The Rough Guide to Central America (Paperback)

by Peter Eltringham (Author), Jean McNeil (Author)

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INTRODUCTION

Corrugated by mountains and studded by volcanoes, Central America reaches from Mexico towards South America like a hooked, tentative finger. Its geography – seven piecemeal nations stacked on top of each other in a narrowing isthmus – is in many ways its destiny: a distinct region caught between two larger realities. The archeological term used for the region is Mesoamerica (Middle America), and for millennia it has been just that: the meeting point of the landmasses, plants, animals and people of the giant continents to the north and the south.

This clash of tropical and temperate zones has created a startling, often surreal landscape in which dense, humid rainforests abound with the yelps of oropendola birds and the chattering of monkeys; somewhere inside the forest’s dark mesh, the antediluvian form of the tapir lumbers and the endangered jaguar steals quietly through cobalt shadows. Carpeting the eastern halves of Honduras and Nicaragua are the impenetrable swamp-jungles of Mosquitia, whose curlicued lagoons harbour mirror-surfaced mangroves where shellfish and manatees breed among the gnarled roots. Beaches, coves, cayes and island archipelagos hem the coral-laced coasts, while volcanoes – some active – form a chain of fire that stretches from Guatemala to Costa Rica.

Central America had, until recently, receded in the public consciousness, as the "news" (read: war and revolution) spotlight moved elsewhere; now, however, it’s experiencing something of a tourism renaissance. Ten or fifteen years ago, visitors to the region largely consisted of the college backpacker contingent and groups on socialist-minded "education" tours. Since the beginning of the 1990s, though, a wider variety of people, some with little knowledge of or interest in the region’s turbulent past, have come here to experience its startling natural beauty on the back of another kind of revolution – this time in tourism.

Perhaps more than anywhere else in the world, Central America seems to have been designed with the ecotourist in mind. Costa Rica draws nature-lovers by the plane-load with its impressive system of National Parks, while English-speaking Belize, for much of its history a forgotten fragment of the British Empire, has reinvented itself as a prime diving and snorkelling destination, thanks to its offshore national treasury: the second-longest barrier reef in the world. The best place to experience the region’s pre-Conquest culture is Guatemala, which has the strongest indigenous traditions, not to mention a stunning landscape of velvet volcanoes and amethyst lakes. Panamá and Honduras are just waking up to the potential – at least in tourism terms – of their rainforests, rugged mountain cloudforests, mangroves and beaches. Tourists still tend to avoid Nicaragua and El Salvador – a misguided manoeuvre, as neither is more dangerous for visitors than its neighbours, and despite considerable poverty, the people are welcoming and the basic tourist infrastructure good; plus, they too have the volcanoes, beaches and rainforests that draw travellers to their more popular neighbours.

Amidst all the hype about the region’s natural beauty, it’s easy to forget that this rugged, humid part of the world was home (along with Mexico and Peru) to the most sophisticated pre-Columbian cultures of the Americas. The splendid Maya civilization, with its diaphanous pyramids and neurotic pursuit of time-keeping, flourished in Guatemala and to a lesser extent in modern-day Belize, Honduras and El Salvador between the years of 300 and 900 AD (although the Maya have been in existence for over 4000 years). During this time, termed the Classic period, the region was made up of independent, and often mutually antagonistic city-states – Tikal in Guatemala, Copan in Honduras and El Salvador’s San Andres being three of the more prominent – which fought each other for prestige and economic dominance. As their civilization declined, the Maya became increasingly interested in blood-letting and the ritualizing of pain and death, while paradoxically setting their greatest minds the task of predicting the future through one of the most precise understandings of time in history. You can see shadows of their huge achievements in science and the arts by visiting the ruined cities and viewing their displays on calendrics, ceramics and the Maya’s wildly illustrative glyphic scripts.

In sharp contrast to the Maya, further south in lower Costa Rica and Panamá, peoples from the Chibcha group dominated. Thought to have come originally from Colombia, the Chibcha were largely agrarian, without the talent for urban planning or numerology obsession of the Maya, and have left little or nothing behind in the way of monuments or artefacts.

Central America was "discovered" by the Spanish on Christopher Columbus’s fourth and last voyage to the Americas in 1502–4. Columbus himself barely set foot in Central America, preferring to anchor offshore and write florid letters back home to his sovereign, packed with references to maidens and gold (of which the Spaniards unhappily discovered there was little). Nearly ten years later, an incredible sight met the eyes of Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, the first real conquistador of the region, who in 1513 slashed and clambered his way over the scaly mountain spine of Panamá to become the first European to set eyes on the American side of the Pacific Ocean.

Within a few years of Balboa’s thrilling sight, the Spanish had established Panamá City, in 1519; León, Nicaragua, followed in 1524; and in 1527, in Guatemala, they built their most important capital, the future colonial seat of the Empire, from which the region was administered. Still, Central America remained a backwater of the Spanish Empire in the New World: gold-poor, stuffed with venomous serpents, impenetrable jungles and often hostile natives. In human terms, the ensuing colonial period was characterized by waves of yeoman farmers emigrating from Spain, followed by waves of deaths of indigenous people from diseases to which they had no immunity. Slave labour was taken from Costa Rica and Nicaragua to work the mineral mines in Peru; in Guatemala the conquerors, led by the handsome blond adventurer with a taste for massacre, Pedro de Alvarado, set about a systematic, if drawn-out, destruction of the Maya peoples, who have, against all the odds, maintained their culture to this day, albeit in much reduced numbers.

Product Details

• Paperback: 816 pages
• Publisher: Rough Guides; 1 edition (February 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1858283353
• ISBN-13: 978-1858283357
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,965,269 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Central America guide available, April 27, 2006

By	William J. Fickling (Columbia, SC, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Rough Guide to Central America 3 (Rough Guide Travel Guides) (Paperback)

I just returned from a month long trip through Central America, during which I visited the following countries: Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama, in that order. For the trip I brought two guide books along with me, this one and Lonely Planet's Central America on a Shoestring. I found myself using this guide almsot constantly and Lonely Planet's not at all. So if you are going to Central America, take this book with you.

The best thing about this book is that it is well-organized and easy to read. This is especially true of the maps, which are in color and a delight to read. Anything you might be seeking can be found with ease. There are ample listings of sleeping accommodations and places to eat. The title might lead you to think that this book is just for backpackers and those seeking accommodation and restaurants just on the lower end of the scale. Not so! In every country, the book lists a wide range of hotels and restaurants, ranging from the luxury to the most basic. So, there is something in here to accommodate every budget. The book is especially useful in providing keys to providers of side activities, such as specialized tours like the Panama Canal. Through information in this book, I was able to contact a tour provider and make a reservation for a boat ride on the Panama Canal. I also found the best place to stay at the ruins in Tikal and in most of the major Central American capitals.

In summary, I can't praise this book enough. Don't even think about going to Central America without it.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Limited info, often misleading info, May 16, 2007

By	Soulsurfer "Soulsurfer" (San Francisco, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Rough Guide to Central America 3 (Rough Guide Travel Guides) (Paperback)

I just traveled through Central America (Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Guatemala) for 2.5 months using the Rough Guide. I found the info in the Rough Guide of very limited utility. Their maps are not very clear. Overall, the guidebook could use more detailed maps. Sections of the book do not follow common sense organization (Costa Rica for instance is a mess without a north to south organization you think would make sense) making it difficult at times to find the destinations you're traveling to.

They generally did a decent job with recommendations for accommodations, however they often neglected noting the popular backpacker hostel of the area (there's usually one) (maybe to distinguish themselves from the Lonely Planet whose recommendations seem to become the popular destination).

Their health recommendations are shameful. They only mention the presence of malaria on the Bay Islands of Honduras, and that info is hard to find. Other important info, about weather or need for rain gear is simply lacking.

5.0 out of 5 stars Rough Guide to Central America, February 8, 2009

By	E. Chamberlain - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Rough Guide to Central America 3 (Rough Guide Travel Guides) (Paperback)

Rough guides are by far the best travel guides on the market! I have used them all over the world and have pin point accuracy...thank you rough guide!