After looking at the costs of hotels in Miami this weekend, and looking at the costs of flights out of Miami this weekend, i decided to book a flight to Panama. You only live once
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Yeah, i had a feeling Panama City would be pretty drab. It looks like the new Chinese cities, with a lot of high-rise development and shopping malls, which i find interesting from a macro urban planning perspective but generally boring to hang around in. In China, though, it was relatively safe to walk around the "poor" parts of the town that the city was being built on top of, which was always a good place to find local food and experience local culture, but i have a feeling that in Latin America tourists going to the poor areas is a much less wise idea.
Fortunately i am going to Bocas del Toro, which is an island resort off the mainland. I am hoping to get a bit of that Caribbean island holiday feeling, at least for a few days. I might find that i get bored of it and want to leave, but maybe not. I thought it would be better to go to an island that is politically connected to a mainland country (and then Costa Rica, Nicaragua etc) than to go right into the middle of the Caribbean and possibly end up stranded there. I think Panama City is also a good place to get direct flights elsewhere too, although that might just be wishful thinking.
I was looking at Nicaragua the other day! I have a friend who went on a long holiday there and really loved it. Really i would most love to go to Mexico and (less so) Guatemala, but everyone's warning me against it because of the risk, so i thought perhaps skilling up my Spanish and experience traveling in safer parts of Latin America would be a wise investment for if/when i do try visit the riskier spots.
I've heard good things about Bocas del Toro, but not been there.
Panama City is a good place for flight connections. (I went there because it was a convenient connecting point to Montevideo and a friend of mine flew through there on the way to Lima.)
Safety in Mexico depends on where you are. I have relatives in Oaxaca and I think it's pretty safe there.
Historically, Antigua, Guatemala was THE place to go to learn Spanish. I always thought that was dubious because there were too many English speakers there so you could get lazy.
Fortunately i am going to Bocas del Toro, which is an island resort off the mainland. I am hoping to get a bit of that Caribbean island holiday feeling, at least for a few days. I might find that i get bored of it and want to leave, but maybe not. I thought it would be better to go to an island that is politically connected to a mainland country (and then Costa Rica, Nicaragua etc) than to go right into the middle of the Caribbean and possibly end up stranded there. I think Panama City is also a good place to get direct flights elsewhere too, although that might just be wishful thinking.
I was looking at Nicaragua the other day! I have a friend who went on a long holiday there and really loved it. Really i would most love to go to Mexico and (less so) Guatemala, but everyone's warning me against it because of the risk, so i thought perhaps skilling up my Spanish and experience traveling in safer parts of Latin America would be a wise investment for if/when i do try visit the riskier spots.
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Panama City is a good place for flight connections. (I went there because it was a convenient connecting point to Montevideo and a friend of mine flew through there on the way to Lima.)
Safety in Mexico depends on where you are. I have relatives in Oaxaca and I think it's pretty safe there.
Historically, Antigua, Guatemala was THE place to go to learn Spanish. I always thought that was dubious because there were too many English speakers there so you could get lazy.
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