Compared with some of our previous adventures, this journey seemed almost luxurious in its simplicity. Naturally, it immediately began to fall apart.
The first hint that this trip might not unfold as imagined came a few weeks before departure, when Guatemala declared a national state of emergency.
Seasoned travelers develop a flexible relationship with announcements like this. Governments declare states of emergency all the time. Usually life continues normally for visitors. We ignored the omen.
The second omen was harder to ignore. It arrived the night before our road trip was set to begin, when we learned there would be a last-minute change in drivers.
Our new driver, Jonathan, appeared the next morning several hours late and looking as though he had not slept since the invention of coffee. He also shared one small detail that would have been nice to know earlier. Jonathan had never done the trip we were about to embark on.
The visa plot twist
After a chaotic start – including the awkward moment when we had to guide our guide through the first land border crossing – we finally found some momentum in El Salvador.
That was the calm before the storm.
Patrick soon discovered that Nicaragua had quietly revised its visa rules for travelers from several countries. While I was unaffected by this policy change, Patrick now needed an embassy visa in advance – a process we were told would take months.
Our solution was creative, if slightly absurd. Patrick would fly over Nicaragua to Costa Rica while Jonathan and I continued driving through Nicaragua with the car. The plan was to reunite in Costa Rica five days later. It was not the road trip we had envisioned, but technically it was still a road trip.
Travel logistics resemble dominoes. When one piece falls, the rest quickly follow.
Because Patrick was no longer entering Nicaragua, the authorization paperwork for our car and driver had to be re-approved on an emergency basis. After a series of improvisations and paperwork revisions and hours at immigration, Jonathan and I managed to enter Nicaragua.
For a moment, it felt like we might regain control of the trip. That optimism lasted three days.
Central America, tag-team style
While in Nicaragua, I had to make an emergency trip to the United States for family reasons. Suddenly our road trip resembled less of a shared adventure and more of a tag-team sporting event.
Patrick was waiting in Costa Rica. Jonathan was somewhere in Nicaragua with our car. And I was on a plane heading north. For several days the three of us were in three different countries at the same time – all participating in the same theoretical road trip.
Eventually I reunited with Patrick and Jonathan in Costa Rica’s capital for the final border crossing into Panama. At this point we assumed the trip had finally run out of ways to surprise us. This was optimistic.
From Panama we had to make another unplanned trip to the United States, again for family reasons.
Unfortunately, we arrived during the late-March airport chaos that had American travelers mired in security lines. That week George Bush Intercontinental Airport was reportedly the most disrupted airport in the country. Security lines sometimes exceeded four hours.
Through a combination of hustle and desperation, we managed to get through immigration and security in time for our connecting flight – while many other passengers missed theirs. It felt less like air travel and more like a competitive Olympic event.
The Great Pacific detour
But the real improvisation came next.
Our original plan had been to return to Phuket from the Americas via Europe and the Middle East. Unfortunately, the escalating conflict involving Iran had made that routing impossible.
Instead of crossing the Atlantic, we crossed the Pacific. This felt like a triumph of travel problem-solving – until our flight arrived in Seoul ten minutes late.
Ten minutes was enough to miss our connection. Because Korean Air operates just one daily flight to Phuket, we were rewarded with a 24-hour layover in South Korea. At this point we stopped asking what might go wrong next. The trip had clearly developed its own sense of humour.
A travel tale
The original idea had been simple: a relaxed road trip to enjoy Central America’s greatest hits. Instead, we expanded a tidy Central American road trip into a multi continent adventure and elaborate logistical puzzle.
Every good trip eventually turns into a story. And the moral of this one may be: If everything goes according to plan, you’re probably just commuting.
Adventurer Todd Miller has explored more than 130 countries. He authored the best-seller ENRICH: Create Wealth in Time, Money, and Meaning. www.ToddMiller.asia