Travel in Central America – Unlisted prices
My wife and I took our honeymoon to Central America in the summer of 2010. The first half of the trip was only vaguely planned (if at all) and we flew by the seat of our pants. I documented as much of the costs for travel that I could because we had a hard time figuring out a lot of the costs during our planning of the trip. Most things just weren’t listed anywhere. So this list is in chronological order of our trip. Any place where no local currency is listed, it means we paid in US Dollars. Feel free to make any corrections or share your own experiences in the comments.
| Local | in Dollars | Distance | Time | |
| San Pedro Sula Airport to Puerto Cortez by taxi * | $50 | 34 mi | 1 hour | |
| Puerto Cortez to Puerto Barrios by taxi *2 | $60 | 65 mi? | 2.5 hours | |
| Puerto Barrios to Rio Hondo by bus | Q.40 | $5 each | 99 mi | 3.5 hours |
| Rio Hondo to Chiquimula | Q.10 | $1.25 each | 29 mi | 1.5 hours |
| Chiquimula to Salvador Frontera by van taxi *3 | Q.15 | $1.80 each | 30 mi | 2 hours |
| Frontera to Metapan by bus | $0.50 each | 7 mi | 1 hour | |
| Metapan to San Salvador by (nice express) bus | $2.50 each | 70 mi | 4.5 hours? | |
| San Salvador to Belize City – Taca Airlines *4 | $400 | 272 mi | 1 hour | |
| Dangriga to Placencia by plane | $46 each | 31 mi | 15 mins | |
| Placencia to Independence by water taxi *5 | B$10 each | $5 each | 3.5 mi | 10mins |
| Independence to Punta Gorda by bus (James line) | B$10 each | $5 each | 62.5 mi | 2 hours |
| Departure Tax *6 | B$37.50 each | $18.75 each | ||
| Punta Gorda to Puerto Barrios by boat | B$50 each | $25 each | 31 mi | 1.5 hours |
| Puerto Barrios to Frontera by van taxi | Q15 each | $1.80 each | 25 mi? | 1 hour |
| Frontera to Puerto Cortez by bus | L20 each | $1 each | 40 mi? | 2 hours |
| Puerto Cortez to San Pedro Sula by taxi | L600 | $30 | 34 mi | 45mins |
| Hotel Terrazas *7 | L400 | $20 | ||
| San Pedro Sula to Airport by taxi | L200 | $10 | 20 mi | 30mins |
| Total *8 | - | $797.20 | 853 mi | 25.2 hours |
* – $50 was a bit steep, but they kind of have you at a disadvantage because you’re at the airport outside of town and you just want to get going.
*2 – A guy named Flash drove us all the way to Puerto Barrios. Great nice guy. Was a little pushy when selling us the trip, but in the end it was direct and he was leaving right away. Spoke great English and was very funny. It really allowed us to ask a lot of questions about Honduras as we drove through the countryside.
*3 – What we didn’t realize was that the Salvador border (Frontera) was the end of the line for the day and would not have any hotels, motels or hostels… at all. We asked the young guys at the border gate if any more buses were coming that night or if there was any place to stay and they said no to both. But they understood the predicament we’d gotten ourselves into and they opened up the holding cell [video] across the street for us to stay in. It had a bare mattress and a toilet. Also there was a family cafe nearby that allowed us to purchase a late meal and pretty much sit down to eat dinner with their family long after official cafe hours were over. We conversed in broken Spanish while a game of soccer played on a fuzzy television in the corner.
*4 – After about 12 hours of traveling on hot crowded buses the day before, we weren’t very excited to do it all again and potentially miss the start of our “Relaxation Phase” of our trip. So we bit the bullet and got a flight to Belize. Taca is one of the only airlines that flies between destinations within Central America. So they don’t really have reason to try to accommodate anyone with lower prices or specials.
*5 – The Hokey Pokey was our water taxi. And they actually do have some information on this site: http://www.guidetobelize.info/en/travel/belize-water-taxi-timetable-guide.shtml#independence-belize-placencia-watertaxi
*6 Required departure tax when leaving Belize
*7 Great Value Hotel in San Pedro Sula [video]. A guy we met on one of the many buses we rode, Jose, suggested this hotel and it was great. I don’t think you can find it online anywhere (not that I’ve found yet), but it was a great deal.
Hotel Terrazas
6a Av entre 4a & 5a Calle
Phone: +504 550 3108
L400 ($20) / night
Internet, TV, A/C
We heard there was great breakfast at the restaurant on the first floor too, but we didn’t check it out.
*8 – Totals are not necessarily perfectly accurate. And the time does not include waiting during bus changes, overnight stays, etc – Just travel time.
The Man Trip (10 Steps)
Thanks to my HTC Hero and WordPress for Android, I decided to use the 5+ hour drive to Bull Shoals Buffalo River Nat’l River to blog about it.
I’ll be making on-going updates as the trip goes on to try to encompass the essence of… The Man Trip.
- Plan to start traveling to destination at an ungodly hour (ie 4am)
- Don’t get to bed til 2am the night before
- Sleep past “scheduled” start time by hours (reasons: see above)
- Discuss and compare new gear bought for the trip focusing especially on masculine items such as knives and hatchets
Try to have a ratio of one GPS device per person. This is mainly for effect though
- 4 GPS devices between two cars and we still found a way to get separated and add a couple hours to the trip by missing turns
- Once at destination, take a hike and talk with knowledge about things you don’t actually know how to do
- identify and “track” animals by their paw prints
- identify and comment on the type of wood in the area and it use for fire or camp set up
- Grow out facial hair… whatever you’ve got
Do simple man-activities
- Throw or skip rocks
- Throw or skip very large rocks
- Throw knives and hatchets at anything they’ll stick in
- Build fire (see #7)
- Build excessively large fire
- Build Fire
If this were a ranked list by importance, this would be #1 followed by growing out facial hair.- If nothing else is done on the trip… this MUST be done
- Discuss how well you and your buddies could survive back in “The Olden Days”
- Near the end of the trip as you begin to feel very comfortable and accomplished with your camping abilities
- Drink Beer
- Even if you’re not a beer drinker.
- Other booze will do as a substitute.
- Extra points if you drink the booze out of a rustic looking flask.
- Bring only enough food so that you believe you’ll actually have to kill something
- Be sure to have a few extra granola bars or cans of beans to survive on when you, inevitably, do not kill anything
