Central America

For years it bugged me that there were four countries in Central America that I've never visited. Therefore, I flew to Oaxaca, Mexico. From there I took buses and:

• Crossed Chiapas, Mexico, the site of a violent revolution a few years ago
• Revisited Guatemala
• Spoke English in Belize
• Lay on a beach on the island of Roatan in Honduras
• Navigated the waters of Nicaragua
• Saw volcanoes in Costa Rica
• Snorkeled in archipelago of Bocas del Toro, Panama
• Contemplated why Central America's rainforests are disappearing

Video of Central America trek

The only Central American country I didn't visit on this trip was El Salvador. I've been there twice and I didn't feel a big urge to return. Besides, El Salvador has the second highest murder rate in world (after Iraq) and I prefer to die in a more interesting way.

After Central America, I flew to sin city. No, not Las Vegas, but Amsterdam. Toek, a fellow CDT hiker, let me stay at his place. He told me that his apartment would be full of drugs and hookers, but I didn't think that would be possible in Amsterdam.

Then I flew to visit the other major country in Europe that I have not been to: Norway. After a week of seeing fjords, I went to Estonia and the rest of Eastern Europe!

Later I visited three micro-countries: Andorra, San Marino, and Lichtenstein. All three are tiny city-states, like Vatican City. They somehow have a seat at the United Nations and so I had to see them to complete my quest of visiting every country on the planet. It's annoying that they even exist and I'm hoping their will surrender their sovereignty to their neighbors soon.

In 2011, I focused on my second book, The Hidden Europe: What Eastern Europeans Can Teach Us and I did a minor update of Hike Your Own Hike.