Does one need a gps in C. America?
 

Hi everyone,

This will be my first trip from Canada to Panama and I was wondering if a gps is required equipment to navigate oneself through central America? Do bikers usually buy a road map for each country they're visiting or is there one good map book available that covers all the countries in C. America?

Thanks in advance,
Paul

You don't need a GPS. In fact, you'll probably find not having one enhances your trip, like Mick says.
The GPS can be good for arriving in a town after dark, but how often is that going to happen?
Get Sjoerd Bakker's guide to cheap hotels and riding in Mexico and Central America. I know for a fact Sjoerd carries a compass and knows how to use it and he's racked up some high miles down here.
Learn some basic Spanish, keep aware of your surroundings, always remember which direction the cardinal points are, and you'll be living large.

Being in the RACQ the Aussie version of AAA, I managed to pick up a free map from the AAA in San Diego

This map covered all CA and SA and was briliant. Well, some roads on the map were not on the ground, but you expect that, but the main Pan American was there and that was what I was following

Cheers
TS

Mobile phone application
 

I had a GPS for the States, paper map for Mexico and Guatemala and nothing else por the rest of my trip but most of the time a relied on signs and people's instructions (I am a spanish speaker though). I did not feel a real frustration of not having a GPS or detailed maps of every single country but it would have been nice.
Whilst reading the trip stories of porkandcorn, I thought it was a great thing to instal on my phone the same application than him and I think this would be very helpful for future trips when it is not possible to have internet connection. I you have the means to download this application then it would be a plus. I quote porkand corn here:

"already appreciating the download of the "maps with me" iphone app. i uploaded maps to all the south american countries i'll be visiting, and it just like having google maps at home. the difference: i'm offline and am still able to search like normal."

On their site they say : "MapsWithMe is available for your iPhone, iPad, iPod (Lite and Pro), Android (Lite and Pro) and Kindle Fire (Lite and Pro). "

The last post has raised the prospect of using offline maps mounted on a smart phone.
There is a largish thread on this subject that contains a lot of input for the advantages and disadvantages of such technology:-
http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...1-9#post408067

I remain a big enthusiast for paper based maps, although I can see how tablets and such larger screens are useful and convenient for many people.

As others have already stated, GPS is not necessary. In 2010 I had the Guia Roji map book for Mexico and ITMB maps for most of the Central American countries, plus "Central America on a Shoestring" guide book. The guidebook was just for general ideas of different areas and I almost never used it for accommodations or restaurants. I regularly perused the maps to take the smaller, less travelled roads and to keep me off the Panamericana as much as possible.

Getting lost and interacting with local folks to find your way back is half the fun.


...Michelle

I have been to CA several times without a GPS. The only time I wished I have had one is when I am trying to find my out of a big city, due to the lack of highway signs through town. This helps your spanish, though, when you have to ask directions.

You will probably find it easier to buy paper maps at home, rather than in the countries you are travelling in. You can probably find the IMTB maps at a good bookstore in Canada. I like the city center maps in the Lonely Planet books, they show attractions like museums and whatever.

GPS's have their place. You will meet other travellers who will share routes with you to places they have been that would be difficult to find otherwise. Either way works, but no, they are not necessary.

Guia Roji has a considerable amount of errors regarding secondary roads.
Double check if you are heading off the beaten path.

I would fall into the camp of not necessary but definitely recommended. A GPS on the handlebars and a large scale map in your tank bag are the best of both worlds.

Traveling between cities can be accomplished pretty easily as others have said with a good sense of direction, awareness of signs, and an affable nature to chat with people to ask which way when you are unsure.

Within cities, it can be a real challenge at times without a GPS. The street signs in some places are hard to find until you figure out where to look and if your Spanish isn't great, the directions can be hard to follow. Just think how bad some directions are even when given in english in your home country. "Turn right at the big tree". Now try to comprehend this all in Spanish, given at a rapid pace.

I was just reminded of this over the holidays in Colombia as I was looking for the unmarked turnoff to a small fishing village. I had to overshoot a few times until finally narrowing to a single dusty street. This is all good fun, but sometimes on a hot day with an overheating bike, you are just happy to get to your destination before your passenger completely dehydrates.

Another example where I missed the GPS, (even though I tend to want to rely on maps and to orient myself through landmarks) is when heading in and out of cities and even returning back to your accomodation. If you stay in one place for a couple of days, you'll figure it all out but if you are moving from city to city pretty quick, riding out to get something and to come back can lead to a few wrong turns and some extra time in the hot sun until you make it back. With your GPS, you just use the track back function and you'll get back rigt away. With one way streets and busy traffic at certain times, a five minute trip can turn into a 30 minute meander pretty quick.

So in short, for a first time rider to Central or South America I would recommend to take a GPS, especially if your Spanish isn't strong. But as others have commented, orienteering and map skills are great to have so have no fear in keeping the GPS off unless really needed to hone these skills and to open up your world to random adventures. That way, you'll have the best of both worlds.

Guia Roji which I got from Omnimaps online has done me very well. They have a lot of other maps to chose from as well

No need for GPS in Central America ( or anyplace else)
The ITMB MAPS and Guia Roji atlas will provide enough framework
Then pay attention to where you are and make mental notes of
landmarks as you go . Costa Rica and Nicaragua tourism boards
give out free country maps that are very useful
Train yourself to keep track of where you
have been and use a compass to determine real directions .and ask local
residents for a bit of help and language learning
All maps and atlases have errors but still provide general picture
of the lay of the roads,towns rivers etc.
GPS MAY BE useful for the fine detail of city driving if time is critical
to you .But out in the country it is just a babysitting service holding your hand
as you move along watching the screen .I am reading a
blog from a bloke riding South America and he is constantly fighting with the GPS or it is malfunctioning or it is telling him to turnaround

thanks for everyone's input :)

I rented a BMW in Costa Rica last year. There are no street signs in San Jose, after wandering for 90 minutes I passed the American Embassy, which I knew was 400 yards from the BMW shop I started from. The Ticas were all very friendly but gave terrible directions eg it's easy directo, directo, directo, directo (straight, straight, straight), but a kilometer further the road hit a "T". A compass would have helped. When I dropped the bike off I gave a Motorcycle courier $20 to lead me. Keeping up with his 125cc bike through heavy traffic was quite an adventure. Otherwise I didn't need a GPS.

Maps all the way:thumbup1:

And if lost in a city

1. Find a taxi driver and give him the address or road you need to find.

2. Agree a price before hand for service to be provided.

3. Dont overtake him when stuck in traffic.

4. Use common sense when following the driver, so as not to be led into somewhere you do not want to be

5. Arrive at destination, and breath a sigh of relief .

I use one...
 

On two trips that took me through Central America and one clockwise ride around South America, to navigate I used maps, a compass, an iPhone and (several) GPS devices. I would use each of these again.

Maps give you lots of geographic and local details that a GPS won't. They are a great source and a back up if your GPS fails. I recommend the National Geographic maps because they are printed on some kind of plastic. If your kit gets wet, these maps won't become a wad of pulp. It is a lot easier to get directions and plan a route with paper maps. There are a few places where it was difficult to get maps locally, like Guyana. I suggest stocking up before hitting the road, but I'm like that. If you are blowing through a country quickly, then you might not need a great map. a lot of people ride through Honduras in a day, so why bother, unless you are going to check out some of the ruins or venture to the Caribbean coast...

Maps are a great conversation starter. Open on up stare at it. Often enough, someone will come over and start talking with you. Although you will find that many people out there can't read a map. I first figured it out when I was pointing to a spot on the map and the hotel clerk won't engage visually with the map...she could read it.

OK, I am a GPS fan. here are a few of my top reasons to use one:

- mark your hotel as a favorite after you check in, and it is easy to get back (even weeks or months later on your return leg)
- a good GPS will tell you how many miles you have to go and will provide a good estimate of when you will arrive (otherwise just double the time recommend by Google Maps!)
- its easy to find your way to a city
- its easy to find your way from one point to another in a city
- its easy to find your way out of a city (believe me, it is hard sometimes to escape a city)
- you may never notice that many streets in Latin America don't have street signs (otherwise, ride slow and count the blocks from labeled streets)
- later you can look at the trace logs and recall where you were and when.
- Latin American highway signs may not be labeled with the detail you are need. CA1 is easy to follow on a GPS, but you might not find a sign with the road name you seek.
- you can leave the main road/highway with confidence of finding your way back as needed.

Advice
- don't wait until the last minute to buy a GPS. Buy several months in advance to give yourself time to practice and learn how to use it. Read the manual. Budget a little time to install the mount, attach to your battery and secure the wiring.
- learn how to upload the map data from your computer to the GPS. I installed the Garmin Mexico map on my computer, but failed to upload the map data from computer to the GPS. Duh.
- use City finder feature to locate and set a destination. Otherwise the device will ask you to enter a "State/Provence" and won't offer the Latin American values...or browse with touch screen on the device to set a destination.
- take your GPS out of the mount and with you every time you walk away from the bike, just like you take your keys.
- there are free routable maps available. they aren't perfect, but they aren't bad either. Free worldwide Garmin maps from OpenStreetMap For space consideration, select and download only what you need.
- PS: Garmin South America Navigator map set is missing a few countries.
- take GPS directions with a grain of salt. Sometimes a GPS will tell you to do stupid things, rarely, but it happens. Outside of the US the mapping data isn't always the best. One way street may or may not be plotted correctly, so keep you eyes open when in urban environments.

Final thoughts, I have ridden with and without a GPS. In the past I covered a lot of miles and having a GPS was the way to go for me. My spanish remains Tarzan, maybe a little better, and getting direction is torture for everyone involved. Got lost for hours in Mexico City twice with a poorly loaded device and later with a failing device (after 6 years of service it decided to mostly die as I crossed into Mexico, great timing.) In some regards it was fun getting directions from Hari Kristas in Mexico City, stopping at a great taco stand and seeing the airport a few times, but all and all, I would have rather to have already gotten to Puebla before the sun went down and it started to rain...

I'm currently in Belize and use both a GPS and map. Garmin doesn't have any detailed maps for Central American countries, so it is necessary to carry that paper map. It is always good back-up too. I met someone who is using something like InReach tracker, I believe. He was able to download maps periodically and use them to determine his current location. It didn't give turn-by-turn, but I wish I had it at times.

Interesting.
When it comes to directions in Spanish speaking countries: izquierda is left, derecha is right, and derecho is straight. I have yet to hear someone say "directo" unless they are selling me a plane or a bus ticket. It means "direct" and not "straight". Now, someone might say that the word "derecho" means some something else, like in "derechos humanos" which are "human rights". That is true, but when you talk directions, it is always "derecha" for right and "derecho" for straight. Yes, you will hear "a la" from time to time, also. As in "A la derecha" which means "to the right".

Be very careful if someone in Mexico (or elsewhere) gives you directions that include the phrase "a la chingada". This likely isn't the destination you are seeking.

$20 US to get to the address? Did the guy stay with you all morning, wash your bike, and get you coffee or what?
This is a perfect opportunity to use the above mentioned phrase.
$20 US for your service? A la chingada!

Perhaps the directions from the Costa Ricans were good, but your Spanish was not up to scratch?

A compass? If you have a rough idea of the time of day and it isn't cloudy, you can navigate fairly well. If you have an old school wristwatch you are never lost. Besides, "lost" is merely a frame of mind.
You are never really lost unless you have chosen not to be found.

Here is a refresher course:
How to Use an Analog Watch as a Compass: 10 Steps (with Pictures)

Below is a handy graphic to illustrate things:

Motorcycling with a GPS:funmeterno: Poco diversion a la izquierda.


Motorcycling without a GPS:funmeteryes: Much diversion a la derecha.


Hay peligro en la chingada :stormy::rain:

:scooter: derecho as used in helpful explanations can also mean something like " just follow the front wheel forward down the road that gets you to the place we are talking about". It is always a direct route ..... if one knows the way , no need to mention upcoming Y or T intersections and curves. The providers of the
information are not lying or trying to fool you , it is only that they forget to take into account how totally clueless we as tourists can be::helpsmilie:
As for San Jose , there is no direct freeway setup to get you around town , the directional signs on the main routes refer to names of the various suburbs so you need a map of some sort to establish a frame of reference.
Another complication comes from our imperfect Spanish , our ear is not tuned to detect the fine points beside derecho . I discover that I keep misunderstanding distances when it comes to 2 km or 12 .... dos and doce , 3 and 13 and it slowly dawns on me only after riding longer than expected without seeing the target.

Lack of street names is only a partial handicap. Relying on street names has as drawback the fact that for one long straight street names can change repeatedly every few blocks as some
local hero or event is honored and commemorated . If Google maps on the web is an indicator it is unlikely that the electronic map service would have all those details.... or do they?
A compass is essential for overcast days when the direction of sunlight is no help to determine North . Even with full sun on a tropical midday it becomes a challenge. Add to that an unconscious mindset which makes one
think one knows the direction of North and one can be far off course before one realizes it

Just like Ottawa, Canada!

Richmond Rd. - Wellington St. - Montreal Rd.doh

Yeh , or my personal favourite example in Wolvega NL
where the main road through town starts off as the Pieter Stuyvesantweg and becomes Hoofdstraatwest-VanHarenstraat-Hoofdstraatoost-Lycklamaweg-Stellingenweg all within about 2 km ( and :mchappy: NL does not mean Nuevo León or Newfyland :confused1:?)
I purposely avoided mentioning it as peculiar to Mexican or CA context because street names worldwide do that sort of rapid changing

Good one! 2 kms, one could spend more time learning the pronunciations than riding the road!:helpsmilie:

GPS
 

I find GPS invaluable in Mexico and SA. If I need a bank, hotel, directions out of town or a straight line to my hotel its all on the screen. They're not perfect and don't distinguish one way streets but certainly saved me hours and hours of stopping to ask for directions in my travels south. Being lost in a foreign city is not something I enjoy. But that's just my opinion.

A GPS is not necessary for Central America, or anywhere else. But, they make it much, much easier. I have travelled with and without. I much prefer to ride with a GPS. I use paper for route planning etc.

planning
 

I recommend both. GPS devices fail, get lost or stolen, ask me how I know. Maps also contain a wealth of information that GPS haven't been programmed to supply, at least not yet.

In any case, plan your route before you set out in the morning. Most times you will be staying at a hostel or some other lodging and the staff can sometimes assist with route planning. I ran into a lot of people that can't read a map, so don't count on it. The point is, spend time working out which road leads out of town. I am recommending this because I usually don't and sometimes I pay for my lack of daily planning.

In medium to large cities it can be very difficult to figure out how to "escape." Here is where a GPS is usually very helpful, but not always. Trying to leave Cusco, Peru, the little demon kept sending up ridiculous routes, that turned into impassable farm roads... On my final exit from La Paz, Bolivia, there was a farm worker strike and the main highway was closed. The GPS took me up every goat path imaginable, one that turned into stairs! Putting in time the night before won't have saved me from road blocks encountered after I set off. The GPS did get me to the highway eventually. In the end I rode the bike slowly with the river of people walk around the protestors (all car traffic was turned back...) I didn't ask permission and no one stopped me.

Peter, interesting.
I've seen the same thing happen to people using GPS here in Mexico, lately, too.

non-GPS advocates
 

I notice that the recommendation advocating maps, have been coming from riders with lots of in country experience and strong Spanish language skills. For those that don't speak the language, chance are a GPS will get you where you want to go and gives the best advice when you are at an unmarked intersection miles from anywhere or anyone. They aren't perfect, but the maps are getting better all the time. If you can afford the commercial GPS maps, get them. There are free GPS maps (open source) that are in some cases better than the commercial maps. garmin.openstreetmap.nl (based on the Open Street Map project.) The OSM maps are improving because thousands of people extend and correct the maps every day. Any decent GPS will support loading more than one map set at a time. So can load Garmin Mexico and OSM map set covering Mexico and beyond on your device and switch back and forth as needed. I recommend only selecting one map set at a time.

Regard buying maps in advance verses when you arrive. The maps you buy on the road are in Spanish, and in Brazil they will be in Portuguese. There is lots of info that you can figure out, but some you might not. I couldn't find maps of Guyana when I entered the country in the south at Lethem. I might have been able to find one in Gergetown, but by then I was leaving the country. Finding the right kind of store, one that sells maps, can be a cultural experience. In Bolivia I found maps in a magazine store. I never could find maps in Jamaica, free or for purchase. Some tourist offices have maps, when you can find the office and they have them in stock. I made the rounds to tourist offices in a few countries and now have a good stack of maps. You'll also get lots of other good tips in tourist offices. Sooner or later, you'll want a low level of detail, bare left here or go straight then turn later...and your paper maps won't have it.

I used a GPS in San Salvidor (El Salvidor) and Crete (Greece) to get back to our hotel at the end of the day without having the local map data properly loaded. I had set the hotel as a "favorite" then drove around in a spiraling fashion (without street detail mind you) until we were back on the right block.

Some say over plan and be ready to improvise. Helmuth von Moltke the Elder said, "No battle plan survives contact with the enemy." I think that applied to travel and route planning too. Adventure is full of the unexpected. Preparing is full of personal choices and trade offs, so pack to your comfortable level. In the end, if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.

My language skills are marginal at their very best (Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Hindi, Guarani, you name it). I liked my paper maps, and for the most part I liked searching them out, buying them, studying them, folding and unfolding them, marking them up, and sharing them with local people who had often never seen their landscapes rendered on paper.

When I traveled with riders who used GPS, we sometimes found them useful but just as often were led around in pointless circles in absurd heat or drenching downpours which we only resolved when I insisted on stopping to ask for directions--generally using combinations of gestures, sign language, absurdly inept local language skills, drawing pictures, role playing, etc. I have no doubt that in the right hands and under the right circumstances GPS is a tremendous support. In the wrong hands or under the wrong circumstances it's been (for me) a real distraction from everything I enjoy about travel.

Naturally, YMMV.

Mark

+1
I've seen people want to fold a GPS that has them frustrated and riding the wrong routes.

I rode in Mexico with a friend who is SO dependant on GPS, that he has 2 of them on his DR650. We went round and round in a city, looking for a road.....it was clearly marked. I had to stop him at a light and lead. He rode through a small village looking for a restaurant----we rode past 4, because they weren't on his gps.

Guatemala
 

is where I ride these days. I love to talk to people so I ask for the way, but sometimes I would love a GPS.
The reason is that you enter a village without any clue, where the way out would be. Do not expect signs or a "master"lane. You enter the village and all streets look equal to you and the exit to your next destination can be anywhere.
But that's it.

One tip aside: Wherever I lived in the world, the best maps I found came from amazon (use the button on horizons to enter) - NEVER in the countries.