Soaking in the luminous heat of the equatorial sun, condensation trickles from the side of a tall glass and pools, refreshingly, between my fingers. Toes sunk deep into pearly sand, the unmistakably nostalgic scent of sun-cream mixes with sea-drops snorkel cleaner in the pleasant breeze. Nothing to be heard but a distant babble from the modest beach bar, the chime of dried palms clacking together, and the lull of crystal-clear ocean, lapping at the shore.

         I’m in my happy place.

         Except, I’m not.

         I’m sat at a desk in Bristol, listening to ‘Beta brainwaves relaxation sounds’ make a fearful attempt at drowning out the clamour of busy traffic infiltrating the open window, which does nothing to alleviate the stifling heat of summer in the city. I peel my legs from the plastic chair, where the underside of my dungaree-clad thighs have stubbornly fastened themselves, and stare glumly at the sandy beaches scintillating from my laptop screen, willing myself to somehow become very, very tiny and crawl inside the display.

         What I’m really doing is planning the route, budget and packing list of my happy place – more specifically the azure beaches and sprawling rainforests of Central and South America.

         In fact, I’m more of a fan of the ‘anti-plan’. The general consensus of backpackers is that the most insightful research you can glean from any given location is through experience. That’s not to say that all other research is redundant – far from it, in fact. You can’t have a concept of what you’re missing out on if you don’t know what’s on offer. However, rather than pre-booking every hostel, bus, and activity, I prefer to combine my personal research with advice from locals and fellow backpackers I meet along the way, generating a malleable and spontaneous itinerary on the move.

         So, without further-ado, here is my incomplete Anti-Plan for mine and Amy’s journey across Central and South America.

Route

The best way to pick a route when travelling is to investigate what each country has to offer, realise that you have a very slim chance of experiencing it all, and admit that you wish you picked up pole-dancing last year to make some extra cash.

         In all seriousness, budget is key when it comes to defining possible routes, as it determines how long you can afford to spend in each location, and therefore the extent of which you can explore there. It can also influence which cities you choose to fly to, as tourist hotspots are generally cheaper to access than smaller cities.

         For instance, our journey starts in Cancun. Well, actually, it starts in Barcelona. Due to almost every flight in our budget involving a borderline impossible layover in Madrid, we decided to treat ourselves to a pre-holiday holiday and brush up on our Spanish skills in a city neither of us have ever experienced before. From Barcelona, we’ll take a four-hour train to Madrid, before flying to Cancun.

         A holiday hotspot on the East coast of Mexico, Cancun makes an obvious starting point for our journey thanks to its cheap flights and proximity in relation to Europe. Now, despite my self-proclaimed favour of the ‘anti-plan’, I would recommend booking the first hostel or two when backpacking. Otherwise, you run the risk of finding yourself teetering upon a rickety bunk, atop a mattress that somewhat resembles a petri-dish, inhaling the pungent aroma of what was advertised on the website as an ‘en-suite’, but which you’d actually wish was just a bit further away. Hence why we (pre-empting that we wouldn’t find the ‘Spring Break’ vibe Cancun is famed for particularly tempting) booked a single night in Hostel Ka’beh, before heading to Playa del Carmen for two nights in the Boho Beach Hostel.

         From here, the plan is to explore the coast of Belize, before venturing into Guatemala, and then making our way through the rest of the seven countries that constitute Central America, and hopefully having enough time and money to make it into Colombia and explore as much of South America as we can.

Budget

Ahh, budget. My lifelong nemesis. They say know your enemy. Unfortunately, I know very little about budget, and that which I do know, I ignore wilfully.

         Saving for this trip has been incredibly hard for me, someone who is notoriously bad with money and always, somehow, seems to have new clothes? However, mentally transporting to my beachside happy place in times of temptation - and confining almost every cash tip I received for an entire year into a teapot - helped me to accumulate my resources.

         According to Nomadic Matt’s blog, a backpacker budget for Central America lies between $30-50 a day. This averages around $1,240 a month, so to travel for three months, it’s around $3,720, not including flights. This seems a bit generous to me, but then again, I literally just admitted that I have next to no control when it comes to spending, so best to be on the safe side.

         Including the first leg to Barcelona, our flight to Cancun cost around $500, and I plan on reserving roughly $700 for a return flight to the UK. Internal travel should be relatively cheap as we plan on bussing between locations, which are often as cheap as a few dollars a ticket.

Packing

Now, on to my area of expertise! I may not travel light, but when you need glitter hotpants for the annual village carnival you weren’t expecting to attend, who are you going to go to? 

Below is a comprehensive list of everything I hope to bring with me on my travels, complete with blank spaces for ticking should you wish to screenshot and print this page :)