Xela, Guatemala. After flying into Guatemala City I took a taxi straight to the bus station and then took a bus to Xela. I’ve always found it kind of funny that the ten minute taxi ride from the airport to the bus station costs about twice as much as the the 4 1/2 hour bus ride to Xela. The cost of a first-class bus ticket was about $8. The buses are about the same as Greyhound but more pleasant to ride on then Greyhound so I consider this a good deal.
Once in Xela I got myself a $4 a night hotel room. This hotel was $4 when I first stayed there in 1997 and it is still $4 now. It is nice to see that some things aren’t affected by inflation. A $4 room is very basic and you have a shared bathroom but at this hotel the rooms are clean and I couldn’t really expect much more for $4.
My next task was to find somewhere to stay long term. There are plenty of places available that will rent to you on a long term basis. My first option was Casa International but it was booked up so I had to find a different place to stay. I would have preferred to stay at CI since I had stayed there before and liked it and it was only $85 a month but you can’t reserve a room so you have to take your chances when you show up.
I ended up getting a room in the Don Diego Hostel for about $100 a month. This is a decent hostel and it is located fairly close to Parque Central so I was ok with the price. I could have saved some money by staying with a local family but I prefer to have more privacy than that. There were also nicer places that would have cost more as well as other similar places with similar prices. If I would have searched more I probably could have found a slightly better deal. I was more interested in getting settled than finding the absolute best deal though.
After my first two weeks I decided I wanted to travel more and took the Tica Bus from Guatemala City, Guatemala to Panama City, Panama. The trip took three days with one overnight stop in El Salvador. I’ll write a separate post about my bus experience.
The trip concluded with a one week stay in Panama City, Panama. I was going to take the Tica Bus back from Panama to Guatemala but I was able to change my airfare at a low cost in Panama so I decided to return home from there. I’ll also write more about Panama in a separate post.
I did enjoy my trip in general. It would have been better if I would have just planned on it being a shorter trip in the first place. One thing I did learn from this trip is my tolerance for being uncomfortable is less than it was 10 years ago. I will have to consider that when I plan my next trip.
Why is your tolerance for being uncomfortable lower? Has your standard of living gone up, or are you just more stubborn?
My standard of living hasn’t gone up much. I think part of it was the fact that it had been longer since I was in an uncomfortable situation so I just wasn’t as used to it as I was before. The other thing is that now I can more easily afford more comfortable options. When the more comfortable options were not something I could afford it wasn’t a sacrifice to not have them if that makes any sense.