A little over a year ago, I set off on my biggest adventure to date. I boarded a plane to Cancun, Mexico with intentions to visit every country between there and Panama City, Panama. I purchased the one-way ticket immediately after completing six years of military service. It was a ticket to experience true freedom in my opinion. It was a dream vacation that wouldn’t have been possible if I had chosen to continue serving.

I wanted to fly to a foreign country on a one-way ticket and travel without concrete destinations. I wanted to have an open itinerary and wander freely from one country to the next. These things are not possible for service members because leave requests are supposed to be very specific for accountablility purposes. Also, certain countries that are not considered “safe” are either off limits or require special permissions.

Once I decided I would be leaving the military, I began preparing for what I believed to be the ultimate adventure. I looked at many possible destinations, but I settled on Central America. I wanted to get the most out of my money and I wanted to visit more than a few countries. Futhermore, it wouldn’t be a true adventure, in my opinion, if I didn’t visit some places that weren’t considered “safe” in the eyes of most travelers. I figured I might as well start checking off some risky destinations while I was young, single and without children. I had planned to take full advantage of my current circumstances. I don’t go looking for trouble, but I’m always curious to see what life looks like in rougher parts of the world. The only places I visited that felt sketchy even in broad daylight were in El Salvador and Honduras.

I had been out of the United States before, but never alone or without a set itenerary. As with nearly eveything I get into, I did as much research as I possibly could. I spoke with a friend who had recently been to Central America, I perused the travel guides at Barnes & Noble, and spent countless hours online looking for useful travel tips and exotic destinations. The Lonely Planet travel guides were probably my favorite resource; however, I did not purchase any of their books because they are cumbersome and I planned to travel as light as possible. I compiled a list of destinations and activities that I was interested in and saved snapshots of useful information to my cellphone. I thoroughly researched each of my desired destinations and made adjustments as necessary, striking through and adding to. After scrubbing my list several times, I plotted every destination into Google Maps and reorganized the list into the most efficient order from Cancun to Panama City.

My next step in preparation was figuring out what I would be taking with me. I had been doing a decent amount of multiday backpacking prior to planning this trip. In order to cover as much land as possible during my weekend excursions, I began carrying less and less gear. Any inessential items that went unused on a trip were left out of the pack on my next outing and I became intrigued by the challenges of ultralight backpacking. I figured I would apply this minimalist ideology to my travels abroad. I also believed this would help me keep a lower profile than most travelers, therefore making me less of a target for thieves.

Packing List

1. JanSport Superbreak backpack
2. New Balance Minimus trail running shoes
3. Luna Mono sandals
4. Exofficio underware (3 pair)
5. Swiftwick socks (3 pair)
6. Prana Zion shorts
7. O’Neill Hybrid shorts
8. REI Adventures Cargo pants
9. Icebreaker merino short sleeve
10. Patagonia short sleeve
11. REI Sahara long sleeve
12. Marmot Minimalist Rain Jacket
13. McNett Microfiber Towel (Large, without storage bag)
14. Sea to Summit Ultra-Sil Day Pack (awesome little backpack)
15. Sea to Summit Ultra-Sil Stuff Sack (xx-small water resistant pouch)
16. Travel toothbrush
17. iPhone (with destination list & map screenshots), charger
18. ID card, passport, debit card, credit card
19. Lonely Planet Fast Talk Latin American Spanish (Phrasebook)
20. Black Diamond headlamp
21. Coleman All Purpose First-Aid Tin
22. Potable Aqua Iodine Tablets
23. 550 Paracord (10 ft)
24. Canon Powershot camera, charger
25. Platypus PlusBottle (1L)

I was usually wearing one set of clothes from the list above, and everything else easily fit into the JanSport backpack with plenty of room to spare. I saved a lot of space by packing lightweight clothing since I knew that I wouldn’t be visiting any cold climates. I also figured I could buy extra layers along the way if I needed to. The added bonus to lightweight clothing is that it dries very quickly. Most of the time I would just hand wash my clothes in a sink and hang dry them at the hostel. A lot of thought was put into each item I bought for the trip. Everything from the sandals to the first aid kit was purchased based on its functionality and its weight. The only item I regretted not bringing was my GoPro. It’s a really small camera, but all the accessories I thought I would need piled up quick: charger, extra batteries, handle, mounts, ect. I knew I wanted my Canon camera for the zoom and image quality, but I wasn’t willing to bring both. In retrospect, I could have cut the accessories down to just an extra battery, a float handle, and a usb cable for charging. Luckily I ended up traveling with people who brought their GoPro and let me copy files to a usb drive. Many travelers I met had brought excessive amounts of stuff along for the trip and wished they didn’t have so much weight to carry. I had the smallest pack out of everyone I met along the way. I was often asked by companions where the rest of my stuff was when boarding busses and boats. Everyone had a hard time believing that the small pack was all I had and figured I was joking with them.

Destinations

1. Cancun, Mexico
2. Tulum, Mexico
3. Caye Caulker, Belize
4. San Ignacio, Belize
5. Flores/Tikal, Guatemala
6. Semuc Champey, Guatemala
7. Antigua, Guatemala
8. Lake Atitlán, Guatemala
9. Playa El Tunco, El Salvador
10. Útila, Honduras
11. León, Nicaragua
12. Ometepe, Nicaragua
13. San Juan Del Sur, Nicaragua
14. Monteverde, Costa Rica
15. Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica
16. Bocas del Toro, Panama
17. Panama City, Panama

This was not the destination list I began my adventure with, but rather the list I ended with. I went on several tours and excursions that were based out of locations listed above and stopped in many places between each as I traveled on busses for the most part. I also took a short flight from Tegucigalpa to La Cieba in order to cross Honduras a bit faster and avoid some places that I wasn’t too fond of. Although I began the trip alone, I made many friends along the way whom I traveled with for days or even weeks at a time. It was not uncommon either to run into people whom I had bid farewell to earlier in the trip. On several occasions I bumped into people at hostels that I had met a couple weeks prior in a different country. Meeting new people from all over the world and getting know what life is like for them is one of the best parts of traveling in my opinion. I met a lot of amazing people and a few of them even offered a place to stay if I decided to pass through their hometown in the future. These social experiences are dampened when traveling with companions because you are less approachable and usually preoccupied with talking to one another. I’m not saying I prefer to travel alone, but there are some benefits to it. I would’ve preferred to at least begin the trip with a friend or family member; however, I couldn’t find anyone who had the time or money to come along. I’m just not the type to cancel travel plans because I can’t find anyone to join me.

The six weeks I spent wandering Central America were definitely the best six consecutive weeks of my life. I had never felt so alive with excitement and curiosity. Everyday was a new adventure: finding places to sleep, trying new foods (and hoping that it settled right), looking for the best bus fares, wandering from bus stops to hostels in foreign cities, listening to travel stories (and travel nightmares) from friends of the road, trying to navigate language barriers, ect. I can go on talking about stories from this trip, but the most important thing I have to say is get out and experience it for yourself. Get out of your comfort zone and make that adventurous dream vacation happen! Take risks! Live life to the fullest!

 

Below is a video I put together with photos and footage from the trip. It took a lot of time and energy to put it together, and it is a bit long (about 20min). It was one of the first videos I ever edited, but I think it came out alright. Having a personal video like this to refresh the memory is priceless. If you would like to skip to specific locations in the video, open it in YouTube and view the comment section for time clips. If you have questions about anything, leave a comment below.