I like to sleep in my truck or I suppose on it. I did five weeks last trip in Baja before heading to mainland Mexico. For that portion I slept in a hammock slung off the side of my Cruiser. Once you get into the tropics it’s really to hot to sleep inside, at least for me. For that I have ground tent.
I have never used an RTT but you can probably ventilate it enough for warm climate camping. I would go hard shell if going RTT. You realize a lot of this is personal preference right?
Camping is not the same in Latin America as in the USA. There is simply not nearly as much of it and you need to consider security more.
I base most of what I do down there around security but not to the point of being anal or not having fun. Such as don’t drive at night. Have my stuff be secure, out of sight and don’t leave the truck on the street or in unsecured locations at night. A dog does wonders for security down south, first two trips I took mine and put a sign in the windows in Spanish saying, “beware of dog”. I also run a fairly dark tint down there. Be aware of local conditions when it cones to security. Are you staying in cartel land tonight? Are you in gang land in Guatemala, Honduras or El Salvador?
Get iOverlander app if you don’t have it. First two trips I did old school, no GPS and only paper maps. Last trip I did with GPS and it certainly is way way easier (and faster) but removed a lot of the adventure from the trips. You can find a lot of camping with iOverlander than I could find on the first two trips.
Learn Spanish if you don’t know it already. Go with and carry yourself with an open mind. Be friendly, kind, respectful and helpful. Have thick skin, stand your ground and be smart using common sense. If you are going to have fun you are going to run into a lot of other people of every type you could ever imagine. You will make friends a lot if you handle and carry yourself this way.
There is a lot to cover with borders but main thing is have the title of the Cruiser in your name. Don’t worry about insurance and if you take it be prepared to lose it, that goes for all your stuff and your Cruiser.
Take a cheap phone as back up. Dont mess with a stupid international phone plan. Just sim card it each country, in general down south you just buy prepaid phone cards anywhere in $5, $10 or $20 blocks of time/data.
I could go on and on man. My first trip was 2009, I hit every country on the way and Baja for a month. I zig zagged across Mexico and CA. I got robbed by the cops a lot on the first trip, I got rear ended in El Salvador and I had to bribe my way in and out of some borders. I have done nearly 50,000 miles through Latin America over a total of fifteen months. So I really could go on and on.
My final destination was Santa Catalina in Panama each trip. First trip I camped there for about five weeks before coming home. Second and third trips I rent led a house there. I also lived in Nicaragua, spent a lot if time in Belize, Mexico including Baja. I built the trucks myself and fixed any issues on the road myself.
Cheers
