Latin America Collection

The first thing we did was to go to the Automobile Club of Southern
California (AAA), where we had been faithful members for many years.
We knew they had maps, and we understood they would work up a route
analysis for us as part of our membership. When we got there we found
that they had excellent maps of California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas,
and even of Mexico. They also had a detailed guidebook of Mexico. To
our disappointment, they did not make route surveys for trips outside of
the United States, nor did they have maps or any information on Central
America. We took the five maps and the Mexico guidebook.

Next, we went to the local library and couldn't find anything about
driving to Central America via the Pan-American or any other highway.

We also searched through B. Dalton and a couple of other book stores.
There were books about the Aztec and Mayan Civilizations, about the flora
and the fauna of all these countries, and about the Spanish conquests of
the area, but nothing on how to drive there.

Someone gave me a map supplement to the National Geographic from
April, 1986, covering Central America. It picked up where the AAA map
of Mexico left off. It was not really a road map, although it did show roads
and the various cities, as well as being an excellent topographical map. By
using it and a lot of imagination, I was able to highlight the routing that
seemed the best. I measured the distances as accurately as possible, then
as there would be a lot of mountain driving, I added fifteen percent to the
direct distances to make up for the curves and cut-backs. I found that my
distances were fairly correct.

As we drove through Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua
and into Costa Rica, we found there were many Texaco, Shell, Mobile and
Chevron stations where you can pick up maps of those countries. You
might check with those stations in the U.S., or write to their public relations
departments for additional information on where to obtain the maps in the
U.S. Also see the excellent detailed maps we advertise on the opposite page.
We didn't discovered them until after making our trip through Mexico and
Central America.

As I have a son living in Killeen, Texas, we decided to drive via Arizona,
New Mexico and Texas, and throw in a little farewell visiting on the way.
In addition, I was afraid the heat at that near sea level of the West Coast
route might be too taxing for me. I noticed that the route out of Laredo,
Texas followed a much higher elevation and would probably be cooler.
Also, there were more industrial cities on that route, which would probably
mean more traffic, possibly adding to "safety in numbers" if any of that
"bandido" talk were true. For these reasons, we decided on the Laredo,
Monterrey, Mexico City, Oaxaca routing. However, the East Coast route via
Brownsville, Tampico and Veracruz to Guatemala is shorter and considered
the best route when driving to Central America.