Thank you,
@Alligatorob . No, not necessarily Guatemala. My language partner lives there, and it might be nice to go someplace where I know someone.
He has his own busy life though, so I'd be on my own most of the time. And he lives in a big city, which is not the greatest for me.
I'll have to research all the countries again. Costs will be a big factor. Of course I have some wish list items (beach), but the main thing is warmth and sunlight.
A quick check of hostel prices on Google Travel shows that the cheapest places might be Nicaragua, Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. Which I kind of already knew. Of course hostel prices aren't everything. Places like Bolivia and Paraguay might be cheap, but not show up in a hostel search.
My former landlords went to Nicaragua a few years ago, and loved it.
I'll have to check politics and safety too, as well as ease/cost of getting there. So much has changed since Covid.
Thank you for your comment. You got me to get started on some research!