MarcRomero.com - Central America 2010

Final Trip Statistics

Days: 10

Miles Flown: Approx. 4,800 NM (5,520 SM)

Flight Hours Logged: 31.2

Countries Landed In (incl. US): 5

Additonal Countries Overflown: 3

Final Thoughts

This trip is a once-in-a-lifetime type experience that will certainly be
hard to equal. I feel as though in most of the countries we visited, we
were barely able to scratch the surface of what each has to offer.
That being said, I most certainly would like to return to explore each
further in detail at some point in the future. Also, I would like to add
Honduras to the visit and explore list as it looked beautiful from up
above.

Additionally, no matter what differences each country we visited (or I
have visited in the past) possesses with respecet to scenery, resources,
etc., I find that one thing remains true, people are people no matter
where you meet them. Not to get extremely philosophical, but what I
have noticed is simple, that no matter how confused you are or
how much of a language barrier exists, a smile and a friendly attitude
go a long way. We found many examples of this along the way,
especially at the airports.

As frustrated as I may have gotten toward the end of the trip with
regards to inconsistencies of procedures between the different
airports, those frustrations were merely directed toward what I saw as
lack of efficiencies within procedures, certainly not with the people
performing them. And, throughout all of those inconsistencies, what
remained constant was that no matter how confused we were or
how terrible our attempts at a Spanish converstaion were, the people
we dealt with were always more than willing to help to the best extent
they could. It was then because of these wonderful attitudes, that I
would always try to end each exchange with a smile and a
handshake, which was always returned eagerly. In the end, it is those
helpful people that allowed us to make our way through seven
different unfamiliar countries.

So, for me, no matter how great the flying is or the experience, it is
always meeting new people that makes the trip, and this trip was
no exception.

-Marc

Lessons Learned

1. As I stated in 'The Journey,' my Spanish is terrible. I think it's finally time to take some formal lessons and work on finally becoming fluent.

2. We planned this trip in a very short period of time, about 2 weeks. A solid month, 2 weeks for soft planning (ideas of where and when to stop, general route, etc.) and 2 weeks of hard planning (obtaining charts, securing flight permits, etc.) should be a MINIMUM for doing a trip like this.

3. While there are many inconsistencies in procedures, toward the end
of the trip, we identified common aspects of each international stop.
Maybe these are obvious to some, but for first-timers, they aren't. Here
they are:

- When leaving a country (except US to Mexico and vice versa), make sure you have a copy of your customs 'General Declaration' from the departing country. You will be asked for it from the immigration officials of your departing country as well as when you arrive in your new country. In Mexico, this is a small sheet of paper given to each person, and in the other countries we visited, this is a full sheet of paper filled out with each of the plane's occupants' information on it.

- When arriving in a country clear customs and immigration, then close your flight plan.

- No fees are due upon arrival, they are usually all paid upon departure.

- When wanting to depart, before you can officially file your flight plan, copies of receipts from all fees being paid must be shown. And also, approval of departure from customs and immigration must be shown.

- Belize does actually require 24 hours advanced notice of arrival. We used a handler, and the Belizean officials prefer that you do. If this was very expensive, I may have looked more into not using one, but for $75, this is extremely worth it.