The Plan:

It'd been a while since we'd talked about it, but my best pal Chris and I have been trying for years to take a trip to Central America. Up till now, we'd had the good fortune of spending time together in 3 different continents. We'd grown up in El Paso spending countless nights eschewing responsibilities in Juarez, Mexico, graduating high school, and pretending we owned the place. Years later he was able to visit while I was working abroad in Vienna, and we strolled through central Europe. And perhaps the most memorable of our trips was China. We spent almost a month living luxuriously in Hong Kong, roughing it in the scruffy Chinese countryside, taking smelly chicken buses, catching broken overcrowded trains, and hiking relentlessly up an unrestored obscure section of the Great Wall.

And while North America is home, Europe is impressive, and China exotic, there was always something about Latin America that got me going. Partly because of my own family connection, but also because of the both rich and bold history, as well as the shameful treatment that made Latin America what it is. And countries each have their own stories, but it's not on another world, or even across an Ocean. I mean, North America and Latin America turned out so different. Common histories of European oppression, but contemporary dipoles.

Anyway, when Chris told me he was going to Costa Rica with Natalie, and my parents were visiting our ranch in Nicaragua, I had to jump at the chance. I booked my ticket to Costa Rica that day.

The Trip: 11 days for me, and 21 for Chris and Natalie. The skeleton plan was to meet in San Jose, Costa Rica, and make our way up a little-traveled northeastwardly route to tiny town named Los Chiles, catch a river ferry to Nicaragua, find a bus to the sleepy little town of San Miguelito, meet up with my parents at the Ranch, and improvise the rest of our trip. From my last trip with my parents to Nicaragua, i remember fruit, jungle, beaches, fish, birds, monkeys, volcanoes, towns, food, music and warm people with hair-trigger smiles. All in a thick haze of sun, humidity and B.O. Because the tropics are so ecologically complex and so culturally engaging, i knew there were going to be endless ways to memorably spend the 10 available days in Central America; But I think I was most excited about the flexibility to make travel choices on a whim. Plus, with the good fortune of having not one, but two travel mates, we were prepared for anything. Natalie would prove invaluable as both the voice of reason, and a third party tie-breaker.