Hi all,
My wife and i are looking to spend the first 5 months (jan to may) 2013 in south and Central America (flying in from London) and would love to hear any recommendations, especially in a sensible order to travel as we are both a little travel rusty and this will be our first trip to the Americas.
I love the idea of Peru and the amazon as well as Costa Rica but apart from that flexible and open to suggestions. I'd really like to volunteer as much as possible and love the great outdoors so not so big on cities.

Although I'm feeling my age (or worse, someone olders age) backpacking is still an option. Budget is Not yet fixed but minus flights we would have perhaps £1000 per month between us.

Any ideas

Many thanks and good travelling

My favorites are Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras. Loads of photos with trip links on the main pages of the collections - all my recommendations are embedded there. Happy trails!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/staceyholeman/collections

That's a very tight budget when you factor in food, travel and lodging. Your dollars will definitely go further in Mexico, Guatemala and Ecuador, than in Costa Rica, Belize and a few other countries...

Hopefulist - great link very useful, Thanks

Eliot - I was hoping to volunteer to help out and keep the buget down, do you still think 1000 pounds a month is not enough? what would you consider enough? Thanks

1000 pounds/month is about $50/day. That's doable but really tight in some countries and not possible in some locations. Try to find places with share kitchens so you can do much of your own cooking to keep costs down and try not to move around much - transportation costs will really dig into that. That's much less than I'd travel with because I enjoy caving and diving and other tours that would break the budget.

There are certainly options for volunteering in Central America, especially if you have an extended period of time and at least decent Spanish skills. Don't expect the places where you're volunteering to provide anything like meals or lodging, though.