Latin America Collection

A friend of ours from Nevada has driven back and forth between
Costa Rica and his home in Nevada about six times. A couple of times with
friends and the other times alone. No he's not crazy. He just likes to spend
about six months a year in Costa Rica and wants to have a vehicle while
he is there. He swares by the Brownsville route down the East Coast of
Mexico, cuting across the isthmus and them proceding into Central America.
By taking this route he avoids 1,500 miles of Mexican highway. He makes
the 4,500 mile trip fom Nevada in 11 days driving from sunrise to almost
sundown. He always insures his vehicle through Mexico and Central
America stopping at a Sanborn's office in Texas.

Since he has made the trip so many times he doesn't stop and see the
sights. He claims the most important thing is to get a good nights sleep,
get up early and leave from all border crossings as early as possible. He
really recommends using the runners at the borders to speed things up. He
says if it wasn't for the delays at the borders he could easily cut a couple
of days off the trip. His other complaint is that there are some really bad
strethches of road along the way. There is one stretch in Nicaraga where
he had to drive about 20 m.p.h. for several hours because of the poor
condition of the road.

He highly recommends the costal route through Guatemala and Salvador
to bypass the big cities and save time. He put a motion alarm on his car,
pays a watchman when he stops for the night and parks near his room. That
way he says he doesn't have to unload his whole car every night. He gives
the watchman a dollar or two and doesn't have to worry. Nothing has every
been robbed from his car at night while travelling through Mexico and
Central America.