We had been in Costa Rica in 2019. It was our last ‘far away’(with flights) trip before we would have to pay the full price for the kids. We really loved all the nature and exotic animals so we had high expectations for this trip also. But it turned out that the ‘vanlife’ experience is a bit different than our previous visit…

So our ‘entry’ border crossing in 2hrs went pretty smooth but a lot of other travelers spent 6 or more hours at the border. Some have to take all their belongings out of the car. Others are downright turned away and not allowed in the country, because their profession is ‘suspicious’ (journalists, army, etc.). All ‘sings of the times’ of a country that has descended into a dictatorship (again).

This is the story of two countries that seem to go completely opposite directions . El Salvador has been plagued by gang violence for nearly 20 years but has recently changed things around and is now surfing on a wave of positivism. Nicaragua on the other hand was the rising star of Central American tourism in the first decade of this century but has slowly been transformed into the Ortega dictatorship that it is today. The 2018 uprisings and violent repression have decimated tourism and there is not really a sign of improvement at the horizon…

There are 37 volcanoes in Guatemala of which three are in constant eruption. We had seen one of them, Fuego, erupt from a distance during or stay at Lago de Atitlan and we wanted to have a closer look. That however it takes a very strenuous hike 6hrs to get up to the viewpoints at 3700m. The hike is considered ‘not suitable for young kids’ but we knew a Dutch family who did it last year. And since we had been doing very similar hikes as them before, we were convinced that our kids could pull it of also. But to be sure, we decided to do a try out and acclimatization hike to another of the three erupting volcanoes.

September 2001, I had just graduated from university and had hardly been outside of Belgium and the neighboring countries but somehow, inspired by travel books and stories from fellow students, I found myself on a plane to Guatemala to live with a host family, study Spanish and do volunteer work. After those three months my life was never the same. Arriving back in Guatemala in February 2024 was the start of a great trip down memory lane.

We are now driving into the most visited parts of Mexico. However, since our time is limited, we have decided to not revisit the places we have been to on our previous trips. So we bypass the amazing site of Teothiuacan and Mexico City which we really loved last time around. We will also skip the Oaxaca region and Chiapas and Yucatan which we traveled before. Our goal  this time is to visit some of the places that we had to skip on previous travels. There is so much to see in Mexico so we will still need to make some tough choices.

After the last couple of weeks in Southern Baja California (a favorite winter retreat for Americans and Canadians), the arrival in Mazatlan was a bit of shock again. But in a positive way. This is the Mexico that we know and love from our previous travels. The country where Caroline and myself got together over 14 years ago. Baja was very nice but it somehow felt that we now had finally arrived in the real Mexico.

So many times, when discussing our trip, people would be really enthusiastic about the idea of travelling from North to South America…. until at some point they realized that we would need to cross Mexico. A concerned face would inevitably appear together with a lot of questions on the safety (“especially with such young kids”). Mexico has a really bad reputation (in the USA).  We had been in Mexico two times before and never felt unsafe or experienced any issues. But we must admit that we were not immune to all the horror stories (from somebody’s friend’s friend) and the fear mongering in the media. Had the country changed so much since our last visit? Had it really descended into the 9^th circle of Dante’s hell.

Before starting our big coastal road trip we wanted to do what almost all overlanders do when passing by SF: sleeping with a view on the Golden Gate bridge. It took a bit of stressful city traffic and driving around the bridge (we crossed 4 times) to find a nice spot where we were allowed to camp but we did find a nice spot in the end.

California is one of those ‘dream holiday’ destinations for a lot of people in Europe. However, we noticed that a lot people, traveling the Pan American Highway either skip California or really quickly drive through it to other American States or to Mexico. We also considered skipping the state but in the end we didn’t and we are happy we didn’t. We would have missed some amazing nature, wildlife and Caro would not have had that chat with that celebrity rock singer. But it is true that travelling in a van in California comes with some challenges.