Central America

Travelling in Central America is nothing short of awesome for anyone who loves nature, vibrant culture and sustainable travel. From sandy beaches to jungle clad mountains, Central American countries are home to incredible landscapes. Read about our sustainable, slow travel adventures in Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua, Guatemala and El Salvador.

Lonely Planet - Mexico travel checklist

Mexico Travel Checklist

Planning your trip to Mexico? This Mexico travel checklist covers all the essentials, from getting your VISA and vaccinations sorted right down to remembering to pack your pants.

Mexico has several different climate zones, as well as beaches, mountains, deserts, jungles and cities. Not to mention that on the very same day we’ve experienced intense heat (bikinis and sunscreen at the ready!) and torrential rain that flooded the streets (hello rain coats!)

If you’re going to be backpacking in Mexico and travelling between different areas, you’re going to need to be well-prepared and well packed. Trying to decide what to pack for Mexico can be a bit overwhelming, right?

13 mins read

They Eat Tacos in Mexico and Other Things I Learned This Week

Mexico has proved to us that no matter how much you travel, there’s always more to learn. After 3 years of travelling together, including a year living abroad, as well as running a travel blog, Luke and I had come to think of ourselves as reasonably experienced travellers. Well, our first week in Mexico has shown us that no matter how experienced you are, you always have more to learn.

7 mins read

Tourism Disrupts Turtle Nesting in Ostional, Costa Rica

A year ago, Luke and I had an incredible experience witnessing the turtle arribada in the small Costa Rican beach town of Ostional. During an arribada, thousands of turtles come onto the beach to lay their eggs in the sand.

We were surprised not only by how breathtaking it is to see these creatures come out from the sea, but also how deserted the small town of Ostional was when we were there. One year later, I was horrified to read that swathes of tourists had prevented the turtles from nesting on the coast.

5 mins read

Guatemala Travel Guide

Out of all the places that we travelled in Central America, Guatemala stole my heart. Though admittedly Nicaragua was a close second. This vibrant country hasn’t let anything get it down. Despite being notorious for gang activity, bus drivers being held up at gun point more frequently than is comfortable and many communities living in poverty, the Guatemalan locals still have a smile on their face. The challenges of everyday life mean that local communities and families are tight-knit, and work together to get by.

6 mins read
Macademia nuts drying out

Getting My Nut Butter Fix: Valhalla Macadamia Nut Farm in Antigua

You know when I was a kid, I never ate peanut butter. Not because I thought there was anything wrong with it, actually I don’t even recall knowing it existed until the age of thirteen. That seems pretty crazy to most of you, right? Peanut butter isn’t big in England like it is in the States, and mainly it’s just wasn’t something that my family were all that keen on. When I was thirteen however, I had my first peanut butter and jam sandwich – and I was hooked.

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realised that it’s not just peanut butter that I need a regular fix of, it’s all kinds of nut butters. Oh yes. Delicious, creamy, nutty, sticky nut butters. If I was going to run a business, it would definitely be selling homemade, organic, one-ingredient nut and seed butters – that’s another story though. With my nut butter obsession right out in the open now, you can imagine how crazy excited I was when I read that not only is there a macadamia nut farm in Antigua, but they also sell jars of macadamia nut butter!

Needless to say, top of my travel to-do list in Antigua was a visit to the Valhalla Macadamia Nut Farm.

3 mins read
Guatemalan cooking class vegetarian pepian

What I Learned from a Guatemalan Cooking Class

I learned two things from our Guatemalan cooking class: number one is that making tortillas isn’t as easy as it looks and I suck at it, and number two is that the traditional Guatemalan dish of Pepian can be made vegetarian even though not everyone says it can.

We headed to a small town just down the road from where we were house sitting to meet an old Guatemalan farmer whose wife and daughters were going to teach us to cook. We went through the gate into their courtyard area where a long row of women were sorting coffee beans and dogs were sleeping in the sun.

4 mins read

What To Do with Two Days in San Salvador

After Charlie flew home to see her family, I immediately signed up to a language school in Guatemala. The problem was that I was currently in Nicaragua, 766km south of my destination, leaving me to answer the question: how could I get from Nicaragua to Guatemala in one piece?

I decided to take the Ticabus as they had got me from Costa Rica to Nicaragua without any problems, and at a reasonable price. However, when I saw that the ride would take a mind numbing twenty-seven hours, a completely unplanned few days in San Salvador to break up the journey seemed like a better idea.

4 mins read

How to Choose a Spanish School in Antigua, Guatemala

When I found myself with free time on my hands during our house sit in Guatemala, I decided it was time to enrol for classes at a Spanish school in Antigua. A quick Google search for “Spanish school Antigua Guatemala” will pull up thousands of results, which is no surprise as this city is the most popular place to study Spanish in the country, along with Lake Atitlan. With a school on every street corner, just how do you choose a Spanish school in Antigua?

5 mins read

What is House Sitting in Costa Rica Really Like?

We travelled Central America for one year and a large portion of that time was spent in Costa Rica. Why? Not just because Costa Rica is beautiful, but because there’s a lot of house sitting work out there.

Though it’s true that we house sat in Panama, Nicaragua and Guatemala too, finding assignments house sitting in Costa Rica were by far the most common. When we accepted our first house sit in the small mountain town of Puriscal, we had no idea how many opportunities for house sitting Costa Rica there would be. We house sat for the same family in Puriscal multiple times and house sat once in Quepos. Though both of the locations where we house sat in Costa Rica were completely different experiences, they were both awesome. While every house and home owners are different, there are a few realities of house sitting in Costa Rica that you should know about.

6 mins read

Why You Should Only Visit Panajachel in the Morning

When we docked in Panajachel, the main town in Lake Atitlan, early on a Saturday morning, our first impressions were that actually it wasn’t as crowded as we’d expected. We hadn’t planned on staying in the town but after a night on Jaibalito, which was lovely but rural, we decided we’d be better off staying in Pana so that we could take the bus directly from there back to Antigua the following morning.

We were wrong.

4 mins read

Nicaragua Travel Guide

When we first decided that we were going to be travelling long-term in Central America, Nicaragua was the destination that I really had my heart set on. I heard from a good friend who had gone backpacking that way and dozens of travel bloggers that the country was incredibly beautiful and dirt cheap, especially compared to neighbouring Costa Rica. They were totally right.

Luke and I initially got caught up house sitting in Costa Rica (house sitters are in high demand there) for longer than we planned and ended up just crossing the border to Nicaragua for quick visa runs. The short pockets of time we spent in Nicaragua only made me crave more time there! Here’s our guide to travelling in Nicaragua and what to do while you’re there!

6 mins read

Taking It Slow on Little Corn Island, Nicaragua

The Corn Islands are a Caribbean cliché located 70 km off the Nicaraguan coastline, complete with virginal white beaches, trouble free skies and soothing blue waters. Shack up in a beach hut by the sea for under £14 ($20), and enjoy a carefree culture that is more Creole than Español. Whilst Big Corn Island is the first stop for travellers, the smaller and generally more loved of the two islands is Little Corn.

In most places, when you step out of the airport you are greeted by someone holding a sign with your name and a nice clean car. On Little Corn Island, you’ll jump out of a boat and be greeted by someone with a sign holding your name and a fairly heavy-duty wheelbarrow. Little Corn simply isn’t like anywhere else, and the fact that there are no cars on the island is just one of them. Don’t get too excited – that wheelbarrow’s not for you. It’s for your luggage, which will be wheeled along a dirt track to your little hut on the beach.

6 mins read