Day 1.

Outside Dubai International Airport at 2am to begin my journey to Central America.


And airside at the Marhaba lounge getting an early morning bite to eat.


Central America was one of the last parts of the world I had yet to visit. With seven countries sandwiched in between Mexico and Colombia, it was a bit of a jigsaw puzzle for me to try and work out the best way to visit, especially the distance I would have to travel to get there.

I toyed with several options including spending a week in Costa Rica paired with a stopover in Panama City, or to head to Belize to do some scuba diving and then head over the border to Tikal in Guatemala.

With all the myriad of possibilities I started looking at the Intrepid Travel website for some ideas and inspiration. My initial plan was to just organise the trip myself but gradually realised an organised trip with Intrepid was the best way to cover the most ground with my finite vacation time.

They also had a sale on and their nine day trip from Guatemala to Nicaragua was a very reasonable $900. Although my last Intrepid trip was five years ago to Nepal, my numerous trips with them to Kyrgyzstan, Botswana, Tanzania etc. also meant that I would be eligible for a $1800 'loyalty' voucher which I could use towards another trip, including Antarctica.

Another issue that was vexing me was the ban of drones in Nicaragua. Apparently someone flew one at a political rally a few years ago and they have been banned ever since. If you enter Nicaragua at one of the main border crossings or at the main international airport and your drone is discovered it will be confiscated. After a bit of research I realised that the entry into Nicaragua for the trip would be at a little used ([10 people a day) border crossing where there would be no X-ray and just a cursory hand search of luggage for customs (and perhaps an opportunity to sneak my drone into Nicaragua).

Hence I signed up for the four country [i]Guatemala & Beyond Intrepid trip, starting in Antigua, Guatemala and finishing in Granada, Nicaragua.

I also planned a few days in San José, Costa Rica and in Panama City, Panama before flying back to Dubai.

For my flights I booked an open jaw ticket through KLM to Guatemala City and travelling home via Panama City for $1660. To get from San José to Panama City I bought a simple one-way ticket on Copa Airlines for $135.

Hence my flights for the trip were:
Day 1: Flying KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (KL) from Dubai to Panama City via Amsterdam (DXB-AMS-PTY).
Flying Copa Airlines (CM) from Panama City to Guatemala City (PTY-GUA).
Day 14: Flying Copa Airlines (CM) from San José to Panama City (SJO-PTY).
Day 17: Flying KLM Royal Dutch Airlines (KL) from Panama City to Dubai via Amsterdam (PTY-AMS-DXB).