[Mclovin]

The best thing you can do from a safety, language, culture, photography, writing, and joie de vivre standpoint is to take me. (I'm actually serious, I think.) I've done some long trips, too.

If not me, then take a Pit Posse tire repair kit, available on Amazon. Also (from experience in Honduras), malaria pills. Take Motorcycle Diaries - written when Che Guevara was still an agreeable chap - and get a good dose of Cartier-Bresson before you go.

Good luck.