Mexico and Central America: A Retrospective

My brother, who was living in San Diego at the time, dropped me off at the San Ysidro border crossing on February 14th, 2010.  I flew out of Panama City on August 3rd.  In between, here are the places I laid my head (or just passed through):

Tijuana
Guerrero Negro
La Paz
(Topolobampo)
Los Mochis
Creel
(Chihuahua)
Durango
Mazatlán
Guadalajara
México City
Puerto Escondido
Mazunte
Zipolite
Oaxaca City
San Cristobal de las Casas
Palenque
Cancún
Isla Mujeres
(Placencia, Belize)
Rio Dulce, Guatemala
Flores
Lanquín
Cobán City
Guatemala City
San Salvador, El Salvador
Managua, Nicaragua
León
Playa Jiquilillo
León
Somoto
Grenada
Managua
Big Corn Island
Little Corn Island
Big Corn Island
(Managua)
San Juan del Sur
Libéria, Costa Rica
Playa Tamarindo
Montezuma
(San José)
Puerto Viejo de Talamanca
Boquete, Panamá
Panama City

Not bad, eh?

I tried to work up a Google map of my route but (1) it wouldn't display all of the necessary segments at the same time and (2) I lost patience when it totaled about 4,300 miles.  And that was before I got to Nicaragua, so I figured I covered at least 5,000 miles total.

I wouldn't call them regrets per se, but there are a number of things I would have liked to have done differently:

• I paid for a first class train ticket for the Copper Canyon when a second class ticket cost half as much and would have met my needs perfectly.  This still irritates me.  
• I skipped a whole passel of great cities between Guadalajara and Mexico City: Zacatecas, Morelia, Aguascalientes, Guanajuato, etc.  Those would be fun to see some time.  
• I only did half of what I was planning to do in Guatemala and completely skipped El Salvador and Honduras (damn tricksy German surfer chicks!).  
• I didn't do nearly enough diving on the Corn Islands, or spend enough time there.  
• I was sick of beaches and running out of time, so I skipped two wonderful places in Panama: Bocas del Toro and the San Blas Archipelago.  Both are supposed to be amazing.
• This being a general backpacking trip as opposed to a surf trip, I ended up doing very little surfing.  I need to go back, rent a 4x4 and just meander down the Pacific coast, camping on the beach and surfing my brains out.
• Because I returned to the States before continuing on to South America, I didn't sail between Panama and Colombia.  It's supposed to be outrageously fun.

But on the whole, I think I did pretty well.  I worked at a dive shop.  I worked on a sail boat.  My Spanish is conversational.  I climbed pyramids and trekked through jungles, deserts and cities.  I surfed and dived both the Pacific and Caribbean.  I met countless interesting people and learned all sorts of new card games: Bishka (Portugese), Tupen (Dutch), Harta and Yanif (Israeli), Shithead (English).  I met a wonderful girl and we spent a month traveling together.

But you know what the best part was?  The infinite possibility of every day.  I could go anywhere or do anything I liked at a moment's notice.  You heard about an awesome spot?  Done.  I'm convinced.  Let's go, right now.  I was like a leaf in the breeze, allowing the winds of fate and chance and luck to blow me hither and yon.  It wasn't always wonderful.  Sometimes it was downright shitty.  But when it was good.. oh, man.  And tomorrow was always another day.

Oh, wait, that's not the best part.  Not at all.

The best part is that I'm not even halfway done.