Central America Trip #41

The motorhome is parked at Mary’s home in Murphys, California.

I’m planning to depart tomorrow morning. I’ve completed my repairs, routine maintenance and cleaning of both the Bronco and motorhome.

Since those activities are not particularly intriguing blog subjects, I’m taking you back to my…

2004 Central America trip…

This trip ended up being 343 days and 16,000+ miles through the back-country of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. 11 rigs started the trip, within a week we broke into three smaller groups for ease of traveling. Only myself and one other rig went the full, pre-planned route. All the others dropped out for various reasons. All returned safely to the United States. I’m planning to show these photos, more or less, 10 a day, whenever I’m not doing something else deserving a blog entry. FINALLY, it must be remembered these photos are prior to my switching to digital in 2006. The films were developed during our trip and the lack of quality control sometimes is plainly evident.

Today…Costa Rica (south-bound) #3…

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

 

 

After passing the 6,000 mile marker of the trip, we arrived in Puerto Limon, Costa Rica where Bud hired a “stoned” street musician to play a rock tune for him…

 

 

Lots of poor folks in this area of Costa Rica…

 

 

I saw this beautiful two foot high flowering plant only once during the entire trip…

 

 

This is a Dole Banana plantation. The workers hang large bunches of bananas on this railway and push them along…

 

 

Up this rise to…

 

 

Where they are loaded on to railway cars to begin their travels all around the world…

 

 

We saw a wide variety of bridges during our trip…

 

 

Main Street in Cahuita, Costa Rica. Drugs are everywhere in this area. It seemed just about everyone we met was “stoned”, walking around in a dull fog state of mind…

 

 

I met this young Canadian gal who was one of many “Wasting away in Marguritaville”. I wished her well…

 

 

She took me to a nearby beach where we were the only people…

 

 

We enjoyed a delightful nude swim in the 85 degree Caribbean Sea and had a peaceful day of quiet time…

 

 

We prepare to depart Sixola, Costa Rica and into Panama. I’m awaiting “our turn”. There is no one directing traffic. You simply wait until you see no oncoming traffic, then “go for it” hoping you meet no one coming your way. We waited about 1/2 hour for our turn…

 

 

Here we go…ready to experience what proved to be our most exciting and unusual border crossing. It was really wild! It’s an old banana train trestle and the 18-wheelers carrying bananas barely squeeze through while the drivers try to enjoy the view of the Sixola River, about 200 feet below them. Altogether, we had to drive about 1/4 mile across the bridge where we stopped for a customs check and then drive another 1/4 mile before we could get off the tracks. The only other crossing available into Panama ( the one we will use returning north along the Pacific coast), would mean “backtracking” about 250 miles. And away we go! It was really exciting…especially where the boards were missing!…

 

 

Costa Rica proved to be my least favorite country in all of Central America!

You can read all about Costa Rica by clicking this link…https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Costa_Rica

Here’s my trip website link…http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

I hope you enjoyed the photos.

 Yesterday was sunny and 52 degrees. Forecast for today is sunny and 54 degrees. 27 Degrees at 5 AM. Too darn cold…time to leave soon!

Enjoying nice weather is another joy in the life of a full-time RVer!

The red dot on the below map shows my approximate location in the State of California. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures with low humidity most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

My current travel rig is a 2006 Fleetwood 26′ Class A Motorhome and a towed 1986 Ford Bronco II, Eddie Bauer Model. This photo was taken in the desert at Slab City near Niland, California…

On October 27, 2012, I created a two-minute video titled America The Beautiful. The music America The Beautiful is by Christopher W. French. The photos, which I randomly selected, are from the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia (not shown in that order)…are mine. Yup, That’s me standing in front of the Post Office in Luckenbach, Texas…Y’all!

Click this link to start the video. Make sure you have your speakers turned on and go to full screen asap.
http://youtu.be/FfZUzEB4rM8

If you would like to see my YouTube videos, click this link… http://www.youtube.com/user/JimJ1579/videos

There are more than 600 photo albums in my Picasa Web Albums File. To gain access, you simply have to click this link… https://picasaweb.google.com/jimjrver

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

For more information about my books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

All original works copyrighted – Jim Jaillet -2015