Hemmed in by the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, the slender land
bridge of Central America stretches from Mexico to South
America - seven piecemeal nations stacked on top of each other in a
narrowing isthmus. Its geography is in many ways its destiny: a
small but distinctive region which for millennia has been the
meeting point of the plants, animals and people of the giant
continents to the north and the south. Although Central America has
receded in the general public consciousness following the
resolution of the conflicts which convulsed it during the 1980s,
the region's new-found stability has resulted in something of a
tourism renaissance, as thousands of visitors have come to
experience its startling natural beauty and biodiversity at first
hand, along with a range of man-made attractions ranging from the
Maya ruins and traditional highland communities of Guatemala to the
modernist skyline of Panamá City.
Central America's position at the volcanic cusp between North
and South America, and at the meeting point of tropical and
temperate climatic zones, has created a startling, often surreal
landscape , ranging from the rugged, mountainous
cloudforests of Costa Rica and Panamá to the impenetrable
swamp-jungles of Mosquitia in eastern Honduras and Nicaragua.
Beaches, coves, cayes and island archipelagos hem the coral-laced
coasts, while volcanoes - some active - form a backbone of fire
that stretches the length of the isthmus. Not surprisingly, given
its pivotal geographical and biological position, Central America
seems to have been designed for the ecotourist , with a
complex system of interlocking terrains, from pristine rainforest
to rare mangrove, which are home to a fascinating range of birdlife
and wildlife, including tropical, temperate and hybrid species. And
along with ecotourism go more traditional pleasures: lolling on
Costa Rica's palm-draped Caribbean beaches, diving and snorkelling
off the coral atolls of Belize, or exploring the sand-fringed
islands of Panamá's San Blas archipelago.
Amidst all the hype about the region's natural beauty it's easy
to forget that this part of the world was home to one of the
Americas' most sophisticated pre-Columbian cultures, the
Maya , whose splendid civilization flourished in Guatemala -
and to a lesser extent in modern-day Belize, Honduras and El
Salvador - between 300 and 900 AD. During this period the region
was made up of independent and often mutually antagonistic
city-states - Tikal in Guatemala, Copán in Honduras and San Andrés
in El Salvador being three of the more prominent - which fought
each other for prestige and economic dominance while their
architects and craftsmen fashioned fabulous cities and stelae and
their scientists created the famous Maya calendar, one of the most
complex systems of measuring time ever devised.
The high point of Maya civilization had already passed, however,
when Central America was "discovered" by the Spanish during
Christopher Columbus 's fourth and last voyage to the
Americas in 1502-4. Columbus himself barely set foot in Central
America, however, 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 very
little). Nearly ten years later, in 1513, the conquistador Vasco
Nuñez de Balboa slashed and clambered his way over the scaly
mountain spine of Panamá, becoming the first European to set eyes
on the American side of the Pacific Ocean.
Within a few years, in 1519, the Spanish had established Panamá
City; the city of León, in present-day Nicaragua, followed in 1524;
and in 1541, in Guatemala, they established their most important
capital, Antigua, from which the region was administered. Still,
Central America remained a backwater of the Spanish Empire in the
New World: poor in gold and stuffed with venomous snakes,
impenetrable jungles and often hostile natives. In human terms, the
ensuing colonial period was characterized by the arrival of
waves of yeoman farmers from Spain, and the deaths of countless
thousands of indigenous people from diseases to which they had no
immunity, while many others were taken as slaves to work the mines
in Peru.
In the early 1800s, nearly 300 years after Spain's first
incursions in the isthmus, the region was caught up in a fervour of
independence , in part fuelled by the growing anger of the
criollos (Spanish people born in the New World), who were barred
from advancement and political office by Spain's snobbish
insistence on promoting only those born on Spanish soil. By 1823
the collective drive towards autonomy was strong enough for all the
Central American states to declare themselves independent, forming
a loose federation (with the exception of Panamá, by then part of
Colombia, and Belize, which was effectively a British colony). In
many of the countries, separate but eerily similar internal
conflicts erupted between educated, Europhile liberals demanding
egalitarianism and a form of democracy and the monied, land-owning
conservatives - a rift between the right and the left which even
today remains the most divisive and destructive presence in Central
American politics .
It was these tensions that sparked the ravaging wars of
the 1970s and 1980s. Nicaragua's Sandinistas succeeded in shaking
off their country's dictator, Anastasio Somoza, though their
revolution ultimately failed as a result of the US-sponsored Civil
War (1981-1990), while US-fuelled internal conflicts also
devastated El Salvador and Guatemala for much of the same decade.
Now peace seemingly reigns, although less conspicuous conflicts
persist, as in Guatemala, where the state's long-running campaign
of repression against its own (mostly indigenous) inhabitants shows
signs of continuing, despite the signing of official peace
accords.
Nowadays, Central America is keen to shake off its reputation
for machine guns and earthquakes, and most of its citizens want to
forget about the past and look towards the future. Increasingly,
that future is to be found in the overwhelming presence of North
American culture , whether it be four-wheel drives, shopping
malls, fast-food outlets or credit-card spending. American culture
has been wholeheartedly embraced by the urban upper middle classes,
and trickles down into the poorer echelons in the form of
much-prized baseball hats and Nike trainers - any ropa
americana is better than the homespun equivalent. This
relatively new yen for the good life and consumer desirables is one
reason why Central American society is described - at least by
economists - as "modernizing", and times have changed from when
countries like Honduras and Costa Rica were bona fide banana
republics, little more than hosts providing land and cheap labour
for the huge, US-owned fruit companies. Manufacturing and service
industries are increasingly investing in the region, while
piecework factories churning out cheap goods for the US market,
called maquiladoras , still provide many people -
particularly women - with employment.
Despite this, there's not much evidence that this new-found
investment is trickling down into the pockets of the poorest
Central Americans: income differentials here are still among the
widest in the world, and much of the population lives in poverty,
sometimes abjectly so - you don't need to look further than the
faces of begging children on street corners or at border crossings,
asking to relieve you of your surplus small change. One product of
this widespread deprivation are the high rates of common
crimes like pickpocketing and burglary, while violent crime
against tourists is becoming more common. Certain cities, like
Managua and Panamá City, have always had bad reputations, and it
has to be said travelling in Central America is hardly risk-free,
and visitors should read up on the various dangers before arriving.
Fortunately, where dangers are real - mostly in cities - they are
well-publicized, and locals will often volunteer warnings and
advice.
When it comes to relations between the countries, Central
America is rather like a family where there's little love lost, but
they recognize that sticking together is their best chance for
economic survival. Amongst themselves, the nations have oscillated
between surprising regional solidarity to outright war, sometimes
in the form of incomprehensible conflicts, such as El Salvador and
Honduras's infamous "Football War" of 1969, a five-day border
conflict ostensibly sparked by a soccer match. National
stereotypes are bandied back and forth with relish (Costa
Ricans think Nicaraguans are intrinsically violent, Nicaraguans
think Costa Ricans are placid opportunists, virtually everybody
thinks the Hondurans wrote the book on corruption) even while the
region's politicians describe neighbour nations as hermanos
(brothers) and seek to build a Central American trading bloc to
neutralize the effect NAFTA has had on their economies.
Wherever you go, it's easy to get around. Travel
networks in the region are well-developed, with reliable air
and road-transport systems. Flying from Guatemala City to San José
or Panamá City can save you a lot of time, as what looks like a
short hop on the map is often a lengthy road journey thanks to the
(often bad) state of the highways and the effects of weather. In
the riverine waterways of Mosquitia, boats are the only way to get
around, along with light planes. Most of the time, though, you'll
be going by bus - cheap, frequent, cheerful, and the
quintessential Central American experience, where you'll find
yourself seated among knitting grandmothers, travelling
evangelists, gum-popping teenagers and perhaps the odd chicken.