Since I’ve successfully managed to make it safely through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and hopefully Colombia, I think I may have learned a thing or two about how to travel safely, and how to mitigate some of the risks you will face when traveling.
I figure that I could share a few of my tips and tricks, as well as a few things that I learned along the way for those of you who may decide one day to venture out in to the unknown…
Ok, first off I have traveled through just about all of Central America by bus, so most of my post in this section is going to have to do with that particular experience. If you are traveling by air you really don’t have much to worry about. Yes, you pay a lot more for the tickets, but you also have the luxury of relative security inside the airport, and the security of your bags not being stolen, that is, if they are carryons and if you have enough common sense not to set them down somewhere and get distracted. It’s also extremely easy to change currency in the airport and there are also usually ATMS that will give you a fair exchange rate on the currency. So really as far as I’m concerned traveling by air is a cake walk.
The bus however, is a little bit different. First off, the bus is a lot cheaper and you have all sorts options as to which bus lines you are going to take and at what hours. I found that on average it cost me $30 in bus fare one way to travel from one country to the next. Compare that to paying $200-$500 in airfare and you’ll see why I’m a huge fan of the bus. If you are planning on bussing through Central America, as I did, your also looking at bus rides at a length of anywhere from 5 hours (ex. Northern Guatemala to Belize City) or longer rides, anywhere from 8-10 hours (ex. San Salvador to Managua, Nicaragua).
Now as far as I’m concerned when taking the bus, the number one thing that I had tried to make sure of, was not to arrive at my destination at night, or during the early hours of the morning. Sometimes this is unavoidable, and in many cases it is extremely dangerous. A few times that I got caught here was on the overnight line in Guatemala, returning from Tikal to Guatemala City, for example when my bus was supposed to get in at 6:30 am, but it turned out that we had arrived at 4:30am in one of the most dangerous cities in Central America. This also lead to a guy trying to steal my bag as I got off the bus, as well as me being a bit panic stricken in that situation and fleeing to the Holiday Inn as a safe option that cost me over $200 for a 1.5 day stay (Ouch!!!). This also happened another time as I had mentioned in my last post, when I was arriving in Managua Nicaragua with only 15 minutes until sunset. And trust me, when you’re in a situation like that, simply thinking… “oh shit, this is not good” is a serious understatement. So definitely always try to arrive during day light hours, or at least give your self a good hour or two to find a safe place to stay before it gets dark.
Also, when taking the bus make sure to be one of the first people to get off and do not leave any valuables what so ever in the bag that you “check”, as they put it under the bus and many times there are no claim tickets or security measures to make sure that the right people end up with the right bags. As I had mentioned, when arriving in Guate I was one of the first people off of the bus, and when the conductor took out my huge travel back pack from the cargo hold as I was walking up to claim it, a guy casually walked right in front of me and put his hands on my bag like it was his. The conductor was actually in the process of handing him my backpack when I grabbed it and sternly said, “NO! ES MIO!!”. The guy looked at me, took his hands off my bag, turned around, and walked back out onto the street and disappeared. So by being one of the first people off of the bus you can make sure that no one is going to grab your bag once they open up the cargo hold, or at least if they try you can stop them from taking it like I did.
Also, one of my number one rules, has to do with diversification, which I will talk about in a minute. But as I said, I never leave any valuables in checked luggage, so had that man actually succeeded in stealing my backpack, he would have gotten a pair of jeans, some shoes, a few guide books, and plenty of dirty underwear to go with it, which are all things that I could easily replace in a day or two. When traveling on the bus, all my cash, passport documents, and credit cards, are either on my person, or split up and hidden away in my carryon backpack along with my laptop, and that backpack NEVER leaves my side (for those of you who wonder how I can travel inconspicuously with a laptop, I wrap it in a beach towel and keep it in an old beat up carryon back pack that as I had mentioned, is with me at all times… See the picture above)
Another thing that is critical when going from country to country on the bus is to make absolutely sure that you have the correct currency when arriving because many times you will end up at a bus station far from an ATM and in a location that is really no where near where you want to stay in your destination city. So imagine arriving in Nicaragua where they only accept Cordobas, and you have a pocket full of Guatemalan Quetzales. What do you do? You can’t pay for a cab to get to your hotel or hostel. And do you really want to walk around as a foreigner with all your possessions strapped to your back asking people in broken Spanish “Excuse me, is there an ATM around here?” Talk about being in big trouble. So, what I do is be sure to always exchange some currency at every single border crossing.
Now as I said, if you’re at the airport it’s a cake walk, there’s an official booth that can change every currency in the world, and they even give you a receipt! But at the borders, it’s a bit different. When the bus pulls up there are literally dozens of guys in plain street clothes called “coyotes” with wads of cash in their hands trying to get you to exchange your money. So you really need to research the exchange rate ahead of time, and make sure that when you deal with the coyotes, their giving you the correct amount of the new currency for the old. It can get really confusing sometimes too, as many currencies exchange at 30 to 1 or even 2,000 to 1 in some cases (ex. Colombian Peso to US Dollar).
Now people will tell you, don’t ever exchange your money with the coyotes. Don’t listen to them. Now I’m not saying you need to empty your bank account and exchange all your money with the coyotes, just make sure you exchange $20 or so into local currency so that you can at least take a cab from the bus station to your hostel or hotel. I mean, yes you will lose a few points on the exchange, but in reality were talking about a few cents lost when exchanging $20, as opposed to what? Being stranded some where with no local currency, and no clue where you can get some? It’s a no brainer.
As I had also mentioned above with the brief example of what I keep in my checked luggage, diversification of my valuables is my number one rule while traveling. You can be sure that when traveling through all these countries things will happen, both good and bad. People will be nice to you, and then try and steal from you. So how do you mitigate the risks using diversification? Well, here’s what I do…
First off, when staying in a hostel I always try and get a private room. I think that if you are travelling with valuable items, such as a laptop, or numerous credit cards as I am, you definitely don’t want to stay in a dorm. Its pretty much common sense that having a room with a door that locks, as opposed to having a room with an open door where new people come in and out of everyday, is defiantly a lot smarter way to keep from having anything stolen. Now, private rooms are sometimes very expensive and I do believe that if you’re on a budget and are just traveling with an ATM card and a back pack full of clothes, a private room may not be necessary. However, I’m writing about mitigating risk here, so for someone in my situation, a private room is the smarter play.
Also, and most importantly, I always, always, make sure that I split up my cash, my credit/bank cards, and my travel documents. Here’s how I do it: First, definately make a copy of your passport. Keep your actual passport hidden away in your room, and always keep the copy in your pocket or somewhere on your person. Second, when leaving your room always make sure that you take the cash that you need for the day, plus a little extra, and one credit card. As I said, I travel with 2 bank cards and 2 credit cards just to make sure that I always have a way to either pay for a flight back to the US, should something happen, or incase of theft of my room, or a robbery when I’m out on the street, I will have a way to withdraw money.
I feel safe as long as I have 1 of the cards with me at all times (credit or ATM), and the others I can leave in my room. Now I hear people say all the time, don’t carry a lot of cash with you or carry any of your credit cards just incase you get robbed. Well yes, that’s true to an extent, you shouldn’t be walking around with hundreds of dollars and 3 credit cards, but for those who say that you should carry very little cash and no credit cards… what happens if your room gets broken into while your out during the day? If you think that’s a little far fetched I have 3 words for you… “Tina’s Backpacker Hostel.”
Pick up any guide book on Central America and one of the suggestions of places to stay in Caye Caulker, Belize is “Tina’s Backpackers Hostel”. In fact, in my guide book, that was the number one suggestion, which is exactly why I went there first when I got off of the water taxi to ask for a private room. Luckily for me, they didn’t have any private rooms left, so following my own guidelines for mitigating risk, I moved on to look for another place only later to find out that Tina’s has an average of 5 thefts a month from both the private rooms, and dormitories. In fact, two girls that were stating at Tina’s while I was on the island decided to “play it safe” and keep everything in their securely locked room while they were out during the day, only to come back and find out that everything, and I mean everything, had been stolen. They lost all their cash, credit cards, and even their passports. So in this case what do you do? By not diversifying your valuables and documents, your 100% , undeniably and thoroughly screwed. Imagine, having no way to get cash, buy a plane ticket home, or being able to prove which country you have citizenship. It’s a total night mare situation.
So, to bottom line it, whenever I leave my room, I always have a little extra cash and an ATM or credit card on me. And if I’m robbed, no big deal, I’m out a little cash and I can always hop on Skype and call my bank to cancel that particular card, but I still will have access to my money and my documents that are in my room, or vice versa.
Another thing I do with regards to the cash and credit cards that I leave in my room is to thoroughly hide them. Here’s a little tip on how I do it, I buy just a regular bar of soap at the market (in this case “Dove”) and keep the little square box it comes in. These little soap boxes are perfect for hiding you cash and credit cards in, and when you close them back up and put them in with the rest of your toiletries, I have serious doubts that someone who is breaking into your room while you are out will give it no more than a quick glance while going through all of your things in search for valuables (again, see the picture above).
So we have the bus (Check!), and diversification (Check!), so what about when you’re actually out on the streets?
Thats to be continued in Part 2…
I figure that I could share a few of my tips and tricks, as well as a few things that I learned along the way for those of you who may decide one day to venture out in to the unknown…
Ok, first off I have traveled through just about all of Central America by bus, so most of my post in this section is going to have to do with that particular experience. If you are traveling by air you really don’t have much to worry about. Yes, you pay a lot more for the tickets, but you also have the luxury of relative security inside the airport, and the security of your bags not being stolen, that is, if they are carryons and if you have enough common sense not to set them down somewhere and get distracted. It’s also extremely easy to change currency in the airport and there are also usually ATMS that will give you a fair exchange rate on the currency. So really as far as I’m concerned traveling by air is a cake walk.
The bus however, is a little bit different. First off, the bus is a lot cheaper and you have all sorts options as to which bus lines you are going to take and at what hours. I found that on average it cost me $30 in bus fare one way to travel from one country to the next. Compare that to paying $200-$500 in airfare and you’ll see why I’m a huge fan of the bus. If you are planning on bussing through Central America, as I did, your also looking at bus rides at a length of anywhere from 5 hours (ex. Northern Guatemala to Belize City) or longer rides, anywhere from 8-10 hours (ex. San Salvador to Managua, Nicaragua).
Now as far as I’m concerned when taking the bus, the number one thing that I had tried to make sure of, was not to arrive at my destination at night, or during the early hours of the morning. Sometimes this is unavoidable, and in many cases it is extremely dangerous. A few times that I got caught here was on the overnight line in Guatemala, returning from Tikal to Guatemala City, for example when my bus was supposed to get in at 6:30 am, but it turned out that we had arrived at 4:30am in one of the most dangerous cities in Central America. This also lead to a guy trying to steal my bag as I got off the bus, as well as me being a bit panic stricken in that situation and fleeing to the Holiday Inn as a safe option that cost me over $200 for a 1.5 day stay (Ouch!!!). This also happened another time as I had mentioned in my last post, when I was arriving in Managua Nicaragua with only 15 minutes until sunset. And trust me, when you’re in a situation like that, simply thinking… “oh shit, this is not good” is a serious understatement. So definitely always try to arrive during day light hours, or at least give your self a good hour or two to find a safe place to stay before it gets dark.
Also, when taking the bus make sure to be one of the first people to get off and do not leave any valuables what so ever in the bag that you “check”, as they put it under the bus and many times there are no claim tickets or security measures to make sure that the right people end up with the right bags. As I had mentioned, when arriving in Guate I was one of the first people off of the bus, and when the conductor took out my huge travel back pack from the cargo hold as I was walking up to claim it, a guy casually walked right in front of me and put his hands on my bag like it was his. The conductor was actually in the process of handing him my backpack when I grabbed it and sternly said, “NO! ES MIO!!”. The guy looked at me, took his hands off my bag, turned around, and walked back out onto the street and disappeared. So by being one of the first people off of the bus you can make sure that no one is going to grab your bag once they open up the cargo hold, or at least if they try you can stop them from taking it like I did.
Also, one of my number one rules, has to do with diversification, which I will talk about in a minute. But as I said, I never leave any valuables in checked luggage, so had that man actually succeeded in stealing my backpack, he would have gotten a pair of jeans, some shoes, a few guide books, and plenty of dirty underwear to go with it, which are all things that I could easily replace in a day or two. When traveling on the bus, all my cash, passport documents, and credit cards, are either on my person, or split up and hidden away in my carryon backpack along with my laptop, and that backpack NEVER leaves my side (for those of you who wonder how I can travel inconspicuously with a laptop, I wrap it in a beach towel and keep it in an old beat up carryon back pack that as I had mentioned, is with me at all times… See the picture above)
Another thing that is critical when going from country to country on the bus is to make absolutely sure that you have the correct currency when arriving because many times you will end up at a bus station far from an ATM and in a location that is really no where near where you want to stay in your destination city. So imagine arriving in Nicaragua where they only accept Cordobas, and you have a pocket full of Guatemalan Quetzales. What do you do? You can’t pay for a cab to get to your hotel or hostel. And do you really want to walk around as a foreigner with all your possessions strapped to your back asking people in broken Spanish “Excuse me, is there an ATM around here?” Talk about being in big trouble. So, what I do is be sure to always exchange some currency at every single border crossing.
Now as I said, if you’re at the airport it’s a cake walk, there’s an official booth that can change every currency in the world, and they even give you a receipt! But at the borders, it’s a bit different. When the bus pulls up there are literally dozens of guys in plain street clothes called “coyotes” with wads of cash in their hands trying to get you to exchange your money. So you really need to research the exchange rate ahead of time, and make sure that when you deal with the coyotes, their giving you the correct amount of the new currency for the old. It can get really confusing sometimes too, as many currencies exchange at 30 to 1 or even 2,000 to 1 in some cases (ex. Colombian Peso to US Dollar).
Now people will tell you, don’t ever exchange your money with the coyotes. Don’t listen to them. Now I’m not saying you need to empty your bank account and exchange all your money with the coyotes, just make sure you exchange $20 or so into local currency so that you can at least take a cab from the bus station to your hostel or hotel. I mean, yes you will lose a few points on the exchange, but in reality were talking about a few cents lost when exchanging $20, as opposed to what? Being stranded some where with no local currency, and no clue where you can get some? It’s a no brainer.
As I had also mentioned above with the brief example of what I keep in my checked luggage, diversification of my valuables is my number one rule while traveling. You can be sure that when traveling through all these countries things will happen, both good and bad. People will be nice to you, and then try and steal from you. So how do you mitigate the risks using diversification? Well, here’s what I do…
First off, when staying in a hostel I always try and get a private room. I think that if you are travelling with valuable items, such as a laptop, or numerous credit cards as I am, you definitely don’t want to stay in a dorm. Its pretty much common sense that having a room with a door that locks, as opposed to having a room with an open door where new people come in and out of everyday, is defiantly a lot smarter way to keep from having anything stolen. Now, private rooms are sometimes very expensive and I do believe that if you’re on a budget and are just traveling with an ATM card and a back pack full of clothes, a private room may not be necessary. However, I’m writing about mitigating risk here, so for someone in my situation, a private room is the smarter play.
Also, and most importantly, I always, always, make sure that I split up my cash, my credit/bank cards, and my travel documents. Here’s how I do it: First, definately make a copy of your passport. Keep your actual passport hidden away in your room, and always keep the copy in your pocket or somewhere on your person. Second, when leaving your room always make sure that you take the cash that you need for the day, plus a little extra, and one credit card. As I said, I travel with 2 bank cards and 2 credit cards just to make sure that I always have a way to either pay for a flight back to the US, should something happen, or incase of theft of my room, or a robbery when I’m out on the street, I will have a way to withdraw money.
I feel safe as long as I have 1 of the cards with me at all times (credit or ATM), and the others I can leave in my room. Now I hear people say all the time, don’t carry a lot of cash with you or carry any of your credit cards just incase you get robbed. Well yes, that’s true to an extent, you shouldn’t be walking around with hundreds of dollars and 3 credit cards, but for those who say that you should carry very little cash and no credit cards… what happens if your room gets broken into while your out during the day? If you think that’s a little far fetched I have 3 words for you… “Tina’s Backpacker Hostel.”
Pick up any guide book on Central America and one of the suggestions of places to stay in Caye Caulker, Belize is “Tina’s Backpackers Hostel”. In fact, in my guide book, that was the number one suggestion, which is exactly why I went there first when I got off of the water taxi to ask for a private room. Luckily for me, they didn’t have any private rooms left, so following my own guidelines for mitigating risk, I moved on to look for another place only later to find out that Tina’s has an average of 5 thefts a month from both the private rooms, and dormitories. In fact, two girls that were stating at Tina’s while I was on the island decided to “play it safe” and keep everything in their securely locked room while they were out during the day, only to come back and find out that everything, and I mean everything, had been stolen. They lost all their cash, credit cards, and even their passports. So in this case what do you do? By not diversifying your valuables and documents, your 100% , undeniably and thoroughly screwed. Imagine, having no way to get cash, buy a plane ticket home, or being able to prove which country you have citizenship. It’s a total night mare situation.
So, to bottom line it, whenever I leave my room, I always have a little extra cash and an ATM or credit card on me. And if I’m robbed, no big deal, I’m out a little cash and I can always hop on Skype and call my bank to cancel that particular card, but I still will have access to my money and my documents that are in my room, or vice versa.
Another thing I do with regards to the cash and credit cards that I leave in my room is to thoroughly hide them. Here’s a little tip on how I do it, I buy just a regular bar of soap at the market (in this case “Dove”) and keep the little square box it comes in. These little soap boxes are perfect for hiding you cash and credit cards in, and when you close them back up and put them in with the rest of your toiletries, I have serious doubts that someone who is breaking into your room while you are out will give it no more than a quick glance while going through all of your things in search for valuables (again, see the picture above).
So we have the bus (Check!), and diversification (Check!), so what about when you’re actually out on the streets?
Thats to be continued in Part 2…
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